<p>Wow incredible, i second as well: sry waitlistees from 2006.</p>
<p>“I’m actually quite impressed. I applaud him for his boldness. It’s sad that there are people out there that want an education, and schools like Harvard deny them that chance; I’m glad that he took his future into his own hands. I also think they’re going overboard with the indictments, No one died! No one was injured! Just have him pay a fine and maybe probation.”</p>
<p>I also congratulate him for being able to do that, but he broke the law. Whatever punishment the law says should occur, should occur. You don’t get leniency for being a smart guy.</p>
<p>PROBATION!!! AJ at post 40, you have got to be kidding. He is an embezzler. Let him off, and next time it will be you or your grandmother who is the mark. Maybe he could be bigger than Bernie Madoff! What a career…Some men also make a career out of defrauding rich old widows. Many of those are ex-cons, so at least he won’t be shut out of that career, if he so chooses.</p>
<p>Big booboo by some admissions people…</p>
<p>Seems like it might have been easier and less work to just do the real work and <em>earn</em> your way into Harvard rather than fake all those documents and keep an elaborate fraud going for years.</p>
<p>I guess some people just thrive on the adrenaline rush…</p>
<p>“don’t admissions offices verify when a student transfers from another college, in this case MIT? and how did he report a false perfect SAT? again, isn’t that from Collegeboard?”</p>
<p>If they’re received on paper, a person could fake the paper docs, make envelopes, mail it from the right post office, etc.</p>
<p>There was a guy like this at Yale in 1976–he claimed his name was “Andreas Alrea” and that he had made millions of dollars selling used heavy equipment in South America. He was actually a house painter named (I think) Patrick McDermott. He dropped out during his freshman year though.</p>
<p>Sadly, there probably are some people avidly reading this thread to figure out how sneak into an Ivy.</p>
<p>Give it a rest with the “think about all those applicants who could of had his spot” crap. Last I checked, Harvard has legacy admits.</p>
<p>Oh my god. He faked all those accounts!!! That’s crazy.</p>
<p>This guy must be a pathological liar. He HAD to know that somehow, someday, just ONE of his numerous false recommendations/allegations/etc. would be checked out, and since they were all tied together, the entire thing could unwravel.</p>
<p>He’s like a young Bernie Madoff…</p>
<p>It’s not just the students:
Dean at M.I.T. Resigns, Ending a 28-Year Lie.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27mit.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27mit.html</a></p>
<p>Yes but I don’t think Marilee Jones was prosecuted – would you say she got away with her fraud?</p>
<p>Quite a few people on Harvard’s blog as well as the NYTimes, NYPost, and Huffington Post are calling this guy a “psychopath.” I don’t get it?</p>
<p>I mean, I totally think this kid should be locked up, but why is everyone saying he is a “psychopath”? I see nothing “psychopathic” about his actions other than a more-than-normal slant towards taking risks. </p>
<p>OR am I just totally disconnected from society’s views here? In what ways is this guy “psychopathic”? I mean, what he did was wrong, yeah, but I don’t see how this suggests he has narcissistic personality disorder or some serial killer mentality! A lot of people, when they’re desparate for something, would commit fraud - it’s just extremely horrible character but ultimately it’s still a very human character, right?</p>
<p>I’d call this guy a thief and an idiot who doesn’t know how to calculate risk, but I’m not sure why people are calling him a psychopath? Someone please explain that to me. And don’t worry, I’m not here to argue haha…I really want to know if I’m missing out on a typical society viewpoint here as to what counts as “psychopathic” behavior!</p>
<p>yep, continually lying is psychopathic</p>
<p>no continual lying is NOT a human character trait </p>
<p>He continued to lie after he "made it " into Harvard because . . . there was no point where he attained enough to cease . . . he simply could not stop.</p>
<p>Harvard Transfer - I agree, I think a psychopath is going a bit too far - though a psychopath does NOT have to become a serial killer, they are characterized as having a complete lack of emotion or empathy for other human beings. There isn’t any evidence of this (as far was I can see), but I’d probably go with the term “pathological liar.”</p>
<p>From Wikipedia:
“Pathological lying is falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view, may be extensive and very complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime.”</p>
<p>Apparently last year he won a “hoops award”. He dropped out with people thinking that he had a nervous breakdown. A number of students are being questioned as to what they knew along with the Boston Globe vultures circling.</p>
<p>“…they are characterized as having a complete lack of emotion or empathy for other human beings.”</p>
<p>I think the term that applies here is sociopath, not psychopath.</p>
<p>Good for him, he showed enough intelligence to not only get admitted, but to get around admissions at a very selective school. I find that impressive. Yet, it doesn’t justify his actions. If only he could use those skills for his academics, then he would’ve been a very strong applicant.</p>
<p>These are the weirdest stories and it is not OK to fake your way into a university on whatever basis.
Someone mentioned the odd case of the girl at Stanford who was found several years ago to be pretending to attend while just hanging about and sleeping in common rooms of dorms, etc.
Since I am local, this reminds me of how these cases fade away so quickly. We never heard what happened to this gal. I mean, was she prosecuted or hospitalized or ? I guess it’s so embarrassing that when it happens at private universities, they try to get past it ASAP. If it were on a public campus, perhaps there is more news coverage and followup.</p>
<p>i think this guy go too greedy. you just had to apply for a Fulbright, as if a Harvard degree wasn’t enough?</p>
<p>CNN is reporting that this young man started at BOWDOIN, and was dismissed for–guess what–academic dishonesty.</p>
<p>I think what this really points to is problems with information in the computer age. Remember in the old days all transcripts had raised seals? Today, if you have copy of an official SAT report, transcript, whatever, even a not very clever person could make a knock off.</p>
<p>According to reports I heard, all these things have been faked: SAT reports, Harvard transcript, MIT transcript, and Phillips Academy transcript, and I almost forgot–the Harvard professor who caught him thought his work was someone else’s.</p>