Harvard Extended: College imposters, part III: It's more common than you think

Thursday, June 14, 2007

College imposters, part III: It's more common than you think

The LA Times yesterday had a report about fake students sneaking into prestigious colleges and universities across the country. The Harvard College imposter was not mentioned, but several other cases, including Azia Kim's deception at Stanford, were described.

Why does this happen? The article has this to say:

Jerald Jellison, a former USC psychology professor who specialized in the study of lies, said some charlatans take on a new identity to hide a criminal past. But impostors like Vanegas typically begin their charade to win approval from someone important, such as their parents.

2 comments:

KC said...: Scary, isn't it.

I'm almost glad the Harvard case didn't blow up to become bigger than it was.; Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 9:58:00 AM EST
I Lamont said...: It must have been scary for you, Kameron, especially after getting all of those comments on your blog when you first exposed the Harvard case. You were brave to do so.

Both the Harvard and Stanford incidents are, unfortunately, probably just the tip of the iceberg. I think it's very easy to pass oneself off as a student. We've heard of Godelia and Kim because they got caught -- but who knows how many other people out there have done the same thing, but never got snared?; Sunday, July 8, 2007 at 8:03:00 AM EST