Most people have probably already heard about the oh-so-clever young man, Adam Wheeler, who managed to get into Harvard with fake transcripts. His story is pathetic on so many levels.
Why did anyone have to lie so much? Was it a game, was he just begging to get caught? How did Harvard miss so many signs (including an MIT freshman year transcript with straight As -- except MIT doesn't give letter grades freshman year.) Didn't he just look too fabulous to anyone?
Here are just some of the troubling issues this incident raises:
1. Is Wheeler an anomaly or does the admissions process, including parental pressure, drive students to lie?
2. Wheeler had scholarships, money that didn't go to deserving students; does this happen often?
3. Harvard so expects incredible applications that it seems to have disabled the fraud antennae; is this the case at other desirable schools, too?
4. Lying is so prevalent -- has it always been this way but it just wasn't as easy to catch? Look at Richard Blumenthal, the man who's running for U.S. Senate in Connecticut and who has stated in the past that he was a Vietnam vet when he wasn't.
Oh well, Wheeler shouldn't be too depressed. There's bound to be a movie about his shenanigans one day.
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