Adam B. Wheeler, the former student who pleaded guilty to larceny and identity fraud this month in connection with forged documents he used to win admission to Harvard University, was perhaps not the brilliant con artist some reports made him out to be, according to The Boston Globe. The newspaper examined his application materials and found numerous inconsistencies and careless errors. Among other things, Mr. Wheeler forged a letter of recommendation from a counselor at Phillips Academy saying he had enrolled there as a junior, but submitted a fake transcript indicating he had attended Phillips for four years. He also submitted a grade report showing perfect scores on 16 Advanced Placement exams. Jeff Neal, a university spokesman, declined to comment on Mr. Wheeler’s application but said Harvard had taken steps to improve procedures.
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Have the Globe sift through 30,000 applications, with no expectations of fraud, and see if they can find the needle in the haystack.
Nothing like 20-20 Hindsight.
In response to Princeton 67, Harvard does not receive 30,000 transfer applications, making Wheeler’s undetected fraud even more shameful. In addition, Harvard admissions spends huge investments of time and money encouraging more and more applications in order to maintain and improve their vaunted “record low” admissions rate. If they can not properly analyze and process these applications it is time to stop this dishonest procedure and focus on carefully evaluating a reduced number.
Emily
I might point out that at Phillips Academy, a “junior” is a 9th grader, thus a student who enters as a “junior” and graduates from Phillips Academyordinarily attends for 4 years. Thus, that stated fact would probably not raise a red flag.
Of course my opinions are the right ones! That doesn’t matter at all, though, if my neighbors with the wrong opinions are potentially crazy nutcases who will egg my house or key my car or call my employer. (Nah, *that* never happens.)
True, so you better watch out.
Political participation comes with a price. You may face potential harassment and bad behavior, calls to your boss, stuff like that. So if you want to participate in the democratic process in America you’d better make sure that you are willing to face all of that.