<p>So I have a question for current Techers or recent graduates:</p>
<p>Have any of you been approached to be stand-ins to take tests for students at other universities?</p>
<p>I recall that as an undergrad I and some friends were approached to take math/physics tests for rich kids at certain "prestigious" universities in the SoCal area. The offered rewards were quite large.</p>
<p>We laughed them off, but I'm wondering if it's a common phenomenon or not?</p>
<p>I've never had this happen, but it might -- other Techers, thoughts? Depending on how large "large" is, I might be tempted (though wouldn't do it for a variety of reasons).</p>
<p>Especially sadistic Techers could agree to it, get the money in advance, and then use the exam to write a note to the professor explaining what happened. They'd have to have a lot of free time and be REALLY strongly against cheating, though... :)</p>
<p>Though it didn't occur at the college level, I was a Princeton Review SAT Instructor and was asked by a kid to take his SAT's for him. All he needed was a 1250 and he was guaranteed admission to Yale because he was a football hotshot. He ended up at community college.</p>
<p>I've never heard of it happening. We're pretty well insulated here on campus, and we're far enough away from other SoCal colleges that it's probably not worth their while to come and find us (they could probably find cheaper and more willing stand-ins at their own school).</p>
<p>I don't have solid proof, but do believe this happens here in Silicon Valley. </p>
<p>I did see on a site called craigslist.com where someone working fulltime and taking a college-level (probably graduate school) class was willing to pay someone else to 'stand in and take the class' for him.</p>
<p>I have been at Kinko's here in Cupertino when someone was obviously paying someone else to write a term paper. I heard the discussion (went on for several hours), watched them work on the paper, and saw the hardcopy document, a cd and money exchange hands.</p>
<p>It doesn't surprise me at all that there would be cheating here in Silicon Valley, and it often involves the more affluent, high achievers in the community.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. I suppose the one time we were approached was an isolated incident at Tech. But I was always curious to see if this sort of thing happened/happens more often.</p>
<p>Given the sorts of cheating you see [Stand-ins are rumored to have been common in some areas overseas for the SATs or TOEFL.] with respect to essays and term papers in the US, I was always curious why one didn't see this sort of thing more often.</p>
<p>i've heard of stand-ins for driving tests. guess that explains the bad drivers here</p>
<p>NQO -- my half-baked theory: the students good enough to be paid significant amounts of money to be reliable stand-ins for hard exams have a very high value on reputation, which could be completely destroyed by cheating. Imagine what might have happened to your (at that time potential) career had you agreed, and how much you'd have to be paid to compensate you for that loss. I'd guess that number has a lot of trailing zeroes.</p>
<p>Ben, of course that's right. And that's the least of the reasons why we wouldn't have done it. But the sums were large, when compared to the size of tuition at that time. And if any of us had been deeply financially strapped, the temptation would have been tremendous. Fortunately, it seemed silly more than anything and we laughed them off. </p>
<p>We treated them like the crank we got who kept calling the House and asking for someone from Caltech to tell him Where the Martians were coming from!</p>
<p>Still, my colleague was telling me about a minor cheating scandal at a local state college, and I got to thinking about this incident.</p>
<p>It looks like this discussion is starting to revolve around ethics. </p>
<p>Let me posit the following example. In the book "Softwar, an Intimate Portrayal of Larry Ellison and Oracle", Larry Ellison admitted that he lied about having a college degree in order to get one of his first jobs.</p>
<p>Oho, on the comparison of the compensation to tuition, that might also be key. With tuition skyrocketing, someone would have to be REALLY wealthy to offer something comparable to tuition today. Furthermore, I think the increased tuition correlates to increased grades almost everywhere (but esp. at private schools) so those who really desire the high grades have less need to hire someone to achieve that goal.</p>
<p>Hey - recent tech alum here ('05)</p>
<p>One of my main jobs now is tutoring, and I have been offered, more than once, money in order to do something that would be unacceptable by my students. This has ranged from doing a take home final for them to writing an entire final project. Both of these two were for MBAs, and while I didn't inquire (I'm pretty dead set against this sort of thing - I was in charge of the Board of Control a couple years before Alleya) I am confidant that the amount was >$2000 for either one. I think it has been alluded to other times by other folks as well.</p>
<p>Never happened while I was a student, and I think both Ben and Alleya's explanations are part of the reason.</p>
<p>galen</p>
<p>I do admire your moral fortitude, Galen. $20k is not nothing.</p>
<p>$2k is also a non-negligible sum of money for a college student.</p>
<p>The other day some random kid came to the tutoring center a classmate and I run at my high school and asked how much he'd have to pay us to write his semester project for him.
I named the gross domestic product of the U.S. without blinking an eye.
He then noted that the tutoring center was free.
My classmate said that it was for tutoring, not doing.
He left.</p>
<p>But that was high school, not college. He wants to get in to a really good college though...</p>
<p>So what do people think about the Wall Street Journal story this Saturday ("Legalized Cheating") about some high schools allowing the use of laptops and IM in the middle of tests?</p>
<p>I have mixed feelings about "legalized cheating." On one hand, as an engineer, I didn't memorize dozens of formulae. When I need them, I look them up. In fact, engineers are permitted to bring references to the PE. On the other hand, most of what students should be learning in high school is basic knowledge. The article gave an example of a student looking up the word "desolate" during a test. That's a word people ought to know without having to access the internet. </p>
<p>So, if I were in charge (I'm not!), I'd mandate no "legalized cheating" in high school. In college, I'd leave the proposition up to individual professors. They'll know whether something should be general knowledge or if students should have a reference for it. </p>
<p>Incidentally, I'd also ban all calculators before college, except for basic scientific calculators in trig and calculus. There's no need for students to suffer through manually looking up numbers in trig and logarithmic tables. However, I firmly believe that use of more sophisticated calculators (and computers) in high school and lower college level courses has significantly increased GIGO Syndrome. Because students aren't manipulating the numbers themselves, they haven't developed a sense of when answers are reasonable. </p>
<p>BTW, kudos to all of you who refused to take bribes to cheat. A clear conscience and a good character is far more valuable than the dollars offered - and will last much longer. That probably sounds trite, but old folks like me know 'tis true.</p>
<p>I didn't read the article (I couldn't find a version that didn't require a subscription), but I am currently the chair of the board responsible for handling Honor Code violations.</p>
<p>Because of Caltech's Honor Code (and the fact that we actually follow it), we are given a lot of respect and freedom that students don't give elsewhere. Test are almost never given in class (I haven't had a test in a classroom since high-school). We're given the final, told how long we're allowed to take on it, what materials we can use, and when it's due. It's not unheard of to have unlimited time or 24 hour finals (both are dreaded, especially the former, because they tend to eat up a several days more than other finals). So, most of the time we're allowed to use the internet and IM during the final, and we're just trusted to not talk about the final with others or look up material that would give us an advantage.</p>
<p>As for using references on a final, I think it's the best way to have a final. We're often allowed to use the textbook, and sometimes even outside references (as long as we cite them). It's stupid to spend time memorizing equations and such before a final -- it wastes time and doesn't prove your understanding of the material. The real test is utilizing these references to solve problems. As for testing for a basic understanding of material -- this usually comes from time limits and/or difficulty. If you don't have a basic understanding of the material you aren't going to be able to do the problem in a reasonable amount of time no matter how many resources you have available.</p>