Indeed, Wheeler is not the first to be accused of cheating his way into the Ivy League.
In 2008, Akash Maharaj was convicted of bilking Yale out of $46,000 in financial aid by submitting a false transcript from Columbia which led to his admission as a Yale transfer student.
In 1991, 31-year-old James A. Hogue—who gained admission to Princeton by posing under the alias Alexi Indris Santana, an orphan from Utah—was convicted of stealing $22,000 from the University. While awaiting sentencing, he enrolled as a Harvard Extension School student and stole $50,000 in minerals and gems from the Harvard Mineralogical Museum.
“The minute Harvard gets involved, there’s this level of scrutiny,” Nassirian observed.
Harvard and Yale admissions staff declined to comment about Wheeler’s case.
—Esther I. Yi contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Julie M. Zauzmer can be reached at jzauzmer@college.harvard.edu.