<p>I wouldn’t exactly call it easy to forge those credentials. Obviously this young man has a real talent for doing this (however misguided it may be). I will say one thing, when I applied to Harvard (and I did get accepted, but chose not to go) they received tens of thousands of “perfect applicants.” The thing that people need to realize is that knowing how to do well on the SATs is not a particularly good indicator of success in an environment like that. So few people realize that their entire world (academically speaking) will be turned upside down with what they learn in their four years that it’s no longer a reasonable measure of success. That said, many applicants make it to the second stage of the application process and are quickly weeded out at that point. Why? Because the second part is where Harvard decides if you are 1) a good fit for the academic environment and 2) can you really handle the stress of the courses. This is usually done through a series of interview with alumni, recruiters, and other officials of the university. If you are a foreign student who can’t understand the basic questions being asked to you in a phone interview, do not expect to be pushed to the next stage. They are looking beyond simple numbers and test scores, as you would in their position. Many of their applicants look “perfect” on paper and then are found to be stretched so thin in their pursuits that they really don’t know what they want to do and have a cursory knowledge of the things they have studied. </p>
<p>Is a rejection from Harvard a measurements of your worth? No, it’s a measure of how 5-6 people at Harvard view your fit in that particular environment. Trust me, that environment is definitely not for everybody and I’m glad everyday I didn’t go there.</p>