This may be opening a giant can of worms but…my friend knows of two students who got admitted to ******** with bogus applications. Their wealthy parents paid for the fabrication of qualifications, achievements, hired essay writers, etc… She says one student is Chinese, another is Indian. Hearing the story of a student who got into ******* on fake credentials, and finally got caught for making false claims when he applied to be a Fulbright scholar, I am wondering, do colleges verify information applicants give? Surely, at very selective schools, where they hand-pick everyone, they do try to verify? I am just curious. And if this does happen, to what extent?
No, they don’t verify everyone. They don’t possibly have the resources to do so. Stanford, with 40,000 applicants, spends about 15 minutes per application. What they can do is spot inconsistencies. Letters of recommendation and the GC letter can be key in this regard. And any red flags raised may cause serious damage to an applicant’s chances, not just at that school, but elsewhere. Admissions offers have been rescinded, and in some cases, other schools notified of fraudulent behavior. It’s up to the individual applicant to decide whether they need to rely on such subterfuge, and whether the risk is worth it, or morally conscionable.
That is sad then. Dishonest people with a lot of money are possibly taking places from qualified applicants. I thought that once a college has a long-list of serious contenders, they would go over them with a fine-toothed comb. Hpeofully it’s rare that an applicant does this, and it must be harder to verify the claims of some foreign studetns. Still, the cheaters do a disservice to the honest people.
Don’t worry about anybody’s application other than your own; that is the only one over which you have some control. As to potential consequences for students admitted under fraudulent pretenses, please google Adam Wheeler or Mathew Martoma.
There’s tons of pressure to get into these schools. Lots of unethical people too. Is this any surprise? There’ll never be 100% protection. As the colleges get more savvy, the cheaters try to out maneuver them too.
A few years back, my regional admissions officer told me of one foreign HS that had 6 applicants. The six kids submitted 5 different “official” transcripts – all which were 4.0s, of course.
I’m not surprised, if there is a will, there’s a way.
Hearsay, at best. What if I told you I know of a 4-year-old baby who was given a Ph.D by MIT because his parents faked his resume and dissertation?
Hardly hearsay.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/12/asia/china-education-agencies/
I’m sure Indians do it, too.
The Chinese are notorious cheaters. Absolutely shameless. The Chinese government actually has to use drones to stop the cheating:
Cheating certainly occurs in the US:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-perfect-score-cheating-on-the-sat/
Yes but there is documented proof of institutionalization of cheating in China. Cheating is rare in the US and not sanctioned by large institutions but it is in China.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/01/pf/college/chinese-students-cheating/
So when that student in the next desk over in a senior seminar can’t string along one sentence in English this may be why “A 21-year-old woman from Jiangsu Province told the publication how her parents paid three consultants $4,500 to fill out the application, write her personal essay and compose teacher recommendation letters. The reason: Her level of English wasn’t strong enough.”
This from the Atlantic-“According to ■■■■■ China, an educational consulting company, 90 percent of Chinese applicants submit fake recommendations, 70 percent have other people write their essays, 50 percent have forged high school transcripts, and 10 percent list academic awards and other achievements they did not receive. And last month, federal prosecutors indicted 15 Chinese students for taking exams on others’ behalf, or enlisting others to do so on their behalf, in order to obtain student visas”
Nope, the cheating from China is very dissimilar from any cheating in the US. It is institutionalized and sanctioned by the Chinese in key positions.
In fact, the US should stop admitting students from China until the cheating can be stopped and the fact that it has stopped is verified continuously.
“Depending on the degree of assistance, students and their families can expect to pay between $5,000 and $15,000 for ghostwritten essays in flawless English, fake awards, manipulated transcripts and even imposters to sit as the applicant for SAT exams, all arranged by college prep agencies.
According to a recent survey by Zinch China, as many as 90 percent of recommendation letters to foreign colleges are faked, 70 percent of college essays are ghostwritten and 50 percent of high school transcripts are falsified.”
Cheating occurs everywhere. That was one in Korea not long ago that led to cancellation of the whole test.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/south-korea-sats-cancelled-cheating_n_3267838.html
If OP has solid evidence, not just hear someone say something, he/she may report to that school. If it is just a rumor or suspicious, mind your own business. I doubt the students involved would tell anybody about that. Whatever your friend said may or may not be true. Use your own judgement as you do not have any direct information. If the case is real and find out later, the consequence would be big. The student will be kicked out and may not to go to any reasonably good college again.
Cheating may occur anywhere but it does not occur everywhere all the time like it is going on in China. Read the articles from actual news venues that employ actual journalists. There is direct clear information in these news venues and nobody is disputing the veracity of these reports.
And luckily the solution is easy. Stop accepting students from countries where it is not possible to verify the application material. Simple. Stop importing Chinese students until the US can verify that the testing condition supported valid test results, the recommendations are real, the grades were earned, etc. Let’s cut back anyway on the internationals being educated here-particularly in state universities that were built to educate those who pay into the tax system and who are primarily residents of the US. But even if we don’t cut back on international were ought to cut out any students from countries where the US can’t verify.
I feel like if a kid cheated to get into D2’s college, they would wash out academically pretty quickly. Maybe not true at all schools, though.
No, because the cheating does not stop at the boarder! It’s rampant in some groups. They register for class by at least two’s. They sit next to each other. They collaborate with each other on tests and purchase papers (yes, since Turnitin has decreased the changes of passing off someone else’s used paper as their own).
I can’t see that working at Mudd where my daughter attends.
Well that is great if it does not happen. It certainly does happen in many universities in this country. And they cheat their way to passing grades for 3.5 years, encounter a writing class and beg for a passing grade. Fun stuff! Time for colleges to rid themselves of students from countries known to support cheaters until it is possible to ensure verification of credentials.
I am not a xenophobe in anyway (my husband is foreign), but I do think this boom in international students needs to be curtailed. I believe this all took off during the economic crisis in 2008, when colleges needed the cash. The other real consequence of the huge influx of international kids is less places for US kids. Foreign kids will go home to their countries, but US kids will largely stay here and continue contributing to the US economy.
Thank you Lindagaf!!