Sometimes it's no better here in the west. I know of a situation where a Chinese student fabricated every source for a paper. Completely made up everything. The professor saw right through it immediately and failed her. But the university big wigs told the professor to give the student a passing grade. The student graduated university.
One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud
61–70 of 184 posts
Re: One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many universities aren't just about academics though. They wouldn't have things like, say, theatre clubs if they were. At some level, universities are about helping to prepare young people for life and a career. Certainly a lot of what I got out of the various degrees I obtained had very little to do with specific courses I took.
Yes, different clubs are common and beneficial, and there's a lot of growing taking place during your uni years. But the parent was linking to professional actors, and I fail to see any relation there. The topic wasn't about admissions to theatrical majors in art universities.
At least a couple of them were English Lit majors. But I don't really disagree that well-known actors who attended university off and on are really the best examples.
That said, you might be surprised at the number of people who even go to a school like MIT and end up in journalism or something else that isn't obviously related to what you associate the school with.
Re: One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud
#63The unstated assumption in this article is that only college graduates deserve to have a decent life.
Something I've heard from Chinese people online about the difference between the US and China is that in America, you could be a plumber/auto mechanic/skilled trades and still have a middle-income lifestyle and a decent amount of societal respect. In China, working with your hands puts you on the lower rungs in society, hence everyone wants to get into college.
That's in the past in the US. It was true until maybe 20-30 years ago.
China today seems to put bright people into improving manufacturing technology. There are PhD theses from China on electrolytic capacitor free switching power supply designs for LED lightbulbs. US academia would frown on something that practical.
Re: One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud
#64Sometimes it's no better here in the west. I know of a situation where a Chinese student fabricated every source for a paper. Completely made up everything. The professor saw right through it immediately and failed her. But the university big wigs told the professor to give the student a passing grade. The student graduated university.
IMO this whistle needs to be blown because as who knows how many dangerous engineers, doctors, or whatever other safety critical professions are being graduated.
Re: One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many universities aren't just about academics though. They wouldn't have things like, say, theatre clubs if they were. At some level, universities are about helping to prepare young people for life and a career. Certainly a lot of what I got out of the various degrees I obtained had very little to do with specific courses I took.
Yes, different clubs are common and beneficial, and there's a lot of growing taking place during your uni years. But the parent was linking to professional actors, and I fail to see any relation there. The topic wasn't about admissions to theatrical majors in art universities.
I would much rather learn from somebody who has done it professionally at a very high level than some academic (or worse, a wannabe academic) who is all theory and no results.
You see no value to taking a music theory class with a platinum artist in your discussions on song structure? Or maybe the rock star wants to expand his horizons a bit and is also in your Ethics class discussing the effect of Napster on his ability to afford tuition. Or maybe he sits next to you in Econ and wants to use his experience in the music biz as the basis for your group project. etc, etc...
Forget the exam nerds, I'll take the real players every time. YMMV
Re: One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud
#66What's nuts about this how tons of people from all levels of government/society participated in this conspiracy. It says a lot about the general attitude of Chinese people. (I'm chinese, btw)
I suspect the more corrupt the government the population of officials and their corruption level goes hand in hand.
But beyond that I'm not sure it has much to do with society as a whole.
Re: One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US has evolved a similar rigging for our privileged. We supply various obscure sports accolades that can be purchased for the children of wealthy families to obtain admission to our leading universities. Unfortunately our schemes have also been exposed and a number of people are being prosecuted. So for the moment one must resort to investing in rather costly facility construction or similar expansion projects wh…
It's even simpler than that, the US has a codified system of nepotism in place called legacy admissions, which has been in place for several decades [1]. > In a deposition, Rakesh Khurana, dean of the college, said a legacy preference can foster another kind of diversity: placing people with deep Harvard experience alongside those without it. They refer to nepotism as "deep Harvard experience", that's the only differ…
I view the legacy stuff as a but more nuanced. Universities want to admit people that really want to go there, and that will increase their prestige later through some combination of espousing the benefits of that school, becoming famous, or becoming successful. It's not hard to see how the legacy systems tick a few of these boxes automatically, making those candidates seem slightly better than others (if nothing else, the candidate probably really wants this as their college over any other choices, and will likely have more pressure from self and family to complete college and do well).
The problem then, as I see it, is not legacy consideration helping people get admitted, but legacy considerations overriding the other criteria. If legacy considerations where only a 15-20% in applicant suitability, I think most people wouldn't be that upset about it. When it leads to wholly and obviously unsuitable people going, that's probably when the legacy system has gone out of control.
Re: One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud
#68I'm curious as to how these tests compare to the US SAT. You can take the SAT multiple times and submit your best attempt. In this story, the test seems one and done. You get 1 attempt and you either get in, or you don't. Also reminds me of the story from India like 1 or 2 years ago where a test had faulty answers and people thought they didn't get into university because of that
These exams differ from SAT in three major ways. First, they are offered once a year. Didn't do as well as you hope? Try again next year. Second, the material is significantly harder. Take math as an example. The exam questions are a lot closer to AMC/AIME than to SAT. In fact, suppose language is not a problem, many Chinese middle schooler would do pretty well on SAT's math section. Also you are not allowed any calc…
Seems a pretty fair system to me (horrendous abuses like in the article aside)
Re: One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud
#69[flagged]
Re: One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud
#70> Until today, the imposter's colleagues still know her as Chen Chunxiu, say media reports. Her degree has since been revoked and she has been sacked from her job. A government report says she is still under investigation.
Is it nuts to anyone else that the more powerful, socially connected person stole the poorer but better scoring person's identity for not only school, but continued to be her professionally for years after?
I was reading and wondering what good this did if someone else got the degree, and was flabbergasted to see that the imposter just decided to take over the identity in perpetuity. I would assume in the west that usually only happens when the imposter's original identity is problematic (a criminal, poor and trying to hob-nob with elites, etc). In this case we have the child of an obviously well connected (and I assume well-off) official willing to take over someone else's identity.