<p>A neighbor’s daughter told me about her friend in another state who accepted a full-ride scholarship to a lower ranked public university. Her friend had been wait-listed at an Ivy and couldn’t afford to attend the very good public flagship in her own state. Her friends assume she’s either attending the Ivy or her state flagship. She doesn’t directly lie about where she attends, but when the question of college comes up among her high school friends, she never mentions where she actually attends; she just tells them that college is going well. She’s apparently found her niche and is quite satisfied with her day-to-day social and academic life at her school, however, as she’s in the honors program, is already doing research with a professor, etc. and she has no plans to transfer. Yet, she’s either embarrassed about where she ended up or in some sort of denial about it.
Any comments or similar stories?</p>
<p>That is sad! Especially in her case, when things are apparently going well at her chosen school.
At least that is better than the girl who just couldn’t tell her parents that she had not been accepted by Stanford, so she moved to Stanford, moved into an empty dorm room and started attending classes. Of course she got caught, but it took a few months. She never had a dorm key, so she had to go in and out the window to her room.</p>
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<p>Maybe her “friends” are insufferable snobs? In which case, it’s good that she is now in a different state from them.</p>
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I often wonder how accurate friend-of-a-friend reports are. It would be hard to believe a student in today’s connected age attends some unknown college.</p>
<p>*the girl who just couldn’t tell her parents that she had not been accepted by Stanford, so she moved to Stanford, moved into an empty dorm room and started attending classes. Of course she got caught, but it took a few months. She never had a dorm key, so she had to go in and out the window to her room. *</p>
<p>What? Did this really happen? Is there a link to a story about this? Unbelievable.</p>
<p>*I often wonder how accurate friend-of-a-friend reports are. It would be hard to believe a student in today’s connected age attends some unknown college. *</p>
<p>I agree that this would be a difficult secret to keep these days. She would have to rely on family and those who know to keep her secret. </p>
<p>however, it does speak to what happens these days when friends/classmates “assume” that a student is going to go to a top school, so to say otherwise can be hard to do.</p>
<p>[Palo</a> Alto Online : Fake student spends eight months at Stanford](<a href=“Fake student spends eight months at Stanford | News | Palo Alto Online |”>Fake student spends eight months at Stanford | News | Palo Alto Online |)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.stanforddaily.com/2007/06/14/imposter-caught-2/[/url]”>http://www.stanforddaily.com/2007/06/14/imposter-caught-2/</a></p>
<p>Thanks for the link, Shrinkrap! It really is an amazing story. I always wondered what the conversation with her parents was like on the day she finally returned home.</p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>
<p>*Friends aren’t sure of her motive for sneaking onto campus and living a lie, but many speculate that she felt pressure from overbearing parents to attend Stanford – regardless of whether she was admitted.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>*The Stanford Daily Thursday identified the impostor as Azia Kim, 18, a graduate of the competitive Troy High School in Fullerton, in Orange County. The Daily reported that Kim moved into the dorms during new-student orientation and developed friendships and even found roommates. She pretended she was a sophomore majoring in human biology and bought textbooks and studied with friends, even though she would never take a test, the Daily reported. Kim declined to comment when contacted by the Daily unless the newspaper agreed to withhold her name.</p>
<p>“I think something’s definitely wrong with the system if this could happen,” Amy Zhou, one of Kim’s roommates in the Okada dorm, said of the ruse. Zhou told the Daily she did not feel safe now and felt the university needs to look at its security protocols. </p>
<p>The Daily reported that Kim began her deception Sept. 18, 2006, the day before new-student orientation.** She convinced two residents of Kimball dorm that she was a freshman who did not have housing due to a technical mix up. They let her sleep in their room in the 210-resident dorm and she divided her time between her room and the Kimball lounge through most of the fall and winter quarters.**</p>
<p>“It’s kind of impressive how she was able to figure everything out and trick so many people,” a resident assistant at Okada told the Daily.</p>
<p>Without a key or Stanford identification, **Kim was forced to sneak into meals and climb into her room at Okada through an unlocked window. Zhou told the Daily that Kim took the screen off the window and always left the windows wide open and the blinds up. **“I just guessed she always wanted a breezy room,” Zhou said.</p>
<p>The end of the deception began last Sunday when a resident assistant at Okada, Soo Kim, became suspicious and e-mailed campus housing on Monday. Zhou reported that Kim even broke into her e-mail account and deleted e-mails from housing inquiring about Kim being there. Kim pretended to move out early Monday evening but actually hid her clothes in the closet.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>I know her high school…it’s known as Troy Tech in Fullerton. The school was dropping in enrollment until they made a portion of the school into a “high tech” school (without traditional boundaries) and then lots of smart kids in the area wanted to go there. </p>
<p>I wonder if her parents gave her money for her tuition and stuff…or maybe she told them she had a scholarship or something.</p>
<p>Looks like a grad student did this as well…</p>
<p>*It was also revealed to The Daily that for the last four years Elizabeth Okazaki had attended graduate physics seminars, used offices reserved for doctoral and post-doctoral physics students and – for all intents and purposes made the Varian Physics Lab her home.
*</p>
<p>In the '70/'80’s there was a kid that did this at Princeton, but he lasted until about the Junior or Senior year. He even bickered and joined an Eating Club, Tower Club. He was very popular among his classmates.</p>
<p>^^^^^^ Erin’s Dad, one would think so, but it’s not implausible that someone doesn’t know where casual friends ended up going to college. Even when I ask my own daughter where some of her high school friends are attending college, she doesn’t always know with certainty. The last she heard, they were applying to such and such colleges. And, these might be people with whom she has some level of online contact.</p>
<p>“I agree that this would be a difficult secret to keep these days. She would have to rely on family and those who know to keep her secret.”</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, my impression was that she didn’t actively try to keep her school a secret. She just doesn’t mention what school she attends and gives very general replies when her friends ask her how school is going. Apparently, her friends haven’t asked her specifically and she doesn’t correct their assumption that she must be attending some other school. It’s sort of a DADT approach.</p>
<p>More on the Princeton kid that snuck in:</p>
<p>Showed up in what was supposed to be his “junior year.” Claimed to have studied abroad sophomore year and missed Bicker. He was allowed to petition in to the Tower Club eating club. Had sex with nearly every girl in the club and never paid his bills (good deal). He was arrested the night of the “formal” Tower Club party in December of his Junior year.</p>