Here's How Not to Get Into Yale
As gaining admission to the Ivy League gets more and more difficult, many students go to extreme measures to beat the odds. Prospective students with the financial means may take exam prep courses, employ essay editing services or even hire private consultants. But Yale transfer student Akash Maharaj showed just how far some students are willing to go to make it to the top. Based on his stellar record from Columbia University, Maharaj was offered admission to Yale and a $32,000 scholarship.
But life in the ivy tower came tumbling down for Maharaj last year when his application was found to be fraudulent, including an official-looking Columbia transcript complete with crest and seal. A recent article in the New York Times reports that Maharaj has been dismissed from Yale and charged with forgery and larceny. Maharaj's hearing is now set for May 28th.
While the Maharaj case has received a lot of media attention, the extremely competitive college admissions climate has made forgery and fraud all too common in the appliction process. Still, we can hope that the Maharaj case highlights the foolishness of application fraud: he may find himself gaining admission to an institution with metal bars on the windows and a rather lousy meal plan.
Photo by o2ma / Flickr
Comments
Good article, it’s nice to know that America’s best Universities are finally giving out generous financial aid. Its tough to find all the money you need to pay for college. I know of a book called “Cash For College” that teaches you the insider secrets of college funding specialists, in order for you to get as much aid as possible. The author is Daniel Wansten, who is the foremost leader in college funding, so you know the book is full of info. I hope that little bit of information is helpful.
I am a General Manager with a company that distributes twice a year a magazine to nearly 100,000 high school students and their families. I would love to get these articles published in these magazines to help answer many of the questions and concerns to these sometimes very intimidating experiences. Times have changed since my college days. I am currently experiencing this with having both of my children attend major universities. The process is very intimidating to say the least.