A Sea Of Red

IMPOSTER CAUGHT
High school graduate pretends to be a Stanford student, even living in the dorms, buying textbooks and ‘studying’ for exams
May 24, 2007
By Daniel Novinson

Azia Kim was like any other Stanford freshman. She graduated from one of California’s most competitive high schools last June, moved into the dorms during New Student Orientation, talked about upcoming tests and spent her free time with friends.

The only problem is that Azia Kim was never a Stanford student.

Kim, an 18-year-old from Orange County who graduated from Fullerton’s Troy High School, lived in Kimball throughout fall and winter quarter. She lived in Okada, the Asian-American theme dorm, until Monday night, when University staff finally caught onto her ruse.

http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/ ... sterCaught

It's a pretty fascinating story really. She had fool a lot of people, and even hack an email account to keep up her charade. Makes you want to call housing and check on your roommate, huh?

My freshman year we did have one guy in my dorm get married and live there for two months afterwards. He was finally found out when he talked about it at Olive Garden with his co-workers. One of them just happened to be the girlfriend of another guy on the hall who totally hated the married guy, so naturally it was brought to the RA, who then had to go look at the courthouse records and sure enough, someone had been married. The lucky girl? My roommate's (at the time) ex-girlfriend. The guy? My roommate's best friend at the time.

ATrain wrote:My freshman year we did have one guy in my dorm get married and live there for two months afterwards. He was finally found out when he talked about it at Olive Garden with his co-workers. One of them just happened to be the girlfriend of another guy on the hall who totally hated the married guy, so naturally it was brought to the RA, who then had to go look at the courthouse records and sure enough, someone had been married. The lucky girl? My roommate's (at the time) ex-girlfriend. The guy? My roommate's best friend at the time.

The girl should get some credit for her creativity.

I don't see any real reason to prosecute Azia Kim. Sure, she deceived people, but if the university pressed charges, it would only be to divert attention from the fact that they screwed up—they allowed this to happen. And it wouldn't work. The court case would garner more media attention, and the defense counsel would certainly play up the incompetence of the Housing office and especially the RAs. Taking it to court would probably hurt Stanford more than help them.

The cheaper and more reasonable course of action for the college would be to discipline the RAs, learn from this experience and let the headline be forgotten.

mrmacphisto wrote:I don't see any real reason to prosecute Azia Kim.

Fraud? Trespassing?

If for no other reason, they should prosecute just to keep the rest of their students from feeling like squatters can get away with invading their homes away from home.

El Scorcho wrote:

mrmacphisto wrote:I don't see any real reason to prosecute Azia Kim.

Fraud? Trespassing?

I wasn't saying there was nothing for which she could or even should be arrested; I was simply making the point that the cost Stanford will bear as a result of this incident would probably be greater if they decide to press charges.