<p>What is scarier to me than guys like Wheeler, who went to rather elaborate lengths that most normal cheater wouldn’t go to, are the rather ordinary dishonest studente who are enabled by authorities to falsify their way in to these schools. There’s another thread on the board right now from an international student who was permitted by his school to handle and send to colleges the official transcripts and teacher recommendations. efore sending them to colleges, he altered both.</p>
<p>My friend goes to Harvard!</p>
<p>I just don’t get this. All that effort for what? A name-brand diploma so you can buy a name-brand boat and go on a name-brand vacation? What a massive waste of time. Harvard education is no doubt worthwhile, but putting all that effort into cheating is beyond me.</p>
<p>“I just don’t get this. All that effort for what? A name-brand diploma so you can buy a name-brand boat and go on a name-brand vacation? What a massive waste of time. Harvard education is no doubt worthwhile, but putting all that effort into cheating is beyond me.”</p>
<p>Exactly. This is pretty fruitless from my perspective and I think most extremely successful people in this day and age would have to agree. What happens when your history is reviewed when you want to run for congress or some other similarly scrutinized position? Obviously your past will be analyzed beyond belief in MOST circumstances (maybe not all, though, but these days it’s almost guaranteed). So, what something like this ultimately does is completely prohibit you from pursuing the genuinely important (aka highly visible) positions in the world. And, after all, isn’t that exactly what people that go to Harvard are ultimately trying to do? I know I am and this would be a horrible decision in every practical sense (ethical notions aside).</p>
<p>Although, I now (cynically) agree with previous posters about how this person now, despite possibly going to prison, is probably more revered than he otherwise would have been because he “duped” Harvard… Though that’s a pretty ridiculous claim considering how many oversights must happen every year.</p>
<p>Can you please direct to the thread about the international applicant? My search is not working. Ethics is always a slippery slope, when ‘winning’ is overvalued. I would love to get the full story…there is SO a movie in this. Expect Wheeler to get around the provisions of his punishment that do not allow him to profit from telling this story. This is too, way too good, to pass on.</p>
<p>I was admitted to Yale (class 2013) with an application that bore very little resemblance to the truth. I am smart, with excellent grades and test scores, but so are millions of other applicants. So I just wrote what I knew the admissions readers wanted to hear. It isn’t hard to figure that out: creativity, diversity, free spirit, the usual crap. I even made up a great story about being so absorbed in a biography of John Adams that I forgot to feed my hamster and it died! Let’s face it: if the admissions people were terribly smart, they wouldn’t be working as admissions people.</p>
<p>Amen to that. Admissions staff let themselves buy so much BS… this isn’t a surprise.</p>
<p>Man, I may be a little off topic, but 16 AP tests with 5s on all of them is pretty good; you must all go to very competitive schools. Keep in mind that if his application indicated he took 16 and got all fives on them, then he must have taken 16 and gotten scores for them by the end of junior year. Assuming the typical 8 class school day, that’s 8 AP classes junior year, and 8 between freshman and sophomore year, which is pretty god damned impressed. That said, I have a friend who got into Harvard with 1 AP test (4 on World History).</p>
<p>Bottom line: get your heads out of your asses, CC kids!</p>
<p>“I just don’t get this. All that effort for what? A name-brand diploma so you can buy a name-brand boat and go on a name-brand vacation? What a massive waste of time. Harvard education is no doubt worthwhile, but putting all that effort into cheating is beyond me.”</p>
<p>Oh please. Get real. If you have a terrible resume, you’re bound for an average college and average career, unless extremely fortunate opportunities present themselves. Fake one application, you get the Harvard education and Harvard degree, and you’re set for a great career and much larger income. The time he put into this fake resume was well worth it (minus the getting caught).</p>
<p>16 APs isn’t that many as long as you have it spread out over four years. I think I took 16 as well (IIRC): 2 freshman year, 5 sophomore year, 5 junior year, and 4 senior year. The AP tests have a very generous curve as well, so its not <em>too</em> terribly difficult to get a 5 either as long as your school offers AP classes. </p>
<p>Granted I didn’t get all 5s like Wheeler “did” (I got a 4 in Spanish Lit), but I’d have to say its not hard to believe either, since the top 20 at my public high school also took 12+ AP tests as well.</p>
<p>In regards to his application, Harvard is probably at least somewhat to blame, but given how many applications that the counselors have to look through these days, I am not surprised that they make mistakes. Even if they hired more counselors to accommodate the increased number of applications that probably still doesn’t help enough because of lack of experience.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure those were his motivations.</p>
<p>Dude is just plain messed-up…</p>
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<p>Well our school tends to be a bit ridiculous and freshmen aren’t allowed to take APs. There are also ridiculous pre-requisites for AP, mainly that you have to have taken the Honors course related to the AP and get a decent grade. So the most anyone can take in our school (with all the other outrageous required courses for graduation) is 12.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1066769-cheating-commonapp.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1066769-cheating-commonapp.html</a></p>
<p>As a wise man once said…if you must lie, lie big.</p>
<p>Yes! Lie BIG! The admissions staff at most colleges, even - ESPECIALLY - the Big Name schools are absolute SUCKERS for crap!!! Oh, and be sure to mention “Diversity.”</p>
<p>As a applicant into college do I need to admit to admissions that I went to a University for a half of a semester and dropped out too late to get a “W” in order to pursue a great culinary job? It four years ago and I am just now re-applying to schools. I don’t want that blemish on my application nor do I want to be in the situation this guy is in.</p>
<p>My resume is all about honesty.
And I found a new mathmatical expression that is a short cut formula for a limit.
Do you guys think that Harvard would like me even if I have a lower SAT scores than other smart people???</p>
<p>So … did anyone else get to fool Harvard this year?</p>
<p>I heard a completely different story. I heard he was applying for an internship in psychology (he should have studied himself), and something went amiss there. Already anticipating a possible snafu, he applied to other ivyies, and I thought one was Yale. His parents found out what he did and turned him in when Yale called with his acceptance. </p>
<p>As for AP courses, from my experience, in public school anyone can take an AP class, but in private school, especially Andover (and my daughter’s friend goes there and my daughter is in day private), you have to really qualify. The rigors in these 2 private schools are insane. The first AP class my daughter’s school allows is in sophomore year in Euro history. To qualify, you have to had A’s in all 4 quarters of World Cultures in freshman year and write an essay. If you did well this year in Euro (B+ or above in all 4 quarters, they still will not advance you if you had B’s in freshman year to APUSH). It’s a shame because in my daughter’s case I know she’d do well in APUSH. So in junior year you can take up to 3 AP classes, and in sr year 3 more so the most is 7. you can take honors classes if you qualify, and Stanford U math (for the brainiacs) in sr year. We have 19 ap classes available.</p>
<p>According to the Ask the Dean section, she mentions that AP chem, calc and physics are more important than AP history, economics or psychology (or APES of AP Human Geography) but why would someone going into English or History or the arts want to take math and science? It’s like asking the math/science people to take English History or a language. It doesn’t make sense. You should do what you love, but I am hard pressed to believe he took 16 ap classes at a private school. I also thought the AP exams went straight to the school as well, and to fake a transcript from Andover had to be an inside job. They are so strict up there as are all private schools with the release of transcripts. </p>
<p>The fact that while he was at Harvard and still snowed 2 other ivyies to accept him as a transfer student is sheer brilliance - unfair for sure - but he should write a book about conning the ivyies when so many super smart kids with perfect everything can’t get in…he might have had the good marks on paper, but what? did he charm his way in? it’s such a blemish for harvard for sure.</p>
<p>Great post.</p>