Recently, I saw a newspaper article the expulsion of a Chinese student due to her academic dishonesty. International students are always struggling in making their academic success in American universities. Let me describe this incident and make some personal comments on this issue.

Her name was anonymous in the Statesman, the on-campus newspaper, and she was involved in falsifying transcripts. She led the Chinese agents who were dedicated to helping Chinese students with applying for American schools to help her submit the application to the graduate schools including New York University School of Professional Studies.

Another expulsion also included the students who applied for other graduate schools sitting on the same court and exculpating the issue to the agents. This girl was from Stony Brook University and when the application was almost done, she received the letter from the school that her fake materials to NYU became the reason that she was expelled from the bachelor's degree.

After seeing this, I felt shocked. A girl finished two degrees in undergrad plus several years of American high school, totaling six or seven years of academics destroyed due to a minor mistake made unconsciously. Enormous tuition fees wasted. The agent definitely should take full responsibility. However, even the agent was charged for deceiving and all fees paid were supposed to be returned plus any other losses.

The degree's loss is valueless. The girl, from the report, appealed to the committee for reconsideration. Nevertheless, the expulsion was still remaining even she proved the lie from a self-video made by the manager of the agent and gained two letters from professors implying that her academic achievement was unimpeachable.

The truth of the agent is the key reason and if this step is circumspect, the sadness will not happen. Actually, from the report of the Statesman, we knew that We Chat, a Chinese social software, is the evidence in this case. The screenshot of her and her agent said that the agent can finish all the tasks without any other materials in addition to paying the fees, because they have a correlation with the graduate schools, out of donations.

That does not make sense. For students who apply for graduate schools using this kind of institution, the judgment is important. If she could identify that this was a trap, this would not have become a tragedy. And many international students are always inclining to use agents for assistance. This actually draws attention to the university.

Many agents do not have certificates. And actually, DIY is always better. But if DIY is not the right fit for you, then the identification of different agents is quite necessary. It is actually another difficult course for students who choose agents as their helper when applying and discerning who is truly reliable. But in fact, the reliance is always hard to build up because too many lies and unhappiness happen in this industry.