5 ms·

The previous university I worked at had a problem even one level more sophisticated. The school had a lot of international students, mainly from China and the M

The previous university I worked at had a problem even one level more sophisticated. The school had a lot of international students, mainly from China and the Middle East. Mostly these were children of rich (but not obscenely rich) parents and often not particularly smart (the school was not super highly ranked). Now the ghostwriting was also an issue, but that theoretically still can be caught (and it was from time to time). One way to do that was requiring in person exams and you always had to cary your uni I'd for the exams. However, what the University administration realised is that there were some students essentially hired someone at the beginning of their studies to impersonate them at registration, where they got their photo taken. The "impersonator" would then complete the full studies for the student. Now you need to id yourself at registration, however if the hired person looked somewhat similar it would just go through.

csomar 6y ago
Unless he finds someone who looks really similar, these international students should bring their passports/F1 visas? My guess is that the administration is turning a blind-eye because of the international $$.
- the_svd_doctor 6y ago
  Agreed. Seems like the admins would be onto it. The whole Sevis/F-1 should make this completely impossible.
  - cycomanic 6y ago
    I know it's popular to blame malice on part of organisations, but I don't think it's in the interest of the school to overlook this. In fact I heard about this in a discussion/information saying how this was a problem and what to do about it. Yes they require a passport at registration, but it's difficult to decide for an admin who sees someone for 2 min and looks at the passport for maybe 10s that that person is not the person on the passport. Especially so if you are not expecting it and the person comes from a different background (we struggle more with distinguishing people from other ethnicities) I think this is how they got wind of the scheme though, someone got suspicious.
fma 6y ago
You'd think if someone scored low on TOEFL and SAT English, but their essays were a literature work of art..it would raise red flags.
- nordsieck 6y ago
  > You'd think if someone scored low on TOEFL and SAT English, but their essays were a literature work of art..it would raise red flags. Nah - university is full of people who desperately want standardized tests to be worthless.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- AniseAbyss 6y ago
  In my country universities get money for foreign students. In fact more than they get for local students from the government. This is also the reason why universities switched to English in the 1990s. Yes long term this can damage your reputation but in capitalism nobody cares.
  - JPLeRouzic 6y ago
    In France since the 1990" roughly one third of the university students are foreigners with a higher proportion in PhD studies (41%) than in bachelor studies (11%) [0]. [0] https://publication.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/eesr/7/EESR7_ES_13-les_etudiants_etrangers_dans_l_enseignement_superieur.php https://publication.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/eesr/7...
- RileyJames 6y ago
  Often these platform ask what grade you’d like the work performed to. You can pay for Bs if you’re worried about being caught.
- cycomanic 6y ago
  This was largely a technical university. I also doubt that the hired students were getting top scores. That often was not the goal, for those privaledged kids, getting a foreign degree almost certainly guaranteed a cushy job back home. The grades didn't matter too much.
throwaway0a5e 6y ago
Same sex siblings close in age have been doing this since forever. One sibling takes the same class twice, once for themselves, one for the other.
TrackerFF 6y ago
I heard rumors about similar stuff when I was a student - but not to that extent, that you had someone impersonate someone for the whole semester. In majors with huge classes, no compulsory attendance, and schools where ID cards don't require a picture - this was apparently a thing. Some people would simply hire people to take the exam for them. Obviously this wouldn't fly in a small class with 15-20 students or so, but very feasible in classes with 200-300 students, and where the exams are also open to previous year students.
u678u 6y ago
I had a small class in engineering and was surprised at the exam time to see a few faces I hadn't seen all year. I assumed it must be people coming back to sit a second time or something. I'm so Naive.
- jakeinspace 6y ago
  Plenty of students who don’t show up to a single lecture
spiritplumber 6y ago
I was doing some genetic algorithm research at UO and I was approached by some kid who basically demanded that I do one of his electronics projects. I got some details, reported him to his academic advisor, and was then told that he was the son of one of the diplomats in town and that nothing could really be done. So I agreed to help him do the project. He took that to mean that I would do it for him, he did no work and didn't show up on 2 of the 3 times that we had scheduled to work on it together. And then he got mad at me when the project literally caught fire because of an absolutely obvious short that I put there on purpose to see if he'd catch it. I told him that if he couldn't be arsed to write the schematic he should at least have read it. (This was between 10 and 15 years ago, and all this guy had to do was look at the breadboard for 2 minutes)
- yellowcake0 6y ago
  I'm not sure I understand, why did you agree to help him, did he have some sort of leverage over you?
  - fuzxi 6y ago
    Sounds like there was no way to punish him through proper channels, so GP decided to punish him with his own hubris.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - spiritplumber 6y ago
      Yeah, petty revenge, basically :) I put a nichrome wire, in yellow plastic cover, between Vcc and Gnd. I told him to ensure that the circuit matched the schematic. He didn't remove the wire, so once he powered the thing up, it caught fire. I don't know if the circuit worked with it removed (it should have, but I wasn't present when the assignment was due).
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

csomar 6y ago

Unless he finds someone who looks really similar, these international students should bring their passports/F1 visas? My guess is that the administration is turning a blind-eye because of the international $$.

the_svd_doctor 6y ago
Agreed. Seems like the admins would be onto it. The whole Sevis/F-1 should make this completely impossible.
- cycomanic 6y ago
  I know it's popular to blame malice on part of organisations, but I don't think it's in the interest of the school to overlook this. In fact I heard about this in a discussion/information saying how this was a problem and what to do about it. Yes they require a passport at registration, but it's difficult to decide for an admin who sees someone for 2 min and looks at the passport for maybe 10s that that person is not the person on the passport. Especially so if you are not expecting it and the person comes from a different background (we struggle more with distinguishing people from other ethnicities) I think this is how they got wind of the scheme though, someone got suspicious.

fma 6y ago

You'd think if someone scored low on TOEFL and SAT English, but their essays were a literature work of art..it would raise red flags.

nordsieck 6y ago
> You'd think if someone scored low on TOEFL and SAT English, but their essays were a literature work of art..it would raise red flags. Nah - university is full of people who desperately want standardized tests to be worthless.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
AniseAbyss 6y ago
In my country universities get money for foreign students. In fact more than they get for local students from the government. This is also the reason why universities switched to English in the 1990s. Yes long term this can damage your reputation but in capitalism nobody cares.
- JPLeRouzic 6y ago
  In France since the 1990" roughly one third of the university students are foreigners with a higher proportion in PhD studies (41%) than in bachelor studies (11%) [0]. [0] https://publication.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/eesr/7/EESR7_ES_13-les_etudiants_etrangers_dans_l_enseignement_superieur.php https://publication.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/eesr/7...
RileyJames 6y ago
Often these platform ask what grade you’d like the work performed to. You can pay for Bs if you’re worried about being caught.
cycomanic 6y ago
This was largely a technical university. I also doubt that the hired students were getting top scores. That often was not the goal, for those privaledged kids, getting a foreign degree almost certainly guaranteed a cushy job back home. The grades didn't matter too much.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago

Same sex siblings close in age have been doing this since forever. One sibling takes the same class twice, once for themselves, one for the other.

TrackerFF 6y ago

I heard rumors about similar stuff when I was a student - but not to that extent, that you had someone impersonate someone for the whole semester. In majors with huge classes, no compulsory attendance, and schools where ID cards don't require a picture - this was apparently a thing. Some people would simply hire people to take the exam for them. Obviously this wouldn't fly in a small class with 15-20 students or so, but very feasible in classes with 200-300 students, and where the exams are also open to previous year students.

u678u 6y ago

I had a small class in engineering and was surprised at the exam time to see a few faces I hadn't seen all year. I assumed it must be people coming back to sit a second time or something. I'm so Naive.

jakeinspace 6y ago
Plenty of students who don’t show up to a single lecture

spiritplumber 6y ago

I was doing some genetic algorithm research at UO and I was approached by some kid who basically demanded that I do one of his electronics projects. I got some details, reported him to his academic advisor, and was then told that he was the son of one of the diplomats in town and that nothing could really be done. So I agreed to help him do the project. He took that to mean that I would do it for him, he did no work and didn't show up on 2 of the 3 times that we had scheduled to work on it together. And then he got mad at me when the project literally caught fire because of an absolutely obvious short that I put there on purpose to see if he'd catch it. I told him that if he couldn't be arsed to write the schematic he should at least have read it. (This was between 10 and 15 years ago, and all this guy had to do was look at the breadboard for 2 minutes)

yellowcake0 6y ago
I'm not sure I understand, why did you agree to help him, did he have some sort of leverage over you?
- fuzxi 6y ago
  Sounds like there was no way to punish him through proper channels, so GP decided to punish him with his own hubris.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - spiritplumber 6y ago
    Yeah, petty revenge, basically :) I put a nichrome wire, in yellow plastic cover, between Vcc and Gnd. I told him to ensure that the circuit matched the schematic. He didn't remove the wire, so once he powered the thing up, it caught fire. I don't know if the circuit worked with it removed (it should have, but I wasn't present when the assignment was due).

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]