Del. man charged with faking his way into Harvard Mark Pratt, Associated Press Writer WOBURN, Mass. – A Delaware man has been charged with faking his way into Harvard and duping the Ivy League school out of $45,000 in financial aid, grants and scholarships. Adam Wheeler, 23, of Milton, Del., was admitted to Harvard and became a student in 2007 after he falsely claimed he had earned a perfect academic record at Phillips Academy in Andover and had studied for a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, prosecutors said Monday. Ultimately, authorities said, Wheeler's attempts to be an overachiever were his undoing: Harvard started to look into Wheeler's background after he sought the school's endorsement for Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships. A professor reviewing his application noticed similarities between Wheeler's writing and that of a colleague, prosecutors said. Wheeler was indicted on 20 offenses, including larceny, identity fraud and pretending to hold a degree. He was arrested Monday by Massachusetts authorities and scheduled for arraignment Tuesday in Middlesex Superior Court. Wheeler, who was studying English, was trying to transfer to Yale and Brown when he got caught in the "web of lies and deceit," Middlesex County District Attorney Gerry Leone said. "This defendant's actions cheated those who competed honestly and fairly for admissions and for the scholarships that this defendant fraudulently obtained," Leone said. [...] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100517/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_academic_fraud_probe
Heh heh heh. Oh: speaking of dumbasses, I had a guy plagiarize a paper this last semester. He stole huge chunks of two entries from a Gale encyclopedia on the Beat Generation. They're not available on line, so he assumed he'd get away with it. However, I recognized the writing. What with having written both entries and all. When he got the pre-dismissal administrtaion beat down from the Dean of Students, it turned out he didn't know my name. Hence his error. And of the two dumbasses mentioned in this thread, my dumb-ass is Conference to the ex-fake-Harvard guy, who is Premiership dumbass with obvious Champions League potential.