The college (William & Mary?) could possibly rescind the student’s acceptance if (as some of the online chatter suggests), the high school determined that this student improperly used the student listserv to fake the Harvard professor’s email to the seniors. There must be some “responsible use policy” for technology at the high school and the fake email would surely run afoul of it.
I’m sure the offer of acceptance contains some sort of elastic clause that gives the university some leeway in rescinding.
Clearly she, or someone she persuaded or paid to help her, committed forgery of two admissions letters and one e-mail. This a sad and pathetic story.
And while I don’t want to be guilty of painting with broad brush, I will risk this comment: I live in an area with a burgeoning Asian population. The change in the ethnic composition of our community has produced an atmosphere of extreme and sometimes damaging academic competition in our PUBLIC schools. Just yesterday D and I were at a local bank to open an account for her. The woman (Middle Eastern origin) saw D’s student ID and started questioning us about the environment in the district. It turns out just that week the woman’s little first grader had come home from one of the town’s elementary schools, crying inconsolably. It seems that 17 kids in her class were selected for advanced math, but her daughter was not one of them. The poor little thing had thought she was good at math because she got 100’s and smiley’s on all her papers. But that means absolutely nothing when her peers are in tutoring and have already advanced many grade levels beyond her. The result is that a first grader has now decided she is not good in math. Wow.
I don’t know what the solution is, since we don’t want to academically stifle bright kids. However, how much time should ordinary first graders be spending in math tutoring rather than playing outside with friends or drawing or reading or sleeping? The issue is no longer one of challenging the bright, it’s hammering kids of all ability levels and interests into one mold of excellence in math and science.
"Since then more claims have surfaced on the Internet that Sara … is a serial fabricator. A post on notoriously vociferous social media site Reddit on Thursday accused Sara, a student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, of falsely claiming last year to have won a nationwide math contest. "
"Her claim to have scored a perfect GPA of 4.6 at Thomas Jefferson High School also turned out to be false. One parent at the school said, “The valedictorian was an Indian student whose GPA was 4.57.”
Sara then claimed that she scored a perfect 2,400 points on her SAT exam, another lie. The parent said, “At present, the only thing that is true is that she does go to Thomas Jefferson High School.” The parent added that the general perception is that Sara suffers from mythomania."
“In a press release later on Friday morning, Sara’s father, an executive at global online gaming company Nexon, apologized for causing a stir with the fabrication. “I’m responsible for all the mistakes and sorry not to have taken better care of this poor kid,” he said. He promised to look after her better since she apparently suffered from extreme stress due to academic pressures. He allegedly had no idea that the story was false.”
I feel badly that a kid could feel so much pressure to be “the best” or “extra-special” that she would forge emails/letters and make up phone calls and even, according to the article above, attend an accepted freshman day at Harvard in April (when apparently she was not accepted) just so she could put the photos on FB?
From time to time, there comes a sensational story like this. It’s so bizarre that it can only be considered a rare exceptional case rather than representative of any community, eg Korean or TJ school. I suspect the student will need some serious psychotherapy. The way she lied indicates mental illness, and if that’s not serious enough she now needs to deal with the traumatic experience of being in the spotlight like this.
^^ There was an instance a few years ago of a young woman in California who not only told her parents she was admitted to Stanford (she hadn’t) she actually sat in on courses there, joined study groups and even spent some nights at Stanford’s dorms, with other students. Her parents were convinced their daughter was a Stanford freshman – until the cat got out of the bag – and the ruse was all over the media.
I don’t get it. On one hand you have stories like this, where people complain about the pressure high schoolers are under. And on the other hand, you have people complaining about the “everyone gets a trophy” culture (see the thread about the 222 valedictorians).
Those are not inconsistent (with each other they are, but not with the actual situation), you have in fact summarized the two extremes very nicely. I think it is easy to see people complaining about both ends of this spectrum, and instead desire something more towards the middle. Some might skew a little towards wanting more stringent standards, and others might skew a little towards a more “inclusive” academic culture, but not nearly to these extremes. I dare say that for the most part, it was pretty much in this middle ground for most of the post-WWII period, if not even before that. At least among the vast middle class, which was thriving at the time (comparatively speaking).
Don’t blame the school or the director of student services or the WashPost. Ultimately the person who bears responsibility is the young woman who concocted this elaborate hoax. Her parents may have been duped as well, but they helped perpetuate the hoax by granting interviews to media. She is obviously smart & talented enough to fabricate a credible hoax with forgeries and emails. How sad that she did not use these talents in pursuit of something that would actually benefit society. This is a troubled young woman and I hope she gets help.
The WashPost also reported that the father apologized to the Korean media,
^^ There was an instance a few years ago of a young woman in California who not only told her parents she was admitted to Stanford (she hadn't) she actually sat in on courses there, joined study groups and even spent some nights at Stanford's dorms, with other students. Her parents were convinced their daughter was a Stanford freshman -- until the cat got out <<<
[/QUOTE]
One did actually break in and spend time living in her own room.
Poor kid. Teens do dumb things all the time, especially to avoid disappointing their parents or to impress their friends. Usually it’s stupid things like drinking and driving, unprotected sex, experimenting with dangerous drugs, cheating on a test or similar…and some do stupid things repeatedly. In the worst cases, there are serious consequences like people losing their lives. Usually the act of stupidity doesn’t end up in the international and national press, or tied to the individual’s name forever. This particular act of idiocy is just plain pathetic and I am glad the parents are taking responsibility. It could have happened at any competitive high school in the country. I hope the girl learns from her experience and gets a chance to move on with her life.
Speaking about being dumb, such story only reinforces how utterly dumb one must be to share details of admissiin with any member of the media, and that the press appears to be even dumber to run with stories they cannot verify.
Did they even read the Harvard or Stanford letters?
Okay, who is watching The dumb and dumber? The dumbest!
Well, I can not believe Washington Post went along with those foreign newspaper on Sara Kim without even doing any investigation, and I can not believe how much we believe the story.
Back in 2012, as a 10th grader, Jung Yoon (Sara) Kim (10th grade, TJHSST, VA) ranked 4th in the nation in her class in Math Prize for Girls Contest, the most famous math contest for girls. I coached one girl who also appeared on this list, and she was likely admitted by Yale and also got in MIT and Princeton. The level to get on this list is about getting an 800 on SAT math at 6th~7th grade. I am not surprised she got in Harvard and Stanford, and I am not surprised that she would be at either Harvard or Stanford in the end.
It has been established by the Washington Post (see link at bottom) that Harvard and Stanford both stated that the “admissions” offers proffered by the girl and her father were fraudulent, and by inference the girl was not admitted to either university:
In a statement to The Post, Harvard spokeswoman Anna Cowenhoven wrote that the university was made aware of claims that the student received “three admissions letters and multiple e-mail communications.”
“None of these communications were sent by Harvard, and we can confirm that they are all forgeries,” Cowenhoven wrote.
Stanford spokeswoman Lisa Lapin wrote in a statement to The Post that admissions letters Sara provided to Korean media organizations “were not authentic and were not issued by Stanford University.”
Lapin also said that a Stanford professor who was quoted in Korean media about Sara had never spoken to the media about her and neither met nor communicated with her.
““We celebrate the accomplishment of students who get into all eight Ivies,” said Brandon Kosatka, TJ’s director of student services. “That’s the bar, and our kids are shooting for that. They don’t like to be the second-best. If that’s the bar, then, yes, that creates anxiety for them.””
I do blame this person. Sure, they can’t be completely responsible for mental illness. But that kid probably would have been ok in an environment where all the adults and kids had a more balanced perspective on life and were not all sending the same message she was getting at home. How is it serving students in an environment so hypercompetitive the kids are cracking up to be fueling this senseless destructive pursuit of prestige trophies instead of guiding them with mature adult common sense: the college they go to is not the end-all and be-all of life, their worth as a person is not defined by their college acceptances, and they should be choosing one of many colleges which will lead to a successful career for them.
I thought @ewho was trying to say that people who believed her story were not ridiculously gullible because students with her credentials do typically get in highly selective colleges.
@mathyone Please don’t say that- it’s really not his fault. I don’t know why Mr. Kosatka said that because he’s really not like that; he’s incredibly nice and genuinely cares about the students. I think he meant that the community or the media celebrates that (us as a society), not the school. That quote is most definitely taken out of context. TJ faculty and staff celebrate all achievements of students. The student newspaper has a column devoted to student achievements, which includes awards in many different subjects and school ECs (debate, music, foreign language, math, sports, etc). At TJ, being admitted to all eight ivies is extremely rare because most students do not apply to all 8; however, there is quite a large number that is admitted to all schools they apply to. We get excellent counseling services and most people make appropriate college lists for them.
