QUOTE
A former Yale student has been charged with deceiving the Ivy League school to gain admission.
For about a year, Akash Maharaj lived in Morse College, a residential college at Yale University.
Maharah was arrested in September and charged with forgery and larceny for allegedly taking a year's worth of financial aid from Yale.
He is accused of submitting a fake transcript from Columbia University and a fake letter of recommendation.
Jeffrey Brenzel, the Dean of Admissions, said cases of suspected fraud in the application process are rare.
In a statement, he said that every applicant "signs a statement on the application to the effect that the information contained is accurate and the student's own work."
"The penalty for making fraudulent statements in an application is recession of admission," Brenzel said.
He said the university receives close to 23,000 applications for freshmen admission and 800 transfer applications.
Reaction from students was mixed.
"I know students fib about things that they've done and exaggerate, but totally lying to get into a school like Yale is just wrong," John Carlos, a sophomore, said.
"If I had been able to do it without actually having to do any work, might not have been such a bad thing," Meghan Fashjin, a graduate student, said. "Clearly he's talented; somebody should hire the guy."
One student said Yale admissions should have been more careful, but with more than 23,000 applications they are bound to take at least some at face value.
"No system's perfect, anybody can get away with anything really if they try hard enough," Dan Dwyer of New Haven said.
Maharah is due in court Monday.
For about a year, Akash Maharaj lived in Morse College, a residential college at Yale University.
Maharah was arrested in September and charged with forgery and larceny for allegedly taking a year's worth of financial aid from Yale.
He is accused of submitting a fake transcript from Columbia University and a fake letter of recommendation.
Jeffrey Brenzel, the Dean of Admissions, said cases of suspected fraud in the application process are rare.
In a statement, he said that every applicant "signs a statement on the application to the effect that the information contained is accurate and the student's own work."
"The penalty for making fraudulent statements in an application is recession of admission," Brenzel said.
He said the university receives close to 23,000 applications for freshmen admission and 800 transfer applications.
Reaction from students was mixed.
"I know students fib about things that they've done and exaggerate, but totally lying to get into a school like Yale is just wrong," John Carlos, a sophomore, said.
"If I had been able to do it without actually having to do any work, might not have been such a bad thing," Meghan Fashjin, a graduate student, said. "Clearly he's talented; somebody should hire the guy."
One student said Yale admissions should have been more careful, but with more than 23,000 applications they are bound to take at least some at face value.
"No system's perfect, anybody can get away with anything really if they try hard enough," Dan Dwyer of New Haven said.
Maharah is due in court Monday.
... now that I think about it, it's really not that hard to fake a transcript. All you need is good editing skills and a copy of your actual transcript and an envelope with your university's letterhead - and that's available everywhere.
