Why it's hard not to like the guy who scammed Harvard

Huffington Post college editor Leah Finnegan calls Adam Wheeler — the student who got into Harvard by lying — a modern folk hero:

Getting into college is a ridiculous circus and becoming worse. Enter into any upper-to-middle class enclave from December to May and it will be the talk of the strip mall: Who got in where? What did he do? … It’s way. Too. Much. This is why Adam Wheeler is a true hero of college admissions. … Adam Wheeler challenged the admissions gods and won.

And Joan Vennochi chimes in today in the Boston Globe, taking a poke at the school:

Adam Butler Wheeler did his homework better than Harvard did. … Harvard was exposed as well, as an institution easily fooled by what amounted to a caricature of an overly precious applicant.

(Yeah, I have to say I feel a little Schadenfreude for that place.)

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.