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<p>I thought this was a very witty line.</p>
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<p>I completely agree. The Shadow Scholar, however unethical his practices may be, deserves to be where he is for his intellect. He’s just getting by like everyone else.</p>
<p>The Shadow Scholar and even the students that pay him are just symptoms. This is the fault of capitalism and society as a whole.</p>
<p>If his writing could be made into Meryl Streep movies, why isn’t he in Hollywood right now? He says he’s driven by the money too. Why be enslaved for 66K?</p>
<p>I don’t doubt his story completely. He’s a great writer, but little bits like the above make me question the validity of the details he used for his sensational piece.</p>
<p>His clients are lazy good-for-nothing bums, but hes a flat out genius. But i agree with another poster on here, if his clients are as desperate as he paints them to be, he should be charging more money. I hate cheating, but I can’t blame him too much. Most of the blame lies on the students. In college you have to write 70 page papers??? Man, Im gonna have to work on my BSing skills. And I thought college was laid-back…</p>
<p>This does not only happen in America, I’m from Thailand and has a friend studying a BA in English Literature, she responds to every question with yes. A third grader speaks better English than her, and she’s completing a BA. The thing is poorer universities around here want students regardless - it’s the money issue, low the CR SAT requirement to 400 (I know, utterly ridiculous), and admit whoever is willing to pay.</p>
<p>I know of several well regarded professionals who paid to have someone do the work for their PhD’s. I also think it is obvious when so many idiots are running around with great credentials. These are the same people who will take credit for other employee’s work down the road. They have no concern for anyone but their self. It is a sad, sad world of unfair competition. This might be one reason a growing number of people are advocating young people to forgo college and go out and prove yourself in the real world.</p>
<p>Hahahahaha, I like this guy!</p>
<p>Personally, I like his style. He gets paid to write papers for students that, as he said in the article, are either lazy rich kids, international students that are not proficient in English, or a few others. He gets paid to write anything. It’s an open and shut deal.</p>
<p>Is this any surprise though? Are we really THAT surprised that America’s education system is messed up? We knew education in America was a problem for a long time. Some students don’t quit and dropout from college, they find someone to help them cheat so they can graduate. This person who writes papers for college students is one of many people who do the exact same thing. However, he may be a more extreme case since he does it for a living.</p>
<p>The solution: The guy doesn’t have to be busted. However, more money needs to be invested in Education. </p>
<p>“Hm…that sounds too vague…where would you start finishmydrink?”</p>
<p>Well, I would start with trying to help international students learn English at a proficient level as SOON as they enter college. If you read this guy’s article closely, you could have probably deducted that his customer (the one whose texts he kept quoting throughout the duration of the article) was grammatically challenged and sounded like English was her second language. By helping international students such as herself learn English well, perhaps she could have done the paper herself and pulled off a decent grade.</p>
<p>“But what about the other lazy kids?”</p>
<p>Psh, lazy kids WILL be lazy. Especially lazy rich kids. However, rest assured that there is no way to stop these types of kids from cheating. You CAN try to find the person that helped them cheat, but will it really stop them from cheating again? You can penalize them, but will they ALL do their own work from that day forward?</p>
<p>I think it strange that everyone wants to blame capitalism for the world’s evils. If not for capitalism, then there would be no expensive institutions of higher learning. You cannot rid the world of unethical and/or lazy people by destroying capitalism.</p>
<p>^My thoughts exactly. I just didn’t feel like arguing. :)</p>
<p>I’m really not surprised that this happens. I mean I know it happens at my HS. Not online, but people have other people do work for them.</p>
<p>$66k?! That sounds like an AWFUL job for $66k/year</p>
<p>^Yeah I agree. He is basically a slave locked up in a room writing papers, or at least thats the way he portrayed the job. Writing long papers in very little time can be one of the most unpleasant things one can undertake.</p>
<p>Wow. It’s such a scary thought that these incapable people will be in the work force with important jobs.</p>
<p>If he was pulling in a couple hundred thousand from this, it would be nice, but I’d hate to do his job for this kind of money… I guess it partially depends on where he lives too.</p>
<p>That being said, I think he writes like a cocky newspaper columnist.</p>
<p>Fascinating article. Thank you. This and the Harvard-Yale game has really made my night. </p>
<p>If I recall, I often would sometimes write papers for my sister (who is in high school). She would pay me, and I would get to work. And usually, they are A papers. It’s not that she can’t write the paper herself, but rather, it is that she is loaded up with so many APs that she would contract out less important work to me. </p>
<p>Am I paid handsomely for it? Not really. I can’t imagine doing something like this as a real job. It sounds like a miserable existence. But, you can’t deny that he has a great style of writing…</p>
<p>The education system relies too much on page numbers and word counts. That is my view.</p>
<p>Wow, he gets paid garbage for how much work he does. Writing papers all day every day is grueling.</p>
<p>$66,000 is nothing for what he is doing.</p>
<p>Unless… someone wrote that whole article for him.</p>
<p><em>dun dun dun</em></p>
<p>[PayScale</a> - Houghton Mifflin Company Employer Salary, Average Salaries by Years Experience](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Houghton_Mifflin_Company/Salary/by_Years_Experience]PayScale”>Average Houghton Mifflin Company Salary in 2023 | PayScale)</p>
<p>Though he actually isn’t getting underpaid compared to say if he was working at a large publishing firm such as Houghton Mifflin.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t take that job for $200,000 a year.</p>