Harvard muffs an admission decision
December 28, 2010
An interesting question, which the article doesn't answer, is whether one or two people messed up, or whether this was an institutional failure. I doubt outsiders will ever know, but the case is a heck of a wake-up call regardless: student seeking to transfer to Harvard lied, big time, and for a while, got away with it.
A gushing letter of recommendation, purportedly from the director of college counseling at Phillips Academy, said Wheeler enrolled in the prestigious Andover prep school as a junior. The accompanying transcript, though, indicated he attended for four years.
Both documents turned out to be fake. . . .
A grade report from the College Board, which Wheeler has admitted faking, shows he earned the highest marks on 16 advanced-placement exams, an improbable feat. The majority of students taking AP exams take only one or two during their four years of high school, according to the College Board. Virtually none take 14 or more.
And there's more.
UPDATE: He also fooled Stanford's adminissions people.