http://www.richmond.com/ap/national/article_29bdf2c0-0f2f-524b-8782-e60320839f3c.html
Finally there are consequences for cheating. Fair or too severe??
I think they should just deport her. She won’t care about being imprisoned as long as she can stay in the US and complete her education.
It just confirms the fact that education is an all or none proposition for some Chinese students; cheating is not viewed as a bad thing as long as it gets them into a US school.
I started a thread with this article last week and no one seemed very interested or upset. She and her co conspirators are in trouble for falsifying Chinese passports, not for anything else. I hope they max out the charges and they are all blocked from ever visiting the U.S. in the future.
It is a huge threat to our national security that people from other countries present false passports when they are here.
The VA Tech hopeful found the passport/SAT cheating group through the internet. If you google “study in the usa” there are many “legitimate” companies that serve internationals. Even the College Board is in the thick of it. Sorry but I resent U.S. citizens being passed over for international “high achievers.”
http://studyusa.com/en/a/151/the-sat%C2%AE-your-bridge-to-studying-in-the-us
I hope a huge deal is made of this. Large groups of students who can barely speak English but can drive fancy cars have a negative impact on quality of US colleges.
Complete her education in the US? I certainly hope not considering the lengths she went to not only hire others to facilitate her cheating, but also facilitate the forging of US passports. Isn’t the latter considered a felony?
Article does not say what nationality the fake passports made for the imposters taking the test were.
I think they were charged with presenting false Chinese passports. I can’t find the other article I read. This Chinese article is entertaining. Apparently a person paid to take the TOEFL is called a “gunman.” That makes me think the practice is pervasive. The VA Tech student is on house arrest with an ankle bracelet until her sentencing in February.
" Apparently a person paid to take the TOEFL is called a “gunman.” That makes me think the practice is pervasive.". This is indeed a problem, especially when graduate students are unable to speak English well enough to perform the usual teaching duties of a grad student.
As on the other thread, “The charges against all the defendants include conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud and counterfeiting foreign passports.”
That amounts to Fed charges and much bigger than cheating on the test(s.)
http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/8584171-74/test-chinese-college
And let’s not have our imaginations run wild that all foreign or all Asian kids cheat and so some TA or grad student you think doesn’t speak English well is a cheater.
Love how people put words into my mouth on this site. All foreign or Asian students do not cheat, nor did I say or imply so. However, it is a problem and I know that some Asian students show up in US schools speaking English at a far lower level than their test scores would indicate and that this has caused problems with graduate TA staffing, and that this is not an isolated incident but a recurring problem.
“And let’s not have our imaginations run wild that all foreign or all Asian kids cheat and so some TA or grad student you think doesn’t speak English well is a cheater.”
Let’s not denigrate imagination.
What you’re referring to is a lot more like jumping to conclusions based on limited information and stereotyping-no imagination required.
Having said that, I hope they kick her butt out, whatever her nationality.
Of course, cheating is pervasive. And colleges and Universities know that cheating it is so. The risk of getting caught is really low, particularly when the cheating occurs overseas. (Cheating is the main reason that CB dropped the original score choice, and its why the top colleges require ALL scores.)
If colleges wanted to stop the practice, all they would have to do is to re-administer the TOEFFL once the new student showed up on campus. instead, they just look the other way, and pocket the cash from full payers.
I’d prefer they just expel, deport, and blackball her (and perhaps members of her family) from any US college or grad school. I woudl also not ever let her back in the country. I don’t think US taxpayers paying for her to sit in jail will help anyone.
She will improve her English in jail and will be able to pass TOEFL herself.
Wonder what choice vocabulary words she will learn…
When she talks about her gunman, the other prisoners will be impressed.
Silly me…I thought the standing order was that we just ignore any criminal activity involving residents of foreign countries. Maybe she can get a transfer to USanFran for sanctuary.
In fact, a few years ago the professors at the University of San Francisco were threatening a walk-out if the school kept accepting Chinese students with high TOEFL scores, yet who could barely speak English when they got there. That’s when I first read about how prospective Chinese students would hire others to take TOEFL tests.
I vaguely recall the school put students who could barely speak English on probation, and if they couldn’t demonstrate a certain level of fluency by the end of the school year, they’d get kicked out.
Is she being criminally charged for cheating? Or for immigration visa fraud?
"The charges against all the defendants include conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud and counterfeiting foreign passports.
And the U.S. Government is really taking this seriously. She’s got an ankle bracelet and has to stay in her Blacksburg apartment until sentencing in February. A co conspirator has escaped the country.
IMO our national security is a joke.