Am I schizophrenic or what?

[ibounce]

It might sound really crazy and ridiculous, but I cant help but feel a little worried that a kid, whom I went to high school and share intense mutual hatred with, might send slandering letters to schools to sabtage my chances. I know I sound like someone who just came out of a mental institution and is still taking pills, or has had too much conspiracy theories to read. But this kid I am talking about is quite a piece of work. It's really a long story. But long story short, I was his captain on a sport team and we didn't exactly see eye to eye on things. And he didn't like that, being the spoiled type he was. He stole my locker's key and had free access to my locker for a whole year. While I was left pondering where I had misplaced my textbooks and homework (granted I was not very orgnized), he was hoarding them in his locker. He also ruined my digital camera in a very sneaky way so that I thought I broke it myself. I was completely in the dark until his friend told me who's behind all this. At the end, he denied everything and only admitted damaging my camera "by accident". Only after a lot of haggling, did he grudgingly agree to buy me a new camera. I never got any of the other stuff back.

We parted our ways since high school, but that did not stop him from bothering me through cyberspace. I blocked him on Facebook. He then looked me up through my university's directory and emailed me that I owed him money for the camera. I ignored him. He has since messaged me through a friend of his whom I cant block. I never answered him and I bet he doesn't like that.

I didn't intend for this post to be this long-winded. But my point is that this kid got issues, he really hates me and has gone through a lot to show that. Admittedly, I am paranoid and this worry is far fetched, but I ask myself what stops him from ruining my grad school hope?

[joro]

Don't post about going to grad school on your Facebook, Professors who will be writing you letter, and places you'll be applying to.

[ibounce]

Don't post about going to grad school on your Facebook, Professors who will be writing you letter, and places you'll be applying to.

Well it's too late for #1, but I have been pretty careful about your latter two points.

[mudlark]

Admittedly, I am paranoid and this worry is far fetched, but I ask myself what stops him from ruining my grad school hope?

I highly doubt that a slandering letter from a non-faculty-member would be taken seriously by an adcom. It likely wouldn't make it past the mail desk, or the chair's secretary. It might go to the grad chair for an opinion about what to do, I guess, but it wouldn't go to the full committee. What could he possibly say? You have a whole file full of corroborated proof of how capable and accomplished you are. Someone appearing out of the blue to say differently would be the one coming across as crazy, not you.

[glasses]

I highly doubt that a slandering letter from a non-faculty-member would be taken seriously by an adcom. It likely wouldn't make it past the mail desk, or the chair's secretary. It might go to the grad chair for an opinion about what to do, I guess, but it wouldn't go to the full committee. What could he possibly say? You have a whole file full of corroborated proof of how capable and accomplished you are. Someone appearing out of the blue to say differently would be the one coming across as crazy, not you.

Yup, this. A random guy you went to high school with who carries a vendetta? I'm having trouble taking that piece of work seriously (to be clear: I'm not having trouble taking your concerns seriously -- I'm having trouble taking the guy seriously as any kind of credible source): I'm sure the people at the schools you've applied to, who are all indubitably smarter than I am, will be even less likely to give merit to his potential rants than I am.

[Dr._Robotnik's_Shadow]

Ditto to everything everyone else said.

But also, if this person is still doing this to you, it needs to stop. I'd look into taking some kind of more serious action against him at this point. It sounds like his actions are unwanted and he keeps doing this to you. Sounds like stalking or harrassment to me. I'd look into taking some type of legal action on him. Sometimes all you need is a threat from some type of lawyer or police or someone to scare him straight and get him to stop. You shouldn't have to be bothered by him.