How to report a person who misrepresented his/her financial circumstances

Applying to College
1

Hi CC Community,

There is this student at my school (I will not name gender to protect the student’s identity) who somehow became a QuestBridge finalist in Cupertino, one of the richest cities in California (for those who don’t know, QuestBridge is a college admissions program designed for kids under the poverty line). This student’s family rents an apartment for a little under $3,000 a month, and this student has two perfectly functional parents as well as a younger sibling. No family problems whatsoever, and the finances are definitely not anywhere close to QuestBridge level. Through the QuestBridge regular decision plan, this student was accepted to Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Dartmouth. What is the standard protocol for reporting this type of student so the schools can rescind the acceptances as appropriate? It’s terrible how this student took away a QuestBridge spot from another deserving California kid.

2

Seems like you’re jumping to accusations. The Questbridge process is not one solely based on socioeconomic status, it also takes into account academic prowess/race/first-generation. Given that Questbridge asks for parent’s W-2s and income tax returns, it’s unlikely that the kid has committed fraud. Perhaps you should talk to the kid before you report him/her for something you have no concrete proof of?

3

There is a whole sub-forum just on topics related to QB inside the Financial Aid Forum. Before you decide that you know enough to determine that this student absolutely did not qualify for QB, I’d suggest you go read through some of those threads.

4

This student is definitely not URM and the parents are college-educated. Also definitely too wealthy for QuestBridge - the other kid from our school who got QuestBridge had a single mom.

5

Unless Questbridge has appointed you as its private investigator, this is totally none of your business. There’s no “standard protocol” for poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.

6

Questbridge is not only for URM’s. You don’t really know somebody’s true circumstances and you should butt out, it is none of your business.

7

You might want to discuss this PRIVATELY with your GC. While those who fraudulently receive financial and admissions advantages need to be pursued (including criminally, in some cases), it is VERY – and I emphasize VERY – important that you have a full and factual understanding before going to QuestBridge, law enforcement, the involved universities, your high school’s administrators, etc. Therefore, an informal discussion with a knowledgable GC might be a reasonable initial step; s/he can potentially “de-myth” the situation, provide accurate information regarding QuestBridge’s strictures, and so forth. However, s/he probably cannot – and should not – divulge any information regarding your classmate and his/her family.

8

@MommaJ (re post #4) and @HappyDaze (re post 5):

Isn’t it a citizenship responsibility to assist law enforcement (and, potentially, this situation could obviously include felonious fraud)? If I see an unknown individual lurking around a neighbor’s home during the “wee small hours,” aren’t I morally obliged to do something, such as notifying the authorities (they can investigate and determine – let us hope – that it’s only a guest having a smoke (do people still smoke? :wink: ) beyond the residence’s walls)? In my foregoing post to this thread (#6), I recommended the youngster discuss this with a knowledgable adult, before going any further. However, suggesting the kid should be uninvolved because “it isn’t his business,” in my opinion ignores fundamental good citizenship.

I’m sure you’ll recall Edmund Burke’s vital and instructive quotation: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

9

All that’s necessary is to make an anonymous tip to the QB authorities. It’s helpful to include any number of points that may help them direct their efforts, but, ultimately it’s up to them to monitor their own program as stringently as they see fit.

I completely agree with TopTIer in that this is every citizen’s responsibility and feel sorry for the people who can’t tell the difference between that and putting your nose in someone else’s business.

10

Gosh, I have to strenuously disagree with the foregoing comments. I don’t think it’s every citizen’s responsibility to assist law enforcement, and personal experiences and recent history has shown that law enforcement doesn’t always deal fairly and routinely with everyone the same way. That aside, though, this is decidedly not a law enforcement matter. The OP’s goal isn’t to stop someone from committing a crime, although (in the unlikely event that this family committed felony fraud) that might be a side effect. The OP simply thinks it’s unfair that this person’s family is eligible for Questbridge.

The thing is, though, that the QB website explicitly states that family income is not the only think they take into consideration when determining financial need of a family. They also take into account household assets and circumstances, like extraordinary medical bills or changes to household income. In fact, the OP is mistaken when he says that Questbridge was “designed for kids under the poverty line” - the program simply says that most (but not all!) successful finalists have family incomes of less than $60,000, which isn’t anywhere close to the poverty line for a family of four. They collect financial documentation of all claimed circumstances, including family assets and household circumstances. So unless this family went to great lengths to falsify information to QB (which would take more effort than simply paying for college, especially if they are as wealthy as you say), QB knows about their $3,000 apartment and the two “perfectly functional parents”

Not everyone QB eligible comes from a single-parent home, and in a lot of cities, a $3,000 apartment is just the bare minimum to house a family of four. I lived in New York for 6 years and wouldn’t assume a family of at least four with a $2,700/month apartment was rich. In some neighborhoods you can’t even get a two-bedroom apartment for that much. IN fact, nothing you said indicates that this person and their family is QB ineligible. The simple presence of a $3,000 apartment

Besides, how do you know that the family has no problems whatsoever? Perhaps they are better at hiding it than you would anticipate. You’re jumping to all kinds of conclusions, assuming that the logical next step that the schools would take is to rescind acceptances and that this student took away a spot from another deserving student. Perhaps he or she is a deserving student, and because you are not familiar with all of the ins and outs of this student’s family situation, you’re making the presumptuous assumption he/she is not.

That said, I think that if you really have a bone to pick and/or truly believe this family falsified information that you should drop QB a tip. However, an anonymous tip is unlikely to be effective, as personally if I were working for a program and someone called me claiming that a family falsified information but refused to give their name and how they know this information, I’d dismiss it as envy or retaliation for some perceived slight. I think it’s far more effective if you tell them who you are and how you come to know the information - in other words, why you are a credible witness.

11

And its not like the kid in question is taking a spot away from a Questbridge student. For the student to be admitted through RD, it means he wasn’t matched with a college in the National College Match, i.e no guaranteed full-ride. Also, the Ivy League universities ask students to submit a Common App, and review the Questbridge app simply as a supplement. For the student to get into those universities, he did so on his own, not because of any award from Questbridge.

12

@juillet I’m glad you ultimately agree that this is not a law enforcement issue.

Programs have an obligation to do reasonable followup on tips they receive lest they, themselves, become part of the alleged issue. You will find that in every well run program, and there should be no assumption that anonymous tips are themselves baseless.

13

I wouldn’t worry about it. At our school. a white girl with a physician dad and not only parents with advanced degrees but grandparents with college degrees (on both sides!) made it to the semi-finals. They have an odd way of choosing that is hard to decipher.

14

@juillet (re post #9):

With respect for your many excellent posts, I disagree. I thought posts #6 and #7 made it essentially clear that my shorthand use of “law enforcement” also included other “authorities,” ranging from QuestBridge to the high school’s officials (see post #6 for a more comprehensive list).

That minor matter aside, fraud is: “deliberate deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain.” The fact that a prosecution doesn’t – and probably shouldn’t – occur and/or that a conviction isn’t secured does NOT make the submission of knowingly false information to win QuestBridge-founded admission advantages and financial assistance any less fraudulent.

The “authorities” (law enforcement included) are not omnipresent (the costs alone would be prohibitive); this means that “we the people” have a responsibility to assist in the maintenance of a lawful society. Failure to fulfill this duty inadvertently furthers criminal activity, whereas cooperation helps to deter it.

Let’s presume for a moment that the OP’s original assertions have merit (obviously, we don’t know that to be true) AND that they are clear violations of QuestBridge’s policies. In that scenario, an undeserving individual receives QuestBridge’s substantial advantages AND – more important – a deserving student does not (it’s a “zero sum game,” there is a finite amount of QuestBridge FA available in any academic year). Is that fair, moral, or legal? I don’t believe it is, and I additionally believe that “we the people” have an ethical obligation to attempt to stop such wrongdoing, especially because it clearly harms highly-deserving kids who truly require assistance.

15

@TopTier, there is no Questbridge FA. Questbridge is simply a program that assists kids in the application process to schools through their very extensive application. They do not provide ANY money to the students, the schools give the students need based FA, the same as any FA qualifying student that applied through the Common App.

16

@HappyDaze: Thank you. I suspect, however, that QuestBridge finalist/winner/etc. stature both enhances the probability of highly-selective admission and of concomitant need-based grants, does it not?

17

It simply identifies the student as a high achieving, lower income student to the schools. Their application is basically a supplement to the common app that allows the student to give more information about themselves or any life adversities, if any, to the schools.

18

My nephew was a QB Finalist who didn’t match. He is attending a school that uses FAFSA to determine aid. There was no special grant because he happened to be a QB Finalist.

It sounds like the kid the OP is describing didn’t match either. I don’t understand what “benefit” the OP thinks this kid is getting. QB isn’t funding anything.

19

Perhaps most important to this discussion is that Harvard, Princeton, and Yale have need-blind admissions policies. Questbridge Finalist status had nothing to do with the student being admitted. The only advantage QB conferred was, in some cases, a streamlined application process and, presumably, application fee waivers. SAT/ACT/SAT II scores and high school transcripts, teacher recommendations, and essays were required.

The QB partner schools that my son applied to required two years of tax returns, the associated W-2s, and a completed CSS Profile for FA consideration.

20

There is a huge difference between reporting known fraud and deciding, based on appearances, that fraud has been committed. Unless the OP knows everything about this kid and his/her family, his accusations are baseless and it is also immoral to make an anonymous tip just to harass someone. I highly doubt the guidance counselor would support an application based on known fraud.