Yale Daily News

"The case began to unravel"

I think you meant that the DECEPTION began to unravel (or, more likely, the ALLEGED deception).

This person should have been named. There is a public criminal complaint against him.

This is insane!

Great in depth story

First of all, there's a precedent for this. See Andreas Alrea of the class of '78 or '79. There's an excellent, hilarious article about him in the YDN Magazine from around then.

Second, how could you withhold this guy's name? He's not a girl who got raped. He's 26, making death threats to other students, and scamming Yale. You have no problem NAMING a sophomore on the front page and calling him a rapist, but you protect a guy who's already being expelled and prosecuted for a scam. That doesn't make sense.

Also, the admissions office is highly susceptible to this sort of thing for the same reasons that they're willing to believe everyone's BS stories about wrestling polar bears during high school. The more "unique" the background, the better the student body...

hmm...lets see...first (as far as we know..) there was Hashemi (?), the ex-Taliban admitted as a special student...then the dust-up about the credentials of the Korean Prof. who claimed (falsely) that they attended Yale, and now this..

Something isn't right in the admission office and heads should roll..anyone over there hear of due-diligence??

How hard is it to verify records?? it should be trivia..this is inexplicable (as are the other examples cited).....

CYA and hiding behind "confidentiality" will now be in full force....

I wish that the YD"N" had used this type of respectful discretion when smearing a friend's name and picture on the front page the day after unfounded sexual assault charges were alleged by another student. Bravo for maturity.

Seriously. The time lapse and "Name redacted" notwithstanding, this is a great scoop.

heartsurgeon, you realize they receive over 20,000 applications a year, right?

Yeah Liz, there's no way Yale could background check the records of 20,000 apps, but they could at least check the 1800 applicants they end up accepting. They could make a final list, then send it to some sub-committee of underlings to verify everything before releasing the names.

I have no idea how much work that would be, but if the University wants to prevent such embarrassments in the future, they should consider it.

Heartsurgeon: how exactly is the Admissions Office responsible for the false claim by the Korean "professor"? Or the administrative mistake in verifying her false claim of attendance? And I'm not sure it would be desirable to turn everything upside down to protect against the rare fraudster; I don't have a sense that it happens often.

"heartsurgeon, you realize they receive over 20,000 applications a year, right?'

Liz, you realize its nonsensical to talk about the number of applicants... it's only those accepted that need their qualifications confirmed. In the real world, its utterly routine to verify the qualifications of people. With tuition north of $40,000, and a 11 digit endowment, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect that the admissions department should be doing a better job than this...

#7, I understand your loyalty to your friend, but did it ever occur to you that maybe you should blame the person who brought false charges in the first place instead of blaming a newspaper for doing what it is supposed to do?

"how exactly is the Admissions Office responsible for the false claim by the Korean "professor"? "

i believe an article in this newspaper indicated that the admissions office verified to another university that the Korean (?) Prof. HAD attended Yale, and then had to correct the mistake, and indeed Yale is now being sued by the Korean University that was duped!!

Is my memory wrong about what has been previously (and fairly recently) published in this very newspaper??

False claim of attendance...that should be trivia to prove/disprove..

Rare fraudster?? how does anyone know??

The admissions office is responsibe for the admissions process..to one of the greatest universities in the world, with massive resources...and you don't feel they should be doing a better job??

I believe you are wrong, heartsurgeon, and it was the Yale College Dean's Office (or some similar administrative body) who verified the Koran professor's Yale degree and not the admission's office.

heartsurgeon: Yes, your memory is wrong. See below from the March 27, 2008 Yale Daily News. Maybe a brain surgeon would have fact-checked before making claims, twice in your case. As you'll see, the Admissions Office was uninvolved.

"Shin was hired Sept. 1, 2005, but officials at Dongguk quickly received information that “raised questions” about the validity of her Yale degree, as the lawsuit puts it. On Sept. 5, an administrator at Dongguk sent a registered letter to Graduate School Associate Dean Pamela Schirmeister, requesting she verify the authenticity of an ostensibly Yale-authored letter that Shin had presented to Dongguk during the hiring process as a certification of her degree.

"That letter was signed “Pamela Schirmeistr” [sic] and, University officials now assert, had been forged by Shin. Yet on Sept. 22, Schirmeister replied to Dongguk by fax, writing: “As requested I am confirming that the attached letter was issued by the Yale Graduate School and signed by me.”"

heartsurgeon is probably one of those guys who just love to bash Yale for any or no reason. The admission of Hashemi was truly unforgivable, but otherwise, people make mistakes and we should just be glad that this fraud was caught in the end.

"heartsurgeon is probably one of those guys who just love to bash Yale for any or no reason"

I am critical of Yale, because I support it extensively with my wallet...I expect better from the best..

Apparently you agree with me that the Hashemi "admission" was ill conceived.

I will readily admit I do not know what department was involved in that decision.

I will also admit that I do not know what branch of the administration provided the Korean University with mis-information.

All that said, are you trying to claim this makes Yale look good? That no one is responsible? That nothing needs to change?

I seems quite likely, that had the "ex-lover" of the student had not "outed" the poser, he may well have graduated with a Yale degree....ever think of that??

heartsurgeon -- for me the question isn't one of image "whether Yale looks good" because I was not interested in the degree as some sort of trophy for display like a BMW or whatever. Perhaps you were a trophy hunter and we differ there. Your shocked observation that the guy might have graduated is bizarre in at least 2 senses. First, it is likely that people have grafuated after having falsified applications -- what do you think the likelihood every instance has been caught, say, even in your class year. Second, I knew, and I'm sure even you knew more than a handful if people who graduated who may not have been credits to the University academically (since that seems your concern)-- I knew a guy who graduated from my class who wrote a HYA paper on the artwork of "Circa." The admission process produces any number of such cases in every class. I don't recall you posting in concern over the question of whether athletes are held to the same academic standards in admissions. Or perhaps you were an athlete...

I'm surprised that nobody seems to be mentioning that this guy seems to have some sort of psychiatric disorder, even when one ignores the suicide attempt and death threat. He always claims that the only thing he lied about was his age, even when several independent sources verify that he lied about quite a few other things. Either he is refusing to admit to the crime, out of pride, or he is incapable of conceiving that the materials he submitted were not authentic.

You make me sick Yale. The guy was a smart student that was there to learn, and now you will ruin his life by throwing him in jail. He did not steal 46,000 from the school, the fee was simply waved, no money was ever taken. Go ahead Yale, throw a great mind in jail, go ahead, keep pretending you are high and mighty. Keep pretending you give a shit about anything other than money and prestige. Learn to earn some dignity you bastards.

The real victim here is the unknown student who was rejected because of this lying thief. Someone somewhere lost their place at Yale and was deprived of the financial aid this fraudster received. For those making excuses for him calling him a 'brilliant mind', think again. Yale doesn't need to graduate a criminal just because he was able to lie his way in. He could leverage any qualification they gave him to commit even greater frauds so well done Yale for weeding this crook out.

Yes, he was there to learn, but the issue is that he submitted an utterly fraudulent application with forged transcripts and a forged recommendation.

Sure, he could possibly be a "great mind", but it seems like he is also a liar and a fraud. His possible brilliance does not exclude him from the consequences of his actions.

When it comes to the money, the student in question would NOT have been awarded the scholarships, let alone admitted, on the basis of his fraudulent application, so yes, he more or less stole the $46,000.

When it comes to attacking Yale for being "bastards" without "dignity" or "pretending" to be "high and mighty", consider what every other school in the nation would have done. Do you believe that other universities would continue to let this fraud go unscathed?