Faking Your Academic Death

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This is entirely too much work for me, but I suggested it to a co-worker (who had a .16 GPA his first year at UT, and pretty much torpedoed his academic future). I'd consider it if my grades got too bad, though:

What would stop someone who had a terrible year or two at college/university from dropping out and going to a community college somewhere (without transferring credits). Just apply with high school transcripts/SATs/APs, etc. From there, just do well at the CC and transfer to a good program with your CC credits/degree, and pretend the first experience never existed. It's a lot of effort, and you'd have to apply to universities you didn't apply to the first time around (I assume there's a database), and probably explain why you didn't go right to school.

But wouldn't that, wipe your academic slate clean? Am I missing how this could come back to haunt you?

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 21 November 2003 01:20 (twenty-two years ago)

If you ever received any sort of financial aid, this could show up.

― A Girl Named Sam (thatgirl), Friday, 21 November 2003 01:24 (twenty-two years ago)

At the other UT, the one I attended, if your cumulative GPA was below a certain point and you took some time off you could qualify for an Academic Second Opportunity, wherein all your previous courses were changed to Pass/Fail status and you basically started over with a clean slate but keeping the credits you already had.

My GPA was for shit but not low enough to qualify. Fuckheads.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 21 November 2003 01:24 (twenty-two years ago)

From the moment you get a Social Security #, you can be tracked, esp. the admin is comp literate. Doubt a normal person could get away with it

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Friday, 21 November 2003 01:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Off-hand though nichole I can't think of any kind of system linking non-related universities where they could pull up any of that information.

Again, unless you received loans or federal financial aid, where would such information appear? SSNs can get instiutions information on your credit and perhaps criminal record but what universal system would store academic information?

― A Girl Named Sam (thatgirl), Friday, 21 November 2003 01:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Possibly true. But there are few ways to totally disappear

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Friday, 21 November 2003 01:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Some schools -- maybe many schools -- just don't care, to be honest. You're paying them. If you get student loans, then someone else pays them. So you were flunking out at State X U, and now you're applying to State Y U, and you're not asking to transfer any credit? -- in other words, you're willingly paying them more money than you might have to, to stay for the whole meal instead of just the cake and port? That isn't going to bother them; if you were doing badly the first time around because you're dumb, then you'll flunk out of their school, but you will have still paid them.

(I've known of at least five or six people who've done the above without any real attempt to conceal it beyond simply not sending in the transcript from the previous school).

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 21 November 2003 01:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Gaping holes in the system obviously, Tep.

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Friday, 21 November 2003 01:34 (twenty-two years ago)

It's really not a hole, though. Would it matter that much to them? It isn't like applying for a job, where you're hiding the fact that you were fired for XYZ, whatever. You're not an employee -- you're a customer. They have more investment in how you spend your time in their store than McDonald's does, but the two main reasons why your performance matters are advertising (if you do well, you reflect well on them) and repeat purchase (if you don't flunk out, you continue to pay them).

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 21 November 2003 01:36 (twenty-two years ago)

(Grad school is a bit different in that employee/customer bit, but even there: I didn't have to send in my Master's program transcript when I applied to IU, even though I didn't finish the program; I did so, because it made me a better candidate and probably got my job. But I wasn't required to.)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 21 November 2003 01:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll have to remember that Tep, in case I have to do the same. (I hope not!)

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Friday, 21 November 2003 01:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't understand what the worry is.. Just apply to other schools and don't include the bad transcripts, if possible. (Have a good reason for the bad year in reserve = illness, family stuff, etc., but don't mention unless necessary.) Because at the end of the day, he'll be looking for a job & he can put what he wants on the resume; so only include the new school once the degree's complete, and omit the old one.

As for community college vs. 4-year, if he can get into a 4-year school straightaway I'd say do that, and save the trouble of transferring; sometimes that can be tricky and it'll avoid the risk of paying for credits that don't transfer.

― daria g (daria g), Friday, 21 November 2003 02:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah I think Tep's right. It's not disappearing; just leaving out select information. People do it with jobs all the time. And for the exact reasons Tep outlined this is not even the same thing.

― A Girl Named Sam (thatgirl), Friday, 21 November 2003 03:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe that's why this seemed so obvious to me - I've lied on every job application I ever filled out.

Trainer becomes "Corporate Trainer"
Being asked to leave for scamming becomes "Gave two weeks notice"
Quit showing up becomes "Gave three weeks notice"

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 21 November 2003 03:21 (twenty-two years ago)

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