mod (Andy) note: "Blast from the past - Best of Eddie" - This one is originally from May 2010. If there's an old post from Eddie you'd like to see up again shoot me a message.
You'd think creativity would count for something. Adam Wheeler, a 23-year old from Delaware, is being charged with larceny, identity theft, and fraud after faking his way into Harvard and taking the school for $45,000 in scholarships, grants, and financial aid. Step aside Jeffrey Chiang. Take a seat Aleksey Vayner. There's a new kid in the bullshitter's Cooperstown.
Wheeler didn't take any half-steps in his scam, either. He not only claimed to have earned a perfect academic record at Phillips Academy to gain admission to Harvard in 2007, he backed up the claim with a falsified transcript from MIT. He might have gotten away with it too, if he hadn't pushed the envelope by later applying for Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships.
"This defendant's actions cheated those who competed honestly and fairly for admissions and for the scholarships that this defendant fraudulently obtained," Leone said.
This kid falsified everything down to his place of employment and a recommendation from a fellow "employee". In a final ironic twist, he actually did attend Bowdoin College for two years before being thrown out for "academic dishonesty". No word on whether Harvard admissions is going to take their job a little more seriously after this.
You see, kids? Dreams really can come true if you want it bad enough and reach for the stars! I wouldn't be surprised to see a bidding war break out between Moody's and Standard and Poor's to hire this kid. He's definitely cut out to run a desk at a ratings agency.
I like your tag for this post: "impossible is nothing".
i would give a silver banana if i had one
That's too funny. I didn't even notice that. I've started using an SEO optimization program on my posts to generate more organic traffic for the site and it just analyzes my post and spits out the appropriate tags.
Think about that. Aleksey Vayner is so famous that the mere mention of his name makes an SEO program spit out, "Impossible is nothing". Now that's viral.
This is GREAT! I've been waiting for one of these for a while now, it's been a long drought since that cover letter guy. The drought's been rough, way too much Carl Levin and not nearly enough of this kind of thing. This will keep me occupied for a while now.
his dream was to run a $50 bil ponzi scheme
I don't know if you guys knew this but:
Harvard Admissions outsources their due-diligence to the Greek Government, and after it goes to Papandreou for a once over, he sends it to IKB to be double checked.
Looks like the kid saw "Catch Me if you Can" one too many times.
he just forgot to watch the end
Look what happens when you get greedy.
Yeah, but you gotta love the balls on this kid. I wonder if he got them at Fast Eddie's Nard Yard.
Exactly, greed did him in
I wonder how many kids actually get away with stuff like this... I mean we only hear about the ones that get caught.
This kid has cojones the size of grapefruits.
See there is a way for non targets to get into h/w/s!
what does that say about Harvard???
imagine if you got waitlisted at harvard the year he was accepted... and wtf is the difference at this point? he probably was a great student, bringing this back up just makes a lot of people pissed off
I was thinking the same thing. Yeah, he scammed his way in, but he had to have something going on upstairs to be able to stay there and be seriously considered for a Rhodes and a Fulbright. If I was the school I would have quietly busted him and made him rake leaves the rest of the time he was there. Does more damage to the brand to let something like this hit the papers.
I agree they should've kept it quiet, but I really don't think it would've worked...administrators are probably practical, but professors are usually not very practical people. they tend to be far more idealistic so I'd bet the professor who found it and reported it wouldn't let a minor punishment fly.
You know what, I bet you're 100% right.
i dont think this undermines harvard in any way, it was merely a slip up. im curious how he forged his transcripts, becuase from my understanding, the university needs to verify past enrollment (in this case at MIT), but that would mean that he had to have a SSN that was legit at MIT...right?
Successfully scamming your way into Harvard should get you into Harvard.
Agreed. It takes smarts (and balls) to do something like this. I wonder if he could have gotten in legit
I couldn't agree more.
If you read the full article, this kid was just another Jeffrey Chiang wannabe who lied about everything. Perfect A's at Harvard, perfect A's at MIT, and forged recommendation letters from professors. He got what he deserved.
His experience would make a great college admissions essay
he was only 2 weeks away from graduation, i kind of feel bad lol
how could he have been 2 weeks away from grad if he joined in 2007?
I would not be surprised if he is simply in the category of the 5% of the scammers who get caught at this while the other 95% get away with it.
Claiming you can speak "Old English"???
Claiming to be a student at MIT and interviewing at Bowdoin???
Writing letters from "MIT" professors who a simple Google search will show work at Bowdoin???
HONESTLY!!! HOW STUPID DO YOU HAVE TO BE BEFORE HARVARD CATCHES YOU IN A LIE???!!!
In any case, I plan on applying to Harvard's PhD Economics program next year claiming that I spent three years on the moon studying the economy of the lunar aliens.
heres his "resume":
http://gawker.com/5541765/the-talented-mr-wheeler-meet-the-kid-who-fake…
This is simply amazing. Probably not the first or last time this will happen though. Unbelievable what lengths people will go through.
Ballsy indeed - but should've quit while he was ahead. Would've been mostly if not completely safe after completing Harvard and just leaving the other stuff (MIT) out when applying for jobs and etc. He would then have a 'legit' Harvard diploma cert.
Reminds me of that girl who pretended to be a student at Stanford for almost a year... except more successful.
And the girl who plagerized a book (also from Harvard), got a book deal and then shit hit the fan... but still managed to get into a good law program at Georgetown, and will be summering at Sullivan & Cromwell (http://abovethelaw.com/2010/05/summer-associate-of-the-day-kaavya-viswa…). I don't know whether to be pissed that someone with a lack of character and ethics will likely become a successful lawyer (yes, I know, hold the snickers) or be incredibly impressed by the her willpower to crawl back out from the weight of the world and its scrutiny, and successfully turn her situation around.
If someone who has been smeared online for the world to see can end up in one of top law firms in the world. Then there's hope for the other Alekseys and Jeffreys and Adams too.
He seems to actually have won some of the shit on the resume.
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~secfas/2009_Hoopes_Winners_List.pdf
The thing is, if someone actually told me in an interview that they scammed their way into Harvard, but actually had a legitimate Harvard degree, I'd probably hire them. Why? Because it takes ballocks (big ones) to think about scamming Harvard. And it takes creativity to pull it off.
I wouldn't hire this particular kid, though, because it takes idiocy to continuously proliferate the scam. To be fair, after duping Harvard, he probably believed he could replicate his success, and if he focused on lesser prizes than the Rhodes, he might have.
I don't know--if he doesn't have a problem getting his FINRA licenses, he might make a decent trader. Basically, he doubled up on a winning trade, and circumstances went against him. That will happen to all of you wanna-be BSDs after you start taking risk. And this kid took major personal risk, so he clearly has a strong risk appetite.
If you're reading this, kid, send me a PM.
He will definitely have to pay for what he did but he was going to graduate with honors. What does that say about the admissions program? While I don't condone what he did, it is actually pretty funny that someone really did dupe their system and did just as well as those who have the big money.
online casino - This economy may not be conducive to gambling at an online casino but if there were more gambling allowed then the economy might not be that bad.
It's scary how so many people on here are praising his big balls, but not really questioning his ethics.
Why in the world would anyone want to hire this person, however smart they are. They will most likely find a way to scam you/back stab you. I wouldn't sleep comfortably at night.
If enough people like Wheeler are successful, capitalism will implode in the US. I hope every college student reads about what is happening to this guy and hopefully question whether the most important thing in life is success in and of itself.
Here's what fellow students at Cambridge Clown College have to say about it:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
..
he should be goldman ceo
Nothing surprises me anymore. Remember the dean of admissions at MIT who completely fabricated her resume?
exactly ... everyones doing it these days i want to know: how exactly did he fake everything? I wanna get into grad school... can someone write a step by step guide?
Wow. Here's another one:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_army_infiltrator
What the hell are these guys thinking???
How did he fake his transcripts?
It's like when someone works for 40 hours on a way to cheat on something, when if they would have done it legitimately it would have only taken them 5.
It's ironic how intellectually qualified some of these people are. It's a current day Frank William Abagnale, Jr. It takes a boat load of effort and skill to get some of this done...arguably more then it would take to get good grades.
My fist thought, which others have mentioned, was, how many people actually get away with this? And I don't mean a few tenths added onto a high school GPA or something. I am talking about complete fabrication.
I guess it's ponzi-eque in that you have to keep going to some extent. Obviously in ponzi schemes you have to HAVE to keep going or you will get caught. It seems that with these falsifiers they keep going because they are addicted to getting away with it and want to push the envelope.
Regards
On his resume, it mentions the "Bread Loaf School of English."
LOL...
A story about a guy who ALMOST had it all... I guess depending on how he did on a polygraph he may still have a shot with the CIA.... meh
What a perfect last name for this kid....
Still, this kid managed to get a 4.0 gpa from Harvard.
Yea...everyone I have ever known from Harvard said getting good grades there was 10X easier than doing so in high school...
Fitting that this thread was bumped. Kid just plead guilty: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7658578-adam-wheeler-harvard-…
That is impressive!
Hope the background checks at business firms are better than those at Harvard.
lol. brilliant
Lmao...crazy kid
This kid is either:
or
UPenn student scams Midwestern CEO:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/us-trader-gilliams-lawsuit-id…
I agree that there should be quiet, but really do not think it would have worked ... Sometime people in higher authority tends to be very Practical but not in this case....
Way to go Kid...except for getting caught. This is a great proxy for capitalism and the same thing that happens on Wall Street every single day. Once the payoff is big enough, capitalism asserts that people will compete for that prize and a portion of the population will stretch to unethical or illegal ways to get the reward.
Professional sports is another example. My dad always says "there were no steroids in my day". And I always reply that there was no payoff since everyone made about $50,000 and there we no huge yearly salaries. Once we reached the multi-million dollar a year deals, the cheating began.
This is capitalism at its best...and worst
Hahaha, i just saw this. Is that really a picture of you?
I see everyone here is trying to get the Goldman Sachs offer. I just wanted to know how does everyone feel about Goldman Sachs offer versus Mark Zuckerberg status?
He's a billionaire @ 26 and IBankers won't be billionaires unless you are David Rubenstein, Kravis, or Schwarzman and at a really OLD age.
any views?> just want to hear other thoughts!
if u had the option which one would u take, prestige or billionaire?
I see everyone here is trying to get the Goldman Sachs offer. I just wanted to know how does everyone feel about Goldman Sachs offer versus Mark Zuckerberg status?
He's a billionaire @ 26 and IBankers won't be billionaires unless you are David Rubenstein, Kravis, or Schwarzman and at a really OLD age.
any views?> just want to hear other thoughts!
if u had the option which one would u take, prestige or billionaire?
On the Wall Street: Money = Prestige.
Zuckerberg enjoys his job and banking jobs don´t make fun to most bankers.
The answer is clear.
Scamming a resume is dead easy if you let a professional guy do this.
bravo to that kid XD
i wonder how many people have tried this and succeeded?
wow, that's intense...
Hahahhahaahaha! Brilliabnt
lol
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