Your thoughts on the student who scammed Harvard?

[apples and oranges]

This is all over the news:



http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/alleged_harvard.html

The Globe reports today that Wheeler allegedly forged his way into Harvard University by submitting false transcripts saying he had attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the elite Phillips Academy in Andover. He also said he scored a perfect score of 1600 on his SAT. After transferring to Harvard, he earned some $45,000 in scholarship, grants, and financial aid.

In reality, according to Assistant Middlesex District Attorney John Verner, he scored about 1100 on his SAT, and attended high school in Delaware. He also attended Bowdoin College but was suspended for plagiarizing an essay. It was during his suspension, after the spring 2007 semester, that he applied to transfer to Harvard.

His “web of lies,” according to Verner, unraveled when he applied for prestigious Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships last fall using falsified credentials, including a fake transcript and work he plagiarized from a Harvard professor.

A Harvard professor reviewing the application for the scholarships grew suspicious of essays that Wheeler apparently plagiarized. Wheeler also allegedly forged the names of professors on letters of recommendations.

When confronted with the plagiarism allegation, Wheeler allegedly said, “Ah, I must have made a mistake. I didn’t really plagiarize it,” Verner said.

Half of me is disgusted and the other half of me is impressed by this young man's ingenuity. I wonder how many people get away with stuff like this?