Amazing story : Korean Student Gets Chance to Attend Both Harvard and Stanford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The story is obviously false however Sara and/or her relatives are now going to great lengths to fight back against those who are challenging her. This afternoon someone sent an email to most of the members of the TJ class of 2015 claiming to be a math professor at Harvard:

Dear Thomas Jefferson High School Students,

Hello, this is Joseph Daniel Harris from Harvard University.
We've heard various rumors related to Sara, and I am here to put it to
an end.

Jung Yoon (Sara) Kim is a Harvard Class of 2019 student. She will be
studying at Stanford University for 1~2 years, and then will
return.
In addition, we've heard numerous comments related to her research and her
achievements, but we know much more than all of you guys know, so it
needs to stop.

If we hear any other issues, Harvard University and Stanford University
will respond accordingly.

If you have anymore questions, respond to this email and ask me
directly.

Thanks.

Joseph D. Harris

If you hit reply to the email you get a gmail address, not the Harvard.edu address it claims to be from.

My guess is he is someone connected to Sara's father and sent the email per his (Sara's father) request. Can't use harvard.edu b/c he wasn't writing it as official harvard representative. Korean news papers (the one that reported the article) are not very accurate with small stories like this one.

How did this person obtain the official TJ class of 2015 school email list? The list is only used by TJ administrators and staff members. Did someone leak the list to someone not affiliated with TJ or someone hacked into TJ email system?

If a TJ student leaked the email list to someone not affiliated with TJ for unauthorized use, that would be a major Honor Code violation at minimum and possibly a criminal offense. If someone hacked into TJ system and stole the list, that could constitute several criminal offenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The story is obviously false however Sara and/or her relatives are now going to great lengths to fight back against those who are challenging her. This afternoon someone sent an email to most of the members of the TJ class of 2015 claiming to be a math professor at Harvard:

Dear Thomas Jefferson High School Students,

Hello, this is Joseph Daniel Harris from Harvard University.
We've heard various rumors related to Sara, and I am here to put it to
an end.

Jung Yoon (Sara) Kim is a Harvard Class of 2019 student. She will be
studying at Stanford University for 1~2 years, and then will
return.
In addition, we've heard numerous comments related to her research and her
achievements, but we know much more than all of you guys know, so it
needs to stop.

If we hear any other issues, Harvard University and Stanford University
will respond accordingly.

If you have anymore questions, respond to this email and ask me
directly.

Thanks.

Joseph D. Harris

If you hit reply to the email you get a gmail address, not the Harvard.edu address it claims to be from.

Doesn't sound like a professor to me and why would a professor engage with rumors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The story is obviously false however Sara and/or her relatives are now going to great lengths to fight back against those who are challenging her. This afternoon someone sent an email to most of the members of the TJ class of 2015 claiming to be a math professor at Harvard:

Dear Thomas Jefferson High School Students,

Hello, this is Joseph Daniel Harris from Harvard University.
We've heard various rumors related to Sara, and I am here to put it to
an end.

Jung Yoon (Sara) Kim is a Harvard Class of 2019 student. She will be
studying at Stanford University for 1~2 years, and then will
return.
In addition, we've heard numerous comments related to her research and her
achievements, but we know much more than all of you guys know, so it
needs to stop.

If we hear any other issues, Harvard University and Stanford University
will respond accordingly.

If you have anymore questions, respond to this email and ask me
directly.

Thanks.

Joseph D. Harris

If you hit reply to the email you get a gmail address, not the Harvard.edu address it claims to be from.

Doesn't sound like a professor to me and why would a professor engage with rumors?

Looks like it has been confirmed by the real Prof. Harris that the email was sent by someone other than the actual Professor. TJ is investigating who had used ... math.Haravard.edu email address and sent an email to the entire class of 2015 TJ students. Bizarre.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No chance this is the whole story. No undergraduate is so special. Neither school has a need or interest to waive their graduation and residency requirements. Its more likely they are just offering a normal transfer or consortium study opportunity or Stanford is letting her defer for 2 years instead of 1.

Second, why does the child of an executive in South Korea attend a taxpayer-funded, public school in Virginia?

There are many Americans employed in companies in Korea, and just because she is genetically Korean does not mean she cannot be American. I have no information either way, but would not jump to the conclusion you are jumping to. Would you have said the same if her father was an executive in Netherlands?

Secondly, I don't know about her particular situation, but I do know that some public high schools in other states do take foreign students as tuition-paying students.

Many Korean newspapers (dozens) are reporting her father initially came to US with the family as a reporter for one of the Korean Newspapers and now works for some Korean computer company as a managing director. That doesn't sound like a US citizenship. It doesn't even sound like a permanent residency status. Sounds like a dependent of a temporary non-immigrant visa holder status.

TJ does not allow admission of foreign students even if tuition is paid.

[Anonymous]

Is this girl a real TJ student? If so, she must be the laughing stock of the school right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this girl a real TJ student? If so, she must be the laughing stock of the school right now.

Yes she is a TJ student and fellow students have been questioning her for months as she's told various stories about her accomplishments and where she was going to college. She apparently angered one student in particular when she took credit for a project he did and then it was written up in the Korean media. When students have questioned her and her stories they've received threats (in Korean) via social media.

Last night a TJ counselor posted in the class of 2015 Facebook group that they knew who sent the email last night and that it was NOT from the Harvard professor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this girl a real TJ student? If so, she must be the laughing stock of the school right now.

Yes she is a TJ student and fellow students have been questioning her for months as she's told various stories about her accomplishments and where she was going to college. She apparently angered one student in particular when she took credit for a project he did and then it was written up in the Korean media. When students have questioned her and her stories they've received threats (in Korean) via social media.

Last night a TJ counselor posted in the class of 2015 Facebook group that they knew who sent the email last night and that it was NOT from the Harvard professor.

The freak show continues. A proud moment for TJ parents...

[Anonymous]

Oh come on -- "TJ parents" generally aren't in the wrong or responsible for this episode. One whack job family is. Every school has some -- though typically they lack the resources to orchestrate this kind of campaign.

[Anonymous]

I feel like this is just a case of somebody lying about something and then it just snowballed into something much bigger. The fact that there's significantly less coverage of this in English news seems to point that it is mainly an issue with how Korean media has somehow picked up ridiculous storied about 2400s, 240s, and things like Harvard and Stanford working out an absurd "exchange" program.

As far as I know, nobody knows any concrete facts about her real destination, nor has she publicly come out to address rumors. However it has been found that she has committed some offenses such as plagiarizing for a paper she wrote to submit to MIT for some sort of math program, as well as cheating on qualifier questions to get into a math program called PRIMES. And by found, I mean this is coming from students airing dirty laundry and nothing has been properly verified by ADULTS (although her paper has been removed from MIT's website)

https://math.mit.edu/research/highschool/primes/materials/2014/conf/4-2-Kim.pdf

https://www.facebook.com/SNUBamboo/posts/867193820038918?fref=nf&pnref=story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she a student at TJ?

I wonder of someone from the AAP forum has any more info. Strange story!

This story appears bogus in many respects:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/06/04/2015060400888.html
http://www.dongponews.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=29044

1) She claims she received 2,400 on SAT but she is not on the list of US Presidential candidates for 2015 for Virginia which lists ALL the kids from VA receiving 1,600 in Reading and Math,
2) She claims she received 240 on her PSAT in 11th grade but she did not make the National Merit Semifinalist for Virginia for 2015 which is based on current seniors who took PSAT in junior year which has 221 minimum score cutoff,
3) She claims Harvard offered a "special scholarship" including "Harvard Faculty Scholarship" in the amount of $60,000 a year to pay tuition etc. but Harvard only offers need based aid. If she received a financial aid of $60,000 per year, her father's income would have been approximately $68,000 for 2014 which seems highly unlikely,
4) She claims to have all As and a GPA of 4.6 (presumably as of end of Junior year since senior year grades are not available yet) but that is impossible since the TJ Profile 2014-2015 lists the highest GPA for that graduating class to be 4.588 (after 4 years of As),
5) She claims Mark Zuckerberg called her and said "he wanted to meet her and that to keep in touch frequently since her research could be a significant help in his effort to spread wifi to all parts of the world" which seems unlikely,
6) The article refers to her as "International Student' and TJ does not accept any international students,
7) She claims to have scored 109 on AMC 10 when she was in 6th grade but she is not listed as having achieved high score according to the AMC 10 scores/students record for 2009,
8) She claims to have been selected as "TJ student of the year last year by the teachers" but TJ students have not heard of such recognition.

There are also claims of professors from Harvard and Stanford visiting her personally and constantly calling her to persuade her to come to their school and other claims that appear to be unlikely as well.

Odd story.

Get a grip people; anyone with a house/apartment lease in Fairfax County can go to public schools in Fairfax County. Bad tasteless prank and outright idiotic and lying article as it might be, it still did not start the war in Iraq as some of your husbands out there did, together with Judith Miller. You people must be bored out of your minds checking the NSMF lists and presidential scholars lists ; get a life, will you? imagine how beautiful and better the world would be and what you would be doing with your lives if you needed to work. Oh and by the way, whoever EVER heard of spam emails? And, by the way, the TJ school profile refers to LAST year's students, for all you idiots out there.

[Anonymous]

Wait...Dick Cheney's wife is on dcum posting about a TJ/Ivy school hoax? Who knew!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she a student at TJ?

I wonder of someone from the AAP forum has any more info. Strange story!

This story appears bogus in many respects:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/06/04/2015060400888.html
http://www.dongponews.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=29044

1) She claims she received 2,400 on SAT but she is not on the list of US Presidential candidates for 2015 for Virginia which lists ALL the kids from VA receiving 1,600 in Reading and Math,
2) She claims she received 240 on her PSAT in 11th grade but she did not make the National Merit Semifinalist for Virginia for 2015 which is based on current seniors who took PSAT in junior year which has 221 minimum score cutoff,
3) She claims Harvard offered a "special scholarship" including "Harvard Faculty Scholarship" in the amount of $60,000 a year to pay tuition etc. but Harvard only offers need based aid. If she received a financial aid of $60,000 per year, her father's income would have been approximately $68,000 for 2014 which seems highly unlikely,
4) She claims to have all As and a GPA of 4.6 (presumably as of end of Junior year since senior year grades are not available yet) but that is impossible since the TJ Profile 2014-2015 lists the highest GPA for that graduating class to be 4.588 (after 4 years of As),
5) She claims Mark Zuckerberg called her and said "he wanted to meet her and that to keep in touch frequently since her research could be a significant help in his effort to spread wifi to all parts of the world" which seems unlikely,
6) The article refers to her as "International Student' and TJ does not accept any international students,
7) She claims to have scored 109 on AMC 10 when she was in 6th grade but she is not listed as having achieved high score according to the AMC 10 scores/students record for 2009,
8) She claims to have been selected as "TJ student of the year last year by the teachers" but TJ students have not heard of such recognition.

There are also claims of professors from Harvard and Stanford visiting her personally and constantly calling her to persuade her to come to their school and other claims that appear to be unlikely as well.

Odd story.

Get a grip people; anyone with a house/apartment lease in Fairfax County can go to public schools in Fairfax County. Bad tasteless prank and outright idiotic and lying article as it might be, it still did not start the war in Iraq as some of your husbands out there did, together with Judith Miller. You people must be bored out of your minds checking the NSMF lists and presidential scholars lists ; get a life, will you? imagine how beautiful and better the world would be and what you would be doing with your lives if you needed to work. Oh and by the way, whoever EVER heard of spam emails? And, by the way, the TJ school profile refers to LAST year's students, for all you idiots out there.

Not sure who is the idiot. The PP stated the TJ profile is from 2014 to 2015. 2015 to 2016 school profile will not be ready for several months since all the data will not be available for several months. That was the point. The new profile will have the GPA range for the class of 2015 and it will also include the senior year grades.

[Anonymous]

It appears TJ is taking the matter seriously and taking appropriate disciplinary measures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It appears TJ is taking the matter seriously and taking appropriate disciplinary measures.

How so? What are they doing about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait...Dick Cheney's wife is on dcum posting about a TJ/Ivy school hoax? Who knew!

Or all the brainy people that worked for Dick Cheney out of American Enterprise institute....