<p>lol, trying to throw together some lemonade there Byerly?</p>
<p>I think Byerly actually has a point here. You wouldn't see 1/10th this much publicity if this same thing had happened to a student from say Stanford, fine and famous school though it is. And a book about how Opal got a life and got admitted to Stanford probably wouldn't have gotten published in the first place.</p>
<p>Byerly-</p>
<p>Get over yourself. This entire discussion has absolutely nothing to do with Harvard, as you'll note by the lack of reference to it. </p>
<p>If she was a student from a community college in Mississippi, the backlash would be indentical, as she was a teenage writer that had made half a million dollars from her book deal, and had a movie script lined up with Dreamworks. </p>
<p>Without actually writing anything herself.</p>
<p>Harvard's a great school. This topic has nothing to do with Harvard. </p>
<p>Carry on, folks.</p>
<p>It turns out that there is nothing authentic about this girl. Her college application is packaged by a high priced consultant, her not-so-novel novel is "shaped" by a writing chop-shop, and her explanations have not a ring of truth. But McCafferty can start eating and sleeping again because her third book has gotten a lift that would make her publicist blush. Is it too cynical to wonder if she might have plied those 40 passages into Kaavya's subconscious while she slept?</p>
<p>This is totally about Harvard. Ok, maybe if she was at Yale it would be about the same. But that's about it.</p>
<p>the crimson was the first to flag the plagarism issue - it was missed by the publishers/editors, and everyone in between. if kaavya was not a harvard student writing about harvard, i wonder if anyone would have bothered with the in depth background research?
what i am trying to say is that it <em>IS</em> about harvard in more ways than one. i just wish harvard would finish it off by taking SOME action against her breach of ethics. send a strong message out to the community and all that.</p>
<p>Gracie -</p>
<p>It simply never would have happened at a community college in Mississippi. The whole premise of the book (finding a "life" in order to qualify for highly selective admissions) would have been nonsense in that setting. No publisher would have offered a big bucks book deal to an obscure student in a backwater community college. And without the Harvard name to attract national attention, a plagiarism scandal erupting at a community college in Mississippi wouldn't have made any waves beyond the county line; it certainly wouldn't have landed on the Today Show.</p>
<p>As much as it pains me to say it, it's a Harvard scandal through and through.</p>
<p>Yes, but had it happened at YP or S, Mr. know it all would have made snotty remarks. It seems that secretly you also condone such behavior.</p>
<p>How Opal Mehta Got caught, Got sued and Got a Life</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>It seems that secretly you also condone such behavior.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>You talking to me? If so, it seems that you openly make ridiculous accusations. In no way do I condone plargiarism. And I'll be far happier about this particular scandal on the day that Harvard pitches the plagiarist out.</p>
<p>It's a case of life imitating art, which imitated other art.</p>
<p>shoot... I went to high school with this girl.. we were in journalism class together.. she seemed so smart and talented... </p>
<p>Anyhow, a couple of things don't make sense. All the media has been saying that she got the book deal when she was 17. Well, as far as I know, she only got the book deal after going to Harvard. I remember first hearing about it the senior year of my high schol (her freshmen year at harvard). We all celebrated for her. Unless she kept the news under wraps for a whole year, she got the book deal her freshmen year in harvard.</p>
<p>EDIT: I just realized that she may have skipped grades and may have only been 17 when she was a freshmen at harvard?</p>
<p>And I just don't know what to think. I was so stunned by how smart and bright she was.. could it all have been fake? What about the award-winning article she wrote for our high school's online webzine where she interviewed an iraqi girl? </p>
<p>I really hope she gets vindicated. Otherwise, its bad news for my high school.</p>
<p>"It's a case of life imitating art, which imitated other art."</p>
<p>I think I heard that on Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Learning from Kaavya, eh?</p>
<p>timepiece: It was on The Colbert Report.</p>
<p>timepiece, I came up with this one independently. Haven't watched the Daily Show or Colbert Report since this erupted. But if you don't believe me, I still have 39 to go before I reach Kaavya's league.</p>
<p>Come on guys,FarmDad probobly just internalized the words of Colbert, being the big fan that he is.</p>
<p>What message is Harvard sending out to the world at large with its lack of a position so far? Isn't part of the book in her application to Harvard, which at least partially contributed to her getting in?</p>
<p>hahaha when i read farmdad's post i was about to remark that he seemed to be doing a bit of internalization himself, but im glad CC'ers are well aware of their colbert report :)</p>
<p>It looks like I'm going to have to go on the Today show to protest my innocence. Hopefully Katie Couric will be easier on me. But if I am guilty of presciently internalizing that comment from the Colbert Report, I take fully responsibility. My CC comment packaging company had nothing to do with it.....</p>
<p>hyeok - "shoot... I went to high school with this girl.. we were in journalism class together.. she seemed so smart and talented...
....And I just don't know what to think. I was so stunned by how smart and bright she was.. could it all have been fake? What about the award-winning article she wrote for our high school's online webzine where she interviewed an iraqi girl? "</p>
<p>The issue is not whether she was a good writer:</p>
<p>I think that if the vast resources of the public education system in this country, together with personal resources of families like hers cannot produce 10, 20, 50,000 decent writers who can string together a logical paragraph or two, we are throwing away a lot of good money, to say the least. </p>
<p>The issue rather is the ethics: whether the finest of our fine educational institutions, both K-12 as well as post-secondary establishments (harvard included), are producing kids whose ethical and moral compasses are a little too lightly screwed. KV does not seem to be an aberration - the hordes of kids and parents pursuing the ivy dream, the counselor industry that has mushroomed around that pursuit, the mechanization of EC-tailoring, the resume packaging are all symptomatic of a horrible commercialization of the educational process, to the point it skews the moorings of all concerned. Deals with the devil abound across the board: US News Rankings, college guides (have you seen **************?) and college PR and Mktg depts, admissions counselors and their protegees, high school counselors and their protegees, testing companies and college admissions - no ranking or test comes out before the market figures out a way to fudge the end result and invalidate the test...not a simple pyramid scheme but a complex one for sure!
It reminds me of the movie - 'It's a mad, mad, mad world'!</p>