college admission fraud from the old days

I graduated in the same HS class of '93 as my brother. He was a poor student. I was a good one. It was a surprise to learn that he was accepted into several good schools. Later, it was learned that he had received a partial academic scholarship at one of the schools, and in the materials was my GPA and SAT score. He then decided to enroll at a different good school under the unlikely story line of being a wrestling recruit. I contacted the university he enrolled at and the Mid-Atlantic school district we graduated from and hit a brick wall. Nothing ultimately happened, and he went off to college. Amazingly, it is doubtful there was even an investigation anywhere. I thought at the time that a rogue well-meaning counselor had doctored a transcript with the alibi, if caught, that it was an “honest mistake.” We both graduated HS the same year and it would be called a clerical error if caught. Recently, after all this time, it has occurred to me that the scheme was serious fraud. For the scheme to work, someone must have falsified or created fraudulent College Board documents and letterhead. The fake College Board letters sent to admissions offices must have then been postmarked from Princeton, New Jersey (?). Perhaps my dad paid off the counselor and a wrestling coach for serious professional risk and/or the wrestling coach was rogue and experienced in perpetuating these types of frauds and was able to manipulate the counselor. Throughout the whole process, it is my firm belief that my brother was not complicit, was naive and perhaps willfully ignorant. Because he was surprised to see my GPA and SAT score on his partial academic scholarship, he must have turned in an application to the counselor or coach where it was modified and then sent to college admissions offices.

-Have you old-timers heard of this scheme before?
-I wonder if it was somewhat common? Keep in mind this was in the dinosaur days before the internet delivery of documents.
-Am I missing something here?

Thanks,

anonymous

I am sure that this kind of stuff has happened in the past along with many other fradulent ways to produce good-enough test scores. We read about them all the time. My questions to you are:

  1. Did your brother actually graduate from the college he went to? This would provide an interesting follow up to your story.
  2. Were you materially damaged by this in your acceptance to college? Did you get into the college of your choice?
  3. Why are you concerned about it 22 years after the fact? You did what you had to do and no one listened. Presumably your conscience is clear.
  1. Yes he did.
  2. No I was not. I was wait-listed at one school, but it turned out that the application was correct.
  3. That is a good question. I guess I am intrigued by what happened... a fantastic event and something of a mystery. I really don't know why I thought of this event a few days ago. For a different reason, I haven't talked to my brother in years.

Initially, I was deeply concerned that this scam might still be perpetuated. It is apparently impossible nowadays though.

I think it is much harder as scores are sent electronically by the testing services. However, the “substitute test-taker” ploy still is used, particularly in athletics.

Just got an email from someone significant in education. To paraphrase: this event is unique in their experience, there could be other explanations, clerical errors have happened in the past and there is no way to know what really happened after 22 years.

I keep circling back to the transcript from guidance and the College Board scores were both wrong. Oh well, guess I’ll never know.

Schools have been known to make mistakes. Your scores may have been recorded as your brothers due to a simple clerical error. You didn’t believe your brother was responsible and you had no proof that anything was done purposely, so I find it surprising that you actually contacted your brother’s college. Did you want to get him rescinded?

If your brother was a wrestler, there’s a good chance his GPA and SAT were corrected but given less weight than his athletic skills. That happens all the time and there’s nothing fraudulent about it. Colleges can choose whomever they want. Current students have trouble understanding that traits/skills other than the highest GPA and test scores are valued by colleges, so every year there are threads by children wondering why some kid with lower scores got into x univ. and they didn’t. Schools don’t rank students by scores and take the top 5,000 (or however many students they need to fill seats). They admit individuals, and scores are only part of the picture.

I don’t understand why you’re pursuing it again over 20 years later to the point of emailing “significant” education officials. Are you trying to have your brother’s diploma revoked? Do you want to damage his reputation? You are casting aspersions on your father, the high school counselor, and the coach with no tangible proof of wrongdoing. Does your father know you go around accusing him of fraud? It doesn’t surprise me that you’re not on speaking terms with some of your family. Write it off to clerical error and let it go.

I can’t imagine dwelling on this so many years later. What is your point? I am going to assume that you have a poor relationship with you brother and you are trying to prove something. Otherwise, I don’t see any adult spending energy on this. Let it go!

Is the OP actually “dwelling on” or “pursuing” this? It sounds more like a case of “Hey, I just remembered this, and I wonder what actually happened.” Rather a difference, that—yeah, simple curiosity is probably as pointless as dwelling on this or pursuing it after all this time, but it’s certainly a reasonable thing to wonder about.