美国USNEWS上让我们汗颜的头条http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/articles/chinafraud.htm
In China, making (up) the grade
U.S. universities see a rise in fake applications
By Bay Fang
BEIJING -- Wang Jin was 31 and desperate to go to graduate school in the United States. She had work experience – six years at a state-owned company – but her international trade degree was from a vocational school that no longer exists. What's more, her English was lousy. So how could she ever hope to get into a top American university? Easy: Get someone to take the GMAT exam, and find others to write the essays and forge a diploma and transcript.
As more and more Chinese students seek to come to the United States for advanced degrees, some find that it pays to take shortcuts. Enough, in fact, that services to help students cheat have become a cottage industry in Beijing's university district. Surprisingly, many of the cheaters have decent credentials but simply do not want to risk a less-than-perfect application. Conditioned by cutthroat academic competition, they believe that even the slightest risk of failure is simply unacceptable. And as a degree from the United States becomes more and more desirable, the fight is fierce to be one of the roughly 50,000 Chinese students in the States.
Zhang Haoming knows the drill. A long-haired Beijing University graduate (his name and those of other Chinese involved in these applications have been changed to protect their identities), he is exceptionally skilled at applying to American schools, so good that he has received several acceptances from prestigious programs – but none in his own name. Two years ago, he was approached by Wang, an acquaintance, for help. At first, he just tutored her at $12 an hour for the English-proficiency TOEFL exam. "But after two weeks, she came clean and said she'd already 'had those tests taken,' and what she really needed was help with the application. So we struck a deal: I'd take care of what I could, writing her essays and so forth, for $600."
False pretenses. That "so forth" included helping her get a false transcript. "I told her to put the name of a friend as the registrar's contact," says Zhang. She also used friends' names and addresses on the "professors' " recommendations that Zhang wrote. One friend received a verification letter, Zhang said, so "I replied in the professor's name." Indeed, graduate admissions offices are aware of such problems and try to ferret them out when possible. "We do see fraudulent credentials, so we are always working to increase our vigilance," says Laurie Stewart, director of graduate business school admissions at Carnegie Mellon University. "We even ask candidates to write an essay about an ethical issue that they've faced in their professional lives."
Writing the essays, Zhang says, was the hardest part of completing Wang's application. "One school asked what her biggest career achievement had been," he says. "I knew someone who had helped to coordinate a donation of books – the Physicians' Desk Reference – by the Red Cross to Chinese hospitals. So I made up some details, used Wang's name, and said it taught her about management skills." The entire process took two months. "All she did was fill out a couple of forms – no, she didn't even do that. She signed a couple of forms," he says. "Her English was so poor she could hardly complete a sentence." Nevertheless, on the strength of her application, Wang was accepted into two U.S. graduate programs in the spring of 1998. (Wang denied cheating when told about this report but then immediately called Zhang in fear that she was going to be exposed.)
Those not fortunate enough to have a friend like Zhang may turn to schools in China that provide test-preparation and consulting services. University of Iowa Prof. Richard Horwitz, who was a Fulbright scholar in Beijing for the past year, recounts how he and his wife were approached by one school to help students with their personal statements. Horwitz said he was shocked when he realized the school expected its "consultants" to extensively rewrite the application essays. "They feel American institutions are biased against Chinese students because their English is bad. But the result is that once the students get to the States, they don't do well, some have psychological problems, and money is wasted."
Some seek help elsewhere, like the Web site of the New Oriental School in Beijing, which prepares students for study abroad. Anyone can post notices on the site's bulletin board, whether they're looking for study partners, exchanging vocabulary tips ("What is the antonym for 'turncoat'? "), or selling used materials. But a few recurring messages seem particularly cryptic–"seeking TOEFL gunman" or "GMAT gunman for hire"–posted by people seeking or offering themselves as test takers. (School officials said they delete such messages when they see them but can't constantly monitor the Web site.)
One of the recent messages was posted by Li Hong. This 28-year-old has almost perfect credentials for getting into a first-tier computer science Ph.D. program in the United States: legitimate bachelor's and master's degrees from a good university in Beijing, six years of work experience in telecommunications, and recommendations from influential professors at a leading American university. In fact, Li says these professors have offered to help him get into the university if he fulfills one requirement: a TOEFL score higher than 600. Li knows that if he studies hard he can get this score, since he has done so in the past. But he doesn't want to bother. It would take him at least two months, and he's too busy at work, he says. "I'll just find someone who looks like me, so he can use my picture to get into the test," he says. "Besides, the TOEFL only tests your test-taking skills, not your command of English."
Luckily for him, there are many willing to take the test in his place. Xia Dan, a professional translator, plans to take the GMAT and apply to American business schools this year but needs some money first. "I saw so many requests for gunmen posted on school bulletin boards that I thought it made sense for me to use my TOEFL skills for some extra bucks," says the 27-year-old, who charges 5,000 yuan ($600) per test. He posted a notice online as the "GMAT King" and was flooded with requests, including one from someone in Guangxi who wants to emigrate to Canada. "We agreed that if I score 580, he'll pay for me to tour Guangxi, and for every point above 600 he'll pay me 10 yuan ($1.20)." He even has a plan for the photo ID: "I can use computer technology to make a picture that has a blend of my features and the client's," he says smugly. "If I do well on the GMAT, I'll offer myself as a 'GMAT gunman' as well. And then I will charge more than 10,000 yuan!"
For sale. Just down the street, outside the gate of People's University, 24-year-old Ji Yan walks up and down the dusty street, trolling for customers. "Want a diploma? Transcript?" he whispers. Just choose the school, department, and graduation year, and the whole transaction can take less than an hour. "I've done that for tons of people, and the schools never find out," says Ji, an ex-soldier who sells about 30 fake diplomas a month at $50 apiece. But competition is picking up. "There are over a hundred other people out there every day, doing the same thing," he gripes. "Everyone knows how good the money is. It's better than dealing drugs."
The government has come to recognize the problem. Early this year, the Ministry of Education opened a diploma authentication center. Since January, it has received 400 inquiries from embassies, companies, and overseas graduate schools to verify student documents. About 10 percent were bogus. "In the U.S., people make fake documents so they can drink alcohol," says Qiao Wenjun, a director of the center. "In China, people want them to get into a good school."
One last hurdle: a U.S. student visa. American consular officials say they have toughened visa interviews in an effort to detect when an applicant sends a stand-in to conceal his or her language shortcomings. U.S. graduate schools have also wised up to some of the tricks. Many make foreign students pass an English test once they arrive at the school because widespread cheating has rendered the TOEFL score unreliable.
So what happens to people like Wang? She did not end up at either of the schools that admitted her in 1998, because her inadequate English kept her from getting a visa. "She called me in June to ask if I would find someone to sit in on her visa interview for her, but I thought that was going too far," says Zhang. However, Wang reapplied to other schools last year using almost all the same materials. She was accepted by a prestigious university in California, deferred her admission, and plans to enroll next fall. |
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