Maybe, and in my view, PR reps interference just makes things appear a bit worse. The way I think about this is that if I was Sty teacher who wrote Mohammed's

Maybe, and in my view, PR reps interference just makes things appear a bit worse. The way I think about this is that if I was Sty teacher who wrote Mohammed's college recommendations, I would be very uneasy right now and think really hard about what I do next. If they really like the kid and believe in him, they may leave it as is and perhaps write it off to youthful indiscretion or lack of life experience (and there is a ton of that, starting with choice of friends - Kazakh "oligarch" heir made me puke on the inside a couple of times). On the other hand, they may be worried about their reputation with college adcoms' and really smart talented kids they write recommendations for in the future. Bottom line - they may be inclined to write a retraction. I just fail to see this in a positive light. At the end of the day, when you stack up with a ton of other smart talented kids (as is 100% the case at Sty and with credible applicants at all top schools), intangibles like judgement, view and character become really important. He unfortunately failed on those just at the time when colleges are rolling out their decisions. I, perhaps naively, refuse to believe that duping a reporter with lies would give you any good credibility.