Conning Harvard: The True Story of the Con Artist Who Faked His Way into the Ivy League (Additional reporting)

191 Pages·2012·1.6 MB·English

by  Yu

CONNING HARVARD

CONNING HARVARD
Adam Wheeler, the Con Artist Who Faked
His Way into the Ivy League
J Z
ULIE AUZMER
With additional reporting by Xi Yu
Dedicated to all those who uphold Harvard’s standards
Copyright © 2012 by Julie Zauzmer
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for
permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and
Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.
Lyons Press is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.
Some of the reporting and research for this book was funded by and conducted
for The Harvard Crimson. Such materials are used here with permission.
Project editor: Meredith Dias
Layout: Mary Ballachino
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zauzmer, Julie.
Conning Harvard : Adam Wheeler, the con artist who faked his way into the
Ivy League / Julie Zauzmer ; with additional reporting by Xi Yu.
p. cm.
Summary: “Conning Harvard tells the story of Adam Wheeler’s lie-filled path
into Harvard, his compulsive conning of grant and scholarship boards after
enrolling, and the eventual discovery of his fraudulent past”—Provided by
publisher.
ISBN 978-0-7627-8743-2 (hardback)
1. Cheating (Education)—United States. 2. Wheeler, Adam (Adam B.) 3.
Harvard University—Students. 4. Harvard University—Funds and scholarships.
5. Swindlers and swindling—United States. I. Yu, Xi. II. Title.
LB3609.Z38 2012
378.1’98—dc23
2012018145
CONTENTS
Copyright
Introduction
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Acknowledgments
Endnotes
To indicate as explicitly as possible the instances where the author could
not know the exact words spoken by the participants in this story, some
dialogue in this book appears without quotation marks. That dialogue
should be read as the author’s effort, based on statements made by one or
more participants in each conversation, to reconstruct actual conversations
in the manner most faithful to the likely words exchanged between the
speakers.
INTRODUCTION
This book chronicles an academic fraud of stunning proportions. Over a period
of six years, Adam B. Wheeler tricked the smartest institutions in the country
time and time again. He plagiarized application essays to get into one of the
country’s best liberal arts colleges. He stole a Pulitzer Prize winner’s work to
win a poetry prize. Then he took on Harvard University—the world’s most
recognized institution of higher education, whose very name has meant prestige,
privilege, excellence, and exclusivity for centuries.
Adam Wheeler was an expert forger and a skillful liar with seemingly few
scruples about fabricating his academic credentials whenever the occasion arose.
In snagging admission to Harvard, he unfairly attained an honor that millions of
students worldwide dream of. In striving to scam institutions at the pinnacle of
higher education—Yale, Brown, Stanford, the Rhodes and Fulbright
scholarships, and more—he astonished the nation with the story of his audacity.
Many were outraged that he took a precious spot at Harvard that could have
gone to an honest applicant, not to mention thousands of dollars in prizes that
selection committees could have bestowed on deserving young scholars. Others
were impressed by his skillful cons or even smugly amused to see Harvard
outsmarted for once.
But whether one perceives him as the hero or the villain of his tale, this
ultimately is not about Adam Wheeler. His fraudulent path is extraordinary, but
on its own, his story is unimportant.
What is important is that high school students today face unprecedented
pressure when it comes to college admissions. What is important is that as many
as 14 percent of essays are plagiarized, 50 percent of transcripts are faked, and
90 percent of recommendation letters are forged among some groups of college
applicants. What is important is that a generation of teenagers, raised in an
educational system that emphasizes standardized testing and in an age of
abundant technological options for untruthfulness, cheats on tests and homework
with shocking frequency. As the pressure to win an ever-more-elusive ticket to a
top-tier college ratchets higher each year, college admissions could be facing a
crisis of honesty.
Far more than a victimless hoax, deception on an application is a violation of
ethical and often legal precepts that affects the larger community. In the absence
of integrity, a diploma is a meaningless piece of paper on the wall, a mockery of
true intellectual achievement. To anyone who has ever been tempted to inflate
some details on a résumé, to scribble answers on his hand or peek over her
classmate’s shoulder, to pass off writing downloaded from the Internet as
original, or to ink in a plus next to a grade on a transcript—this book is a
cautionary tale.
PROLOGUE
In the fall of 2009, life seemed to be going great for Harvard senior Adam
Wheeler. His friends knew him as a lanky 21-year-old with muscles that showed
his near-obsessive hours at the gym, a tall frame that made heads turn, and
penetratingly blue eyes that drew women to him at parties. He was respected
among his classmates as an academic all-star, working diligently for five or even
six classes at a time on a campus where the norm was four. He had won awed
recognition from his peers for the rare feat of winning Harvard’s top writing
prize as a junior.
Though quiet, he was part of a large circle of friends who threw parties and
played video games in their spacious suite. He had a steady girlfriend, an
attractive Wellesley undergrad whom he had met the previous spring. He could
frequently be found tossing a Frisbee across the courtyard of his dorm, Kirkland
House.
To all appearances, Wheeler was in an enviable position. He was not only
respected and well-liked among his peers, but also in a spot that students around
the world pine for. He was a Harvard student, part of the minuscule percentage
of applicants accepted each year. And in that rarified world of Harvard, Wheeler
had essentially reached his peak. As his senior year started, he was on top of his
game.
But one fall day in 2009, Wheeler was not playing Frisbee in Kirkland
courtyard. Rather, he was indoors, sitting formally in an office, and the flawless
identity he had built was about to come crashing down.
He did not know why the dean of Kirkland House had called him into his
office, but a summons from the resident dean typically was not a good omen.

It was about his applications for the Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships, Dean
Smith said. These were two of the most prestigious awards a graduating senior
could win. Based on the strength of his application materials, Wheeler had a
good shot at getting Harvard’s recommendation for one or both of them.
But what Dean David Smith said now was not, Congratulations. Instead, it
was, You plagiarized your essay.