Harvard missed signs of forgery
The application of Adam Butler Wheeler, the student who famously conned his way into Harvard, was fraught with errors and inconsistencies, reported the Boston Globe.
An examination of copies of Wheeler’s application materials obtained by the Globe found that a grade report, which he admitted faking, showed that he earned top marks on 16 Advanced Placement exams. According to the College Board, most students only take one or two AP exams during the course of their high school education, with almost none taking 14 or more.
The application also included a fake recommendation letter from a counselor, in which the middle initial of the counselor’s name is wrong, and form signed by Wheeler to authorize the request of all secondary school records, which it never did.
Other errors include recommendation letters from professors at MIT, although the professors’ names were actually on the faculty roster at Bowdoin college, where Wheeler had been suspended for plagiarism.
A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on the case but explained that the university has put stronger screening processes into place.
Student starts scholarship for kids with incarcerated parents
A Washington D.C. student, whose father has been in and out of prison throughout her childhood, is attempting to start a scholarship for students like her, reported the Washington Post.
Yasmine Arrington decided to try to start the scholarship after looking for financial aid and realizing there was nothing for students such as herself. Arlington and her partner in the project, Niacka Carty, presented their idea to LearnServe International, a non-profit group that helps high school students develop business planning and problem solving skills, who loved the idea and agreed to sponsor the idea.
The venture, called ScholarCHIPS, is hoping to raise $30,000 so that three scholarships of $10,000 can be awarded to students who have a parent in prison.
England students stand firm against rising tuition fees
Students occupying the University of Kent have held strong and are over three weeks into their sit-in, protesting an exorbitant rise in tuition fees for British students.
The university is now desperate to get rid of the five students living in the university’s senate building and has hired solicitors to force them out, as if they were squatters. The students were served court papers before Christmas ordering them to attend court on Jan. 7, reported the Guardian.
The students are telling the university that their surnames are Stephenson, in order to make it more difficult to take action against them. The court summons ordering them to court lists the students as “persons unknown.”
The group launched their protest on Dec. 8, in response to Kent vice-chancellor Julia Goodfellow’s signature on a letter published by the Daily Telegraph that endorsed the spike in tuition fees.
