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<p>It’s been going on for ever - in different forms…</p>
<p>When I was at Cajun State, grad computer science students used to earn beer money by doing assignments on the side for rich foreign kids… Various international student associations maintained elaborate magnetic tape libraries with assignments… fraternities had test libraries… Heck, I was a TA for a semester and there was some clever cheating and some not so clever - at the end, the department skrewed everyone by cutting down assignment values to laughable amounts.</p>
<p>Admissions, about as bad. I had a TOEFL of 610 and saw many an English-speaking (British Commonwealth) type student who could not speak to save his/her life with a TOEFL of 600 (most schools wanted 550). Cajun State had a couple thousand foreign students, at the time mostly South Americans & Middle Easterns… </p>
<p>Also, even without cheating, comparing international HS grades is futile - in my home country maybe a handful of kids (nearly always girls :)) graduated with a 4.0 (or whatever). From HS to college level a B (80%) was an awesome grade, but passing was 50% - not 70%.</p>