am i obliged to report this?

College Confidential Community
1

i will propose a hypothetical situation:
someone i know has been accepted into a pretty prestigious university (that is not an art/design school). in one of their essays, they talk about their passion for painting/art. they also submit a portfolio of paintings that they claim to have done. however, these paintings are actually done by their father. these paintings are pretty impressive. the accepted student tells me this information (that i did not ask for, or want to know).

am i obliged to report this? probably not right? is it worth doing anything about or should i just mind my own business?

2

Following! I am curious what the experienced posters here think!

3

This hypothetical friend is asking you to participate in something that you know is wrong. She wants you to help carry forward the illusion that she doesn’t have to operate in an ethical manner. Why would you help perpetuate a lie? Does enabling her lies benefit you in some way?

4

Are you obligated to report? No.

Is your friend behaving unethically? Yes.
Could friend have the acceptance revoked if caught? Yes.
Will karma come back to bite friend? In my experience, most certainly.

I would stay well clear of this person.

5

@Yaskwhy

In this hypothetical, no, it doesn’t benefit me at all. Releasing this information would not hurt me either. But I would prefer to carry on as if I never knew this information at all.

I can’t decide if my duty to my friend is greater than my duty to those people whose places she took at the university.

6

@momofsenior1 That’s what I am most inclined to do right now. I really don’t want to become involved in the hypothetical situation at all.

7

MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Since the question is hypothetical, I am closing and suggesting that the OP search the many many times this question has been asked.

But I’ll give the short version: the consensus (and one with which I agree) aligns with @momofsenior1 's post.