<p>In answer to a question above, the guy taking the test made phony IDs.</p>
<p>One simple thing would help reduce fraud - require a fingerprint to be placed on each test, right before the test starts.</p>
<p>60 minutes could do another show. This time with the parents. I’d be interested in what they have to say.</p>
<p>“This kid wasn’t taking the exam for poor kids. Except perhaps when he took the test for his ex-girlfriend for free, there was nothing altruistic about his behavior. It was all about greed.”</p>
<p>Of course it’s about greed. The whole story is about greed. The greed of parents who think their kids won’t have a rich life without an Ivy admit. The greed of schools who make the case for more funding based on the college admissions stats. The greed of the CollegeBoard. The greed of Sam. The greed of the students who paid Sam. </p>
<p>At least if you could buy and sell scores (or buy and sell ivy admits, which happens now for “developmental” prospects) it would all be out in the open.</p>
<p>Don’t get all so self-righteous.</p>
<p>Mini - Or all parents could teach their kids the value of personal integrity.</p>
<p>to mini
re "Then there are students who “boost” their chances by spending thousands on SAT prep, prep that simply isn’t available to low-income students. CollegeBoard claims that prep doesn’t help, but their own data indicates otherwise. "</p>
<p>If the cheaters have $2500, $3500, they can easily afford test prep. It is HARD WORK, not a free ride. Yes, it takes resources to have a tutor, to join a class, to buy a book. But it takes TIME and EFFORT and DISCIPLINE to prep.
And, after that, they would have done the best they could, and probably learned a few useful things in the process. And earned their acceptances.</p>
<p>Look, I hate the way College Board does MANY things. And I wish I could figure a out a better way to compare applicants.
But cheating is not the answer.</p>
<p>Frankly, the arrogance of this dude is such that it may actually get a bunch more people to pay attention- he is being totally honest, and his lack of remorse demonstrates how serious the security problem is. It is as if he is sticking his tongue out at the colleges and the College Board- maybe they will finally try to tighten things up, god knows, they can afford to.</p>
<p>Maybe he wore a disguise, a wig, female clothing, etc… What a hoot, I can see it now…
Should be a great flick: “Score for Espionage”</p>
<p>it’s not just LI. this happens everywhere. across the US and across the world in the other countries that take this test, there is cheating. unfortunately, now LI is taking the heat for it, even though the majority of the kids on LI are honest and took the test fairly.</p>
<p>Your integrity is more valuable than any test score. The participants in this fraud have not proven themselves honorable.</p>
<p>Mini, I disagree with your analogy. I DO agree that the prep courses available to wealthier students gives them an (unfair?) advantage. A stable home environment, safe schools, loving and supportive parents, and a motivated peer group also gives an advantage. So be it, life isn’t fair.</p>
<p>The difference is that the kid taking the review course is being forced to learn the techniques and the knowledge necessary to be uber successful on the test. Just like an athlete who spends more time in the weight room or runs after practice, extra effort pays off at test time. Paying someone to take the test removes effort from the equation.</p>
<p>Oh heck, performersmom said it much better than I did…I agree with her completely.</p>
<p>Btw, he used fake IDs for all of them. Just had a pic of him printed next to the name of the kid he was cheating for. Then took the tests at other schools so they wouldn’t recognize that it wasn’t him. You can get a good fake ID (scannable and everything) for $100. I’m sure it factored into the price the kids paid.</p>
<p>His lack of remorse says alot more than that…reeks of entitlement/ lack of responsibility that is so prevalent in many communities like Great Neck around the country…</p>
<p>It is too simplified to call this a security problem ( which of course, it obviously is)…</p>
<p>It is more about raising kids to believe that they can get/buy anything they want without working for it…and that there is nothing wrong with cutting corners/cheating etc whether morally correct or not…</p>
<p>And, mini, I’m not being “righteous”…just have seen way too much of this while raising my kids. Just too many “Sam” kids…and the kind of kids who would definitely pay for someone else to take their tests…</p>
<p>“The difference is that the kid taking the review course is being forced to learn the techniques and the knowledge necessary to be uber successful on the test.”</p>
<p>Absolutely true. And a skill they will NEVER ever use again except in standardized test-taking.</p>
<p>Look - the guy did a bad thing, and he’ll pay for it. And others will do the same. Doesn’t make him more greedy or less greedy than everyone else. He played a racket, and got caught. With thousands of corporate criminals (many of them Ivy-educated) running away with people’s money over the past decade), perhaps his greatest error was not hiring other people to do the work for him (and making it untraceable.) “So be it, life isn’t fair.”</p>
<p>And, no, I don’t need the lecture about “personal integrity”. When it comes to the CollegeBoard, and their long-term track record, integrity is about the last thing that comes to mind. Do we have to rehearse their history again?</p>
<p>Carry on with the regularly scheduled breastbeating: this has been an interesting diversion.</p>
<p>I’m clicking the agree button to this post:
</p>
<p>agree with Rodnay ad Limabeans…we see that same attitude here on CC often too, unfortunately.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this requires jail time, but he definitely needs to be expelled.</p>
<p>Mini, you might not need a lecture on integrity, but you could use a refresher course. It doesn’t matter what CB has done or other test takers have or will continue to do. Cheating is wrong, and if caught should be punished. Two (or more) wrongs don’t make a right. You know, the stuff you learned in grade school. No breast-beating, just common sense and personal honor. Following the rules really isn’t that difficult.</p>
<p>Spare me, please. Let’s be clear: Sam DIDN’T cheat. In fact, he did so well on his SATs, without cheating (it appears), that he got into Emory. He appears to have sold a service that is illegal (of which he is yet to be convicted). The students cheated, with their parent’s dough. He is charged with what? Impersonating high school students? Oh, excuse me: “He was charged with scheme to defraud in the first degree, falsifying business records in the second degree, and criminal impersonation in the second degree.” It’s going to be very interesting to me to see the district attorney try to figure out who, exactly, he defrauded. I don’t much remember the arrests, but was there a complaint from the College Board? A college? (That’s why the case is going to be pled out, because a judge is going to ask exactly the same question.)</p>
<p>And it very MUCH matters what CB has done, and continues to do. </p>
<p>If you want to talk about common sense and personal honor (whether legal or illegal), let’s talk about what some of the kids’ parents do for a living. Didn’t fall far from the block.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I have never seen an honor code that would not consider Sams actions cheating. And he has admitted guilt, so that is not an issue either.</p>
<p>as a matter of point, this is Emory’s Academic section that would apply :
</p>
<p>I was just going to ask if Emory has an honor code, and if it would apply…it will be interesting to see if the university acts on it.</p>
<p>He didn’t, as an Emory student, or with Emory students, do ANY of those things, As a Great Neck High School student, he (apparently) didn’t do any of those things either.</p>
<p>I have never seen an honor code that would have governed the behavior of a student that took place outside of the school itself. (Well, maybe West Point, though I haven’t seen it.)</p>
<p>Look - he did a bad thing, okay? Great horrors. The College Board didn’t seem to mind much (as far as I am aware, they didn’t even lodge a complaint with the D.A. after the fact.) I haven’t heard of any colleges so far revoking admissions, or kicking out the students who got in who cheated. I haven’t heard of any monitors or proctors for the exams being fired. </p>
<p>He shouldn’t do things like that! Many of the Great Neck parents shouldn’t have given real estate loans to dead people (or, for business purposes, virtual dead people, either), or packaged up the loans and sold them to their clients. And they definitely shouldn’t have been impersonating real estate brokers, stockbrokers, or bankers.</p>
<p>Where do you think the money for the scam came from?</p>
<p>Mini, the point is that what he did, taking a test for someone else, is cheating. No different than if he went in and took a drug test for someone else. That is cheating too. I can not figure out how you can say it is not cheating. Giving test answers to others has been considered cheating in every school always. It is the reason that CB has a “ban” on discussing tests for a period of time after the tests are completed.</p>
<p>And he DID do those things as an emory student, mybe not on a test AT emory, but he was still an emory student.</p>