A Sorta Funny Story
Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 2:20 am
I actually posted this story a while back, and it seemed that people were interested in knowing more, but I took it down because I thought the post contained too much information.
Anyway, this is just a kind of funny story about my friend's lie about being admitted to and attending HLS. I hope it entertains y'all in the stress of admissions season.
I have a friend who's always kind of been a liar. Let's call him Jim. Jim mostly less about small stuff here and there, and he's pretty transparent when he lies.
For years, Jim claimed to have my a near perfect GPA in an engineering program that is hard curved to C+ while working full time, not really attending class often, and partying every weekend.
Jim is the type of guy smart enough to know that as long as he provides no proof when asked, he is technically right to claim that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
One day, Jim and I made a bet as to who would get higher on the LSAT. We both studied pretty extensively, and he claimed to have gotten a 175+ on June 2014. That and his proclaimed 3.9+ would have put him well in YLS territory. He waited a couple of years and applied last cycle.
In the interim, he lorded his stats in a "haha" way. When I asked for proof, he would kind of just shut up.
He never really bragged about his acceptance, but told a few close friends, but eventually the news did get around.
At a pool party last summer, a lot of people were like "Congratulations on HLS?" since Jim has a reputation for lying. Most people around me and really I as well thought that since this had been a lie/achievement 4 years in the making, it'd take a lot of balls for someone to tell this elaborate of a lie so we just went along.
In a joking attempt to bust his balls, I asked him about where he was going to get 300K to attend. He said that his employer was paying his way through school.
Let me set the record straight here for those still reading, a Canadian HVAC sales company is paying for my friend's American legal education (COL included) so that he would work for them in Canada as in-house counsel straight out of law school.
At the same party, he went on to talk about how he was considering taking classes online at HLS, got the 1L starting date wrong, how HLS was pass/fail (got that bit right), and talked about only flying in for midterms and finals. You know those all important midterms that law students stress over...
Anyway, September 2016 rolled around, and he's still in Canada... working for the same HVAC company... and "taking online classes at HLS." Last I heard from a friend, Jim flew to Boston to take his midterms. He isn't in the Harvard student directory.
I guess it's theoretically possible for someone to remove themselves from the student directory at registration, convince 10 professors to accommodate him by uploading lectures online while reading on his own and working what he claims are 70 hour weeks, and only fly in to take exams, but who are we really kidding?
Whenever asked, he repeats the same line about taking classes online.
Our mutual friends' opinions range from slight doubt to extreme doubt. I am extremely unconfrontational and Jim, besides being a liar is genuinely a cool dude... so basically everyone--I especially--know that short of some astronomical circumstance, Jim doesn't attend HLS, and I get the feeling that he knows that the lie is falling apart at the seams, but those who know don't care and those who care don't know enough to confront Jim about why he would keep up this lie that was barely convincing to begin with... for 5 years...
Anyway, this is just a kind of funny story about my friend's lie about being admitted to and attending HLS. I hope it entertains y'all in the stress of admissions season.
I have a friend who's always kind of been a liar. Let's call him Jim. Jim mostly less about small stuff here and there, and he's pretty transparent when he lies.
For years, Jim claimed to have my a near perfect GPA in an engineering program that is hard curved to C+ while working full time, not really attending class often, and partying every weekend.
Jim is the type of guy smart enough to know that as long as he provides no proof when asked, he is technically right to claim that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
One day, Jim and I made a bet as to who would get higher on the LSAT. We both studied pretty extensively, and he claimed to have gotten a 175+ on June 2014. That and his proclaimed 3.9+ would have put him well in YLS territory. He waited a couple of years and applied last cycle.
In the interim, he lorded his stats in a "haha" way. When I asked for proof, he would kind of just shut up.
He never really bragged about his acceptance, but told a few close friends, but eventually the news did get around.
At a pool party last summer, a lot of people were like "Congratulations on HLS?" since Jim has a reputation for lying. Most people around me and really I as well thought that since this had been a lie/achievement 4 years in the making, it'd take a lot of balls for someone to tell this elaborate of a lie so we just went along.
In a joking attempt to bust his balls, I asked him about where he was going to get 300K to attend. He said that his employer was paying his way through school.
Let me set the record straight here for those still reading, a Canadian HVAC sales company is paying for my friend's American legal education (COL included) so that he would work for them in Canada as in-house counsel straight out of law school.
At the same party, he went on to talk about how he was considering taking classes online at HLS, got the 1L starting date wrong, how HLS was pass/fail (got that bit right), and talked about only flying in for midterms and finals. You know those all important midterms that law students stress over...
Anyway, September 2016 rolled around, and he's still in Canada... working for the same HVAC company... and "taking online classes at HLS." Last I heard from a friend, Jim flew to Boston to take his midterms. He isn't in the Harvard student directory.
I guess it's theoretically possible for someone to remove themselves from the student directory at registration, convince 10 professors to accommodate him by uploading lectures online while reading on his own and working what he claims are 70 hour weeks, and only fly in to take exams, but who are we really kidding?
Whenever asked, he repeats the same line about taking classes online.
Our mutual friends' opinions range from slight doubt to extreme doubt. I am extremely unconfrontational and Jim, besides being a liar is genuinely a cool dude... so basically everyone--I especially--know that short of some astronomical circumstance, Jim doesn't attend HLS, and I get the feeling that he knows that the lie is falling apart at the seams, but those who know don't care and those who care don't know enough to confront Jim about why he would keep up this lie that was barely convincing to begin with... for 5 years...