<p>Other Books By Harvard Plagiarist Kaavya Viswanathan (author of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life):</p>
<ol>
<li> How Huck Finn Got A Black Friend, Got Wild, and Got On A Raft</li>
<li> How Lenny Got A Mouse, Got Wild, and Got Shot</li>
<li> How Jesus Christ Got Born, Got Wild, and Got Crucified</li>
<li> How Captain Ahab Got A Boat, Got Wild, and Got Dick</li>
<li> How Jay Gatsby Got Rich, Got Wild, and Got Borne Back Ceaselessly Into the Past</li>
<li> How Kim Got Indian, Got Wild, and Got the White Man's Burden</li>
<li> How Sophie Got Pregnant, Got Wild, and Got To Choose One Of Her Children To Be Killed
By the Nazis</li>
<li> How Holden Caulfield Got A Prostitute, Got Wild, and Got Caught In the Rye</li>
<li> How Hunter Thompson Got Drugs, Got Wild, and Got Bad Waves of Paranoia, Madness,
Fear and Loathing, Intolerable Vibrations In This Place. Get Out! The Weasels Were
Closing In. I Could Smell the Ugly Brutes</li>
<li>How Lolita Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life</li>
</ol>
<p>Cosar: I have 2 girls. What's the point? That anybody with kids must be unable to hold them accountable?</p>
<p>Token: #188 poked fun at her defenders. #197 is how I really feel. I'm not saying she should be flogged in Harvard Yard, just that there are precious few lines in life that you just CAN'T cross. And she crossed one. If she's as smart as everyone says she is, she'll land on her feet and live a productive life. But to write this off as "no harm, no foul," would be sending the wrong message to her and everybody else. People who do what she did are screaming for someone to provide some boundaries for them.</p>
<p>I'd hardly describe what has happened to this girl as writing it off as "no harm, no foul." If you really "can't believe there is any sympathy at all for her," and think that "if she's not banished from Harvard, the whole system becomes a joke," then I can only hope your daughters never make any mistakes in their lives.</p>
<p>My girls will do just fine. Your attitude reminds me of something that happened a while back. I was managing a store, and a high school girl called and asked if she could be an intern to learn about the business. Even though we had no provision for such a position, she seemed like a sincere kid, and I took her on. She hung out for a few weeks, learning the trade, and did a report on it for a class.</p>
<p>A year later, while she was still a minor, she applied for an actual job, and I hired her. After about 2 months, I realized she was stealing money. I demanded that she pay back what I estimated was the amount she had taken. I got a nasty call from her father (a bank executive, no less). Finally we had a meeting...the girl, her father, and I. She admitted stealing, but her father seemed offended that I asked her to pay it back. His exact words were, "Shrinkage (fancy retail word for theft) is just part of the cost of doing business." What sort of lesson do you think she got from that encounter?</p>
<p>That she never wanted to work for someone like you again? :)</p>
<p>More seriously, if your account is in fact the whole story (an assumption of which I am somewhat skeptical), I imagine she got a very different lesson than Kaavya has gotten from her encounter. In any event, your little story has nothing whatsoever to do with my attitude.</p>
<p>Cosar - re your post #200
"But I cant blame the bought-and-paid-for application aspect of the story (a trend I find loathsome btw) on her. That part of it was her parents decision, and shes far from the only person whose family has used such services to help with admission to an elite school. "</p>
<p>If she had such a weak personality that she couldn't stand up to her own parents - she doesn't deserve to be in Harvard, or any top school.</p>
<p>I made a lot of suggestions to my son about how to apply, where to apply, I offered to help him market himself because I told him I knew how the world looked at resumes, and candidates, having interviewed people for jobs etc. And he kept his package a mile away from me; he argued that the application and essay would then be mine not his! he took some precautions in terms of choosing his colleges and majors based on our input, but he had a distinct sense of self, and where his search process was taking him; he was an active particpant in the process, not a sheep being taken to pasture.</p>
<p>Your son obviously didnt have parents who believed in spending $10,000 to $20,000 on a college admissions advisor (nor did mine). :)</p>
<p>But if we had, would we really expect our sons to say, screw you mom and dad, Im not going to cooperate with the advisor? And I havent seen any allegations that Kaavyas application was fabricated, or that she didnt write her own essay, etc. At least in theory, a college admissions advisor is there to present the candidate in the best light possible, not to lie about the candidate. As I said, I think the ridiculous amounts of money spent on (and charged by) admissions advisors is a loathsome trend, but I have a hard time blaming it on the kids.</p>
<p>Geez people, Kaavya had a 4.0 GPA and a 1560 SAT in one of the top public schools in the state of New Jersey(Bergen Academy), which is like the top academic state in the nation. Plus she had the hook of being an award-winning writer on her school newspaper and had other great EC's. Please stay on the topic of her plagianrism of her books after securing her book deal while in college and not on the validity of her Harvard admissions decision. She got in to the university fair and square(yes you are allowed to hire expensive college counselors and Ivy college "packers" if you have the money because that's perfectly fair and legal) and the belief that she wouldn't have gotten into Harvard without her parents expensive college "services" is really a moot point.</p>
<p>Listen up idealistic parents, envious collegiate students, and ignorant high schoolers...</p>
<p>All parents want what's best for their children and this tendency definitely carries over to college admissions. Why the hell wouldn't rich parents want to give their progeny every possible advantage in this situation, especially when selections for Ivies like Harvard today are so arbitray and unpredictable??? What Kaavya's parents did is what I can almost guarantee EVERY parent on CC would have done had they been in a similar vantage point, regardless of what they are saying now. We're not talking about Hillary Duff or George Bush here...Kaavya was a VERY competitive applicant to Harvard, both with regards to academcis and extracurriculars, and there would have been NO suprises if she had gotten admitted even without her parent's help. All her parents did was attempt to MAXIMIZE Kaavya's already solid chances to Harvard by removing the "unpredictability" factor, hence making sure that all the hard work she put forth throughout her high school years did pay dividends in their terms.</p>
<p>I am ashamed to be part of a discussion on CC where a majority of posters think that it's shameful for parents to give their offspring every possible benefit in life if it involves a display of financial wealth. Wealthy individuals don't get the advantage of AA so it's perfectly within their jurisdiction to spend their money legally to help their kids in college admissions in whatever way they please. Because in reality, whether you're rich, middle-class, or poor, you need EVERY sort of boost you can get if you're applying to an Ivy League school in our competitive world today.</p>
<p>The fact is you guys, none of you are Kaavya's parents and can't really relate to their position so stop trying to strees your skepticism of the "morality" of their actions. You can teach your kids whatever life lessons and responsibilities you want but you can't force your judgment upon others. </p>
<p>This poor girl has lost her $500 dollar book deal and movie deal, has been publicly humiliated by the media nationwide, has been essentially alienated by most of her recent and former acquanitances, and been basically permanently shut out of her dream literary career because of the plagiarism scandal...so the least all of you can do is let Kaavya hold on to her dignity and move on with her life. She's suffered the consequences of her actions and there's no need for Harvard to beat her to death any further.:mad:</p>
<p>
[quote]
She's suffered the consequences of her actions and there's no need for Harvard to beat her to death any further
[/quote]
</p>
<p>According to this article in yesterday's Crimson, far from "beating her to death," Harvard has apparently hired her as a "peer advising fellow" for next year's freshmen.</p>
<p>I am sick to my stomach reading post #216!
There is no hope for the next generation!
I thought the US in general (not Harvard, I know) was a meritocracy - all signs these days seem to be pointing against it!</p>