Conning Harvard

Adam Wheeler, The Con Artist Who Faked His Way Into The Ivy League

By: Julie Zauzmer, Xi Yu

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Hardcover | 18 September 2012

At a Glance

Hardcover
240 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3

Hardcover

$42.25

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In a Massachusetts court last year, a 24-year-old man pled guilty to falsifying his application to Harvard, thereby bilking the world's most prestigious university out of more than $45,000 in prizes and scholarships and cheating an honest applicant out of an Ivy League diploma. Using forged SAT scores, transcripts, and letters of recommendation, Wheeler outsmarted Harvard's admissions office. Once accepted to Harvard, he kept lying, cheating, and succeeding, winning thousands of dollars in prizes and grants. But then he shot too far. During his senior year at Harvard, Wheeler applied for nomination to the illustrious Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships, a gamble that finally exposed his extensive tangle of lies. Alerted that he was under suspicion, Wheeler fled Harvard but did not stop scamming universities. He successfully filed more fraudulent applications at top-tier schools across the country, until some vigilant admissions officers, Massachusetts police, and even his own parents forced him off his computer and into court. As reporters for The Harvard Crimson, Julie Zauzmer and Xi Yu covered the case from the moment the news of Wheeler's indictment broke. In the course of their reporting, they interviewed dozens of friends, roommates, teachers, and advisors who knew Wheeler at the many phases of his suspect academic career. Their fascinating account reveals how one serial scammer took on the fast-paced and competitive world of the Ivy League-and almost won.ÿ

Industry Reviews

''Conning Harvard proves that what I did over 40 years ago is 4,000 times easier to do today due to technology. Technology breeds crime and makes replicating documents and falsifying paper child's play. This, added with the fact that we live in an extremely unethical society that doesn't teach ethics at home and doesn't teach ethics at school because the teacher would be accused of teaching morality, has brought us today to a country full of Adam Wheelers. For those who are naive, a must read."-Frank W. Abagnale, author of Catch Me If You Can and expert consultant on forgery, embezzlement, and secure documents". . . the bizarre nature of the case is hook enough." --Publishers Weekly Zauzmer's well-researched book is practically a how-to guide for scamming a college admissions process...To report on the extent of Wheeler's fraud, Zauzmer scrutinizes the college admissions system even more carefully than her subject did... --Philadelphia Inquirer The startling revelations about Wheeler's exploits accumulate so quickly in Julie Zauzmer's ripping 'Conning Harvard' that at times this meticulously reported nonfiction narrative reads like a potboiler." -The Washington Post "A handbook for teens on how not to get into Harvard--and, perhaps, a reminder that Harvard isn't infallible." --Booklist

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