Pretending to attend




 

 


The recent case of the 18yearold woman from Orange County who spent eight months passing as a Stanford undergraduate is intriguing, if hard to fathom. Posing as a human biology major, she bought textbooks and studied with friends for tests she would never take. She talked several students into letting her stay in their residence hall room and, without a student ID, managed to eat in the dining hall.

The story has evoked a range of reactions from the Stanford community. Some students admire her chutzpah and think the university should admit her. Others are frightened to learn that security is so lax that someone who’s not a student could have easy access to university facilities. Some are angry, seeing her as a manipulative sociopath who stole housing and food from the school and should have to pay for her actions. Then there are those who feel sorry for her and believe she must have been under terrible pressure to go to such extreme lengths to maintain the illusion that she was a Stanford student.

Even if she thought she could keep it up, what was the goal? She wouldn’t be earning any college credit, and she could have been spending that time and energy pursing a degree at another school. This was not a rational plan, and it seems clear that this young woman needs help.

It’s hard to imagine her parents not wondering why they never received any official communication from Stanford. Perhaps the family wanted so badly for her to be at Stanford that they colluded on some level in the fantasy. Her high school was very competitive, and the idea of not going on to a prestigious college was apparently unbearable.

There has been much talk of parental pressure in Asian families. It may be that this young woman felt she would bring shame to herself and her parents if she didn’t attend an elite school. Of course, there are thousands of students who are denied admission to prestigious schools, and go on to be very successful and happy at other colleges.

But this isn’t a unique occurrence. A young man passed himself off as a student at Rice University for three semesters, until he was arrested when students became suspicious. He sat in on large lecture classes, where he wouldn’t be noticed. He said he lived off campus and was too tired to drive home, so students would let him spend the night in their rooms. When he was finally caught, the 20-year-old imposter told police that it would break his mother’s heart if he didn’t attend Rice.

While these are extreme cases, there are plenty of students who are willing to do whatever it takes to get into a prestigious college. Cheating is rampant in high school, and it’s especially common among high-achievers. And what about students who lie about extracurricular activities and community service on college applications, sometimes with parental encouragement?

It’s not just students and parents who can cross the line. Last year, a counselor at a private school was fired for listing fake student awards in his recommendation letters. And just two months ago, the dean of admission at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was forced out after school officials learned that she had lied about having a college degree when she was hired almost 30 years ago.

While her reasons for maintaining the illusion of a successful college career may be different, she and the young woman in the Stanford case both ended up bringing upon themselves the shame and humiliation they tried so hard to avoid.

Audrey Kahane, MS, MFA, is a private college admissions counselor in West Hills. She can be reached at (818) 704-7545 or via her Internet site at audreykahane@earthlink.net

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