by freddy » Fri Jun 10, 2016 3:32 am
Confession:
Six years ago, I took a $400 offer ($200 upfront, $200 after) with a $100 referral for my friend to help an international Chinese student take his pre-TOFEL exam to get into some special ESL program at NEU. (NEU had this special program for international students to bypass the TOFEL by accepting the aforementioned version and gain a CPS or something business degree) We switched numbers or IDs, though I can't remember which exactly. I ended up feeling guilty so I deliberately took the test carelessly. The fella had cocky personality all throughout, but his cockiness faded once I told him what I did after the testing. I gave him back his monies for which I saved up until that point. I offered to tutor him for free. He said he would lose his student visa and will have to return back to China.
Admittedly, I was incentivized by the monetary offer at the time. However, I have and will do nefarious shenanigans, but I never wanted to compromise my academic integrity. I felt it wasn't worth it at the last minute. Growing up there was a lot of cheaters at my inner-city exam school. As my upperclassman friend who stayed and graduated said it succinctly, "we were smart enough to get the A but we wanted to be guaranteed an A". I was never a cheater in school (if you can believe me so far), so being an almost successful accomplice was an interesting experience.
Anyways, I was curious about the underworld of all these international students to say the least though. My friend said that there is a lot more business of to have had at the time of brokering the deal. He never held this against me and we went on with our friendship and life. I've never heard of the Chinese student again or know of how, and if, I fucked up his situation.