iterateoften 5 days ago

Almost zero downside. I knew a student who plagiarized 3x so they got kicked out. His parents sued. It was even on the tv news because they were asking for hundreds of thousands in compensation. He lost and the school kept him expelled.

I was expecting the bad press coverage to hurt his college chances since there were several articles online about him getting kicked out for cheating and then suing.

Nope! Dude got into a really good school. He even ended up texting asking me for past essays I wrote to turn in as his own to his college classes.

And the kicker was he then transferred to one of the prestigious military academies that supposedly upholds honor and integrity.

So. There is almost zero downside for suing even if it gets you tons of negative publicity.

2
brandall10 5 days ago

I don't think we can claim zero downside from one anecdote. There are always outliers that can occur from extenuating circumstances.

- The family potentially has the financial resources or possibly connections to 'make things happen'.

- Perhaps the student is especially charismatic and was able to somehow right the situation. Some people have that con-artist mindset where they're able to cheat/commit fraud through their life with seemingly minimal consequences.

- Perhaps they just got lucky and the administration didn't do their due diligence.

hackernewds 4 days ago

anecdata is data if you do not have other data or anecdotes to pack your claims up. The present an example whereas you present speculation

michaelt 5 days ago

> Perhaps they just got lucky and the administration didn't do their due diligence.

Are universities supposed to google every applicant?

I mean I haven't been in academia for a decade, but back when I was I certainly never browsed a 17-year-old girl's instagram before making an admission decision.

brandall10 5 days ago

Not every applicant, but the ones in the accepted pool, it strikes me as odd there isn't some basic amount of vetting.

Instagram? No (although, wouldn't be surprised)... but doing a gut check with the school admin and looking at public records? Sure.

hackernewds 4 days ago

you present a very interesting specific example of Instagram which is completely unrelated. story time?

michaelt 4 days ago

If I put some kid's name into Google, shouldn't I expect social media to come up?

1659447091 5 days ago

> His parents sued. ...

> He even ended up texting asking me for past essays I wrote to turn in as his own ...

> he then transferred to one of the prestigious military academies ...

>> There is almost zero downside for suing even if it gets you tons of negative publicity.

Sounds like the caveat here should be, "when your parents/family is connected".