US set to kick out Chinese exam cheats
Print Edition
THREE women from China have agreed to plead guilty to cheating on entrance exams to American universities and colleges and are likely to be sent home, according to court papers.
Cheng Xiaomeng, who prosecutors said gained admission to Arizona State University through the exam scam, admitted conspiring to defraud the United States when she appeared in a Boston court on Wednesday.
Further hearings over the next three weeks are set for Zhang Shikun, who was at Northeastern University in Boston, and Wang Yue, who according to prosecutors was paid to take exams for Zhang and Cheng while at Hult International Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The exam in question was the TOEFL, the English-language exam widely used to assess foreign applicants. The test is recognized by more than 9,000 colleges, universities and agencies in more than 130 countries.
While each of the women faced up to five years in prison, prosecutors have agreed to recommend all three be sentenced to time served in exchange for their agreement to be deported.
That process got under way immediately for Cheng, who will have spent two days at an immigration detention facility before flying to China today. The hoodie-clad woman even brought a suitcase to court.
The 20-year-old’s lawyer, Paul Davenport, told the court she had good grades at Arizona State but will return “to her home country of China in disgrace and more importantly to the disapproval of her father, who I’ve met.”
Amid an increasingly affluent population, more Chinese students have been enrolling in US colleges and universities, attracted by the prospect of a prestigious American education and good jobs.
Their numbers grew to 135,629 in the 2015-2016 school year, according to the Institute of International Education.
Prosecutors said Wang, 24, earned nearly US$7,000 taking the test for Zhang, Cheng and another Chinese woman, Huang Leyi, after they had previously failed to meet their respective universities’ minimum scores.
After they were admitted, the three were issued with student visas. The four women were arrested and charged in May.
Assistant US Attorney Nicholas Soivilien said Huang, who was admitted to Penn State University, had declined a plea deal.
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