Falsifying Scholarship Letters HELP!

[selamat123]

My husband is deciding between two MBA programs and stupidly forged his scholarship award to submit to the other school. Will school A verify with school B if this amount is true? If he gets rescinded from school A, will he be blacklisted from all universities in the States? Will school B rescind his offer as well? Sorry for the panic. I really think him going for his MBA will help our family, so this is freaking us out.

[rising_star]

If it's so important, why did he falsify the scholarship letter?

[PhD234]

2 hours ago, selamat123 said:

My husband is deciding between two MBA programs and stupidly forged his scholarship award to submit to the other school. Will school A verify with school B if this amount is true? If he gets rescinded from school A, will he be blacklisted from all universities in the States? Will school B rescind his offer as well? Sorry for the panic. I really think him going for his MBA will help our family, so this is freaking us out.

It is possible they could find out, but it would depend on several factors. Are these schools in the same city/state/region, same tier level, etc? Does School A regularly get students from School B? If so they should be well aware what a genuine offer letter looks like and what typical financial award packages are given from School B, and may follow up with school B if something seems amiss.

Did your husband copy an actual 2018 offer letter word for word from School B and just change his name and personal information? If so, then I would say he's probably less likely to be found out, as long as he didn't put some outrageous amount. Do different award amounts correspond to specific scholarships or fellowships at School B? If so the offer letter may have different wording depending on the scholarship/fellowship awarded...Etc. There are many factors that could be considered and could impact whether he would be discovered.

I can't tell you for sure whether he will be found out or what the outcome would be. If he is found out, it is certainly possible his offer to School A will be rescinded as this could be considered a clear violation of many university's honor codes that students must adhere too. If School A found out it was forged by verifying with School B then it is also possible School B would rescind your offer. Hard determine how likely this would be without more information.

[selamat123]

5 hours ago, PhD234 said:

It is possible they could find out, but it would depend on several factors. Are these schools in the same city/state/region, same tier level, etc? Does School A regularly get students from School B? If so they should be well aware what a genuine offer letter looks like and what typical financial award packages are given from School B, and may follow up with school B if something seems amiss.

Did your husband copy an actual 2018 offer letter word for word from School B and just change his name and personal information? If so, then I would say he's probably less likely to be found out, as long as he didn't put some outrageous amount. Do different award amounts correspond to specific scholarships or fellowships at School B? If so the offer letter may have different wording depending on the scholarship/fellowship awarded...Etc. There are many factors that could be considered and could impact whether he would be discovered.

I can't tell you for sure whether he will be found out or what the outcome would be. If he is found out, it is certainly possible his offer to School A will be rescinded as this could be considered a clear violation of many university's honor codes that students must adhere too. If School A found out it was forged by verifying with School B then it is also possible School B would rescind your offer. Hard determine how likely this would be without more information.

I feel like the chances of him being found out is quite high, then...

They're both on the West Coast and top 20 business schools. He copied and pasted the scholarship letter from School B completely, keeping same format, but just tweaking the dollar amount by an extra couple of thousands, which I think should still be within the realm of possibility for a Dean's Award. 

[PhD234]

3 hours ago, selamat123 said:

I feel like the chances of him being found out is quite high, then...

They're both on the West Coast and top 20 business schools. He copied and pasted the scholarship letter from School B completely, keeping same format, but just tweaking the dollar amount by an extra couple of thousands, which I think should still be within the realm of possibility for a Dean's Award. 

Well Dean's Awards (and other awards with specific titles) often correspond to a specific dollar amount or percentage so it is certainly possible that school A will notice the discrepancy. They may or may not choose to take action over the couple thousand dollar difference though.

Not exactly the same situation, but I know someone who was negotiating job offers between two top companies. Company B offered a higher starting salary but my friend  really wanted to work for Company A and wanted more money than either one was offering, so he lied about what company B was offering to get company A to increase their offer even more. The difference in the original offer and falsified offer for company B wasn't much, but Company A did find out. Company A never said anything to my friend but they exactly matched the true offer that company B gave, so it was clear they knew. Company A never rescinded the offer and from what my friend could tell never told Company B. My friend ended up feeling guilt or shame or worried how company A would view him after finding out about his lie. He ended up working for Company B instead and it worked out for him. All of that is to say, if school A really views your husband as a top applicant they may just overlook the discrepancy or offer him the true amount.

Edited January 26, 2018 by PhD234