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Comment by rahimnathwani | Hacker News Reader

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rahimnathwani

They're not optimizing for the kid's education. They optimizing for the credentials the kid is able to get.

Filing the lawsuit is an asymmetric bet:

- win, and increase college admissions odds

- lose, and be no worse off that without the suit

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> lose, and be no worse off that without the suit

This kid should change his name, given his initials, high school and parents’ names are public record next to a four brain cell cheating attempt.

Do you think college admissions officers follow the news and use what they learn to maintain a naughty list?

Perhaps a business idea?

> Do you think college admissions officers follow the news and use what they learn to maintain a naughty list?

College admissions, no. College students and colleagues and employers, being able to use a search engine, absolutely.

If you search the student's name on Google, you probably won't find this lawsuit.

Admissions know his name and the name of the school, which helps find specific students.

It’s easy to miss, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes up as “Hingham High School Harris” brings up the relevant info. Further, his parents suing may be a larger issue for a college than his behavior.

school recommendations

Unless he has someone who is very sympathetic to his cause, the teacher/counselor recommendation will wreck him.

This guy needs to go to a JuCo that feeds into a decent state school — he’s screwed for competitive schools.

I'm guessing at some point there will be LLMs trawling through news items to put together profiles for people, and as the cost comes down, it won't just be available to three letter agencies and ad platforms, but schools and employers will start to use them like credit scores.

Nope. I just replied above with a similar story when I was in school. My classmate got expelled for cheating and sued the school. tv segment, articles about him, etc.

Zero effect on his college outcomes. Got into really good schools.

understand though the kid is bearing the implications for the parent's decision.

> win and increase college admissions odds + also gain funds for the parents

> lose, and be no worse off that without the suit

If I were in college admissions then I'd probably think twice about admitting the candidate with a widely reported history of trying to sue their school on frivolous grounds when things don't go their way.

> - win, and increase college admissions odds

wouldn't this decrease? I wouldn't want to admit a litigious cheating student - whether won or lost. this was a pure money play by the parents

Do you think colleges thoroughly check the background of each applicant, such that they would discover this?

> - win, and increase college admissions odds

Will it, though? Like if the college happens to know about this incident?

It does strike me that the purpose in attending college is the credential you get; education is a far second.

So what would you do in the parents' shoes?

teach my kids some good ethics and taking responsibility for their actions, instead of jeopardizing the chances of college with the prospects of money

It strikes me that this is a foolish take to adopt.

I saw lots of students acting a bit like this but I was grateful that I could dedicate myself primarily to my schooling and took as much advantage as I could to learn as much as I could.

The credential gets used as a heuristic for the learning you do but if you show up and don't have and knowledge, then everything is harder and your labor more fruitless.

I know some people don't care and that there are degenerate workplaces but you'll still be left with having been a lot less useful in your life than you were capable of being.

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