As many of you know, Miss Self-Important is pretty into stories of elite university frauds. They come up frequently in her writings in other venues, and she wonders if maybe she should start keeping a file, like she does on her other "professional" interests (there's an 18th century Calvinist file, a Locke & Rousseau file, and, um, a Judy Blume newspapers clippings from the 1970s file, but the drawer has still space...). The most recent awesome fraud, brought to my attention by David, is Adam Wheeler, supposed former Harvard undergrad who lied about all kinds of easily detectable stuff in all his applications ever. On the other hand, if it's really that easy in the age of Internet searches to make up basic things like where you went to high school without anyone noticing (like, you know, the million actual graduates of Andover who now go to Harvard and would not recall this guy's being around), there is hope for generations of future frauds. Go forth, imposters!
Now, this is certainly not the greatest of all university hoaxes. I still prefer Aleksey Vayner, who may not technically be a hoax (I guess he's still claiming all that stuff), and Azia Kim, who had more balls than this Wheeler character. Also, the tale of the rise and fall (and rise again! Like a phoenix!) of Kaavya is captivating. And that's all before we get into the pre-2005 fraud archives.
What I want to know though is why this guy doesn't have a degree? If he won the senior thesis prize last year, he should've graduated last year, and with that sparkly academic record, it's unlikely that he would've flunked out. Please explain, O wise Crimson staffers.
Finally, all this relaxes me as I continue to plod through my finals at a leisurely pace. As I was telling Alex recently, one year here has caused me to stop valuing ambition as any kind of virtue.
UPDATE: My question has been answered. Apparently, he was supposed to graduate this spring, but the "discrepancies" were quietly uncovered last fall, so he's been out since then. This is a perfect example of UD's dictum that if you're going to be a fraud, at least keep your head down and avoid publicity. Of course, if you did that, I would never know about you and I'd be so much less entertained.
Monday, May 17, 2010
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4 comments:
Did I forget to tell you G-school plays trick with your mind?
Oooops....
:-)
That Opal Mehta plagiarist woman was allowed to graduate? And Jamaica Kincaid advised her senior thesis? And now she's off to some ritzy internship?
That's it. That's it. I'm off to join a militia.
Blair Hornstine is really Mother Teresa: http://www.blair-hornstine.com/ dave.s.
Mordu: Not a mind trick. Ambition is really not a virtue.
Alpheus: Law school is historically a great place to rehab even the most damaged reputations. It might even be more effective than a militia.
Dave S: I know about her too, but she's is SO pre-2005. Also, she has set up like 25 websites about herself, leading me to wonder whether they're real.
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