[Aurornis]

Admissions manipulation games are very common. Another tactic is for high school students to have their startup company “acquired” by their parents’ friends company, where the acquisition price is some token amount in exchange for hiring the kid for an internship.

It can be really hard to judge these situations without getting the person in a 1:1 interview. Some times you meet someone with an extraordinary high school claim who can talk your ear off with impressive detail and deep understanding. Other times you start talking to someone and realize they don’t even understand their own topic beyond surface level understanding necessary for talking to a newspaper journalist.

With a claim like this, I’d be looking for interviews or online discussions. Usually the young people who are actually accomplishing amazing things are super excited to talk to the world about it. If anyone can find this person engaging in online forums or posting about progress on the build up, that lend a lot of weight to the claim.

[synergy20]

it went far beyond those 'research paper because I have a good dad' or 'I had a few startups and some even got acquired thanks to my dad's friend'. The math competitions hosted by MAA, the CS Olympiads called usaco,etc are all full of cheating these days for a better college application. People will do whatever it takes to cut in line now.

[Aurornis]

How are the Olympiads full of cheating? I only participated in one but there wasn’t any room for cheating.

[MontyCarloHall]

They're not. For some odd reason, the comments on this post are full of bitter people who cannot possibly fathom that brilliant young people not only exist, but also achieve amazing things on their own merits.

[throw10920]

> They're not.

Evidence for this claim?

> For some odd reason, the comments on this post are full of bitter people who cannot possibly fathom that brilliant young people not only exist, but also achieve amazing things on their own merits.

As opposed to you, who's up and down the thread making unsubstantiated claims and engaging in emotional manipulation to try to discredit (without evidence, I might add) the idea that there's any cheating or subversion going on whatsoever.

The people you're responding to are making far better points than you are.

[synergy20]

just google for 'maa math cheating', 'usaco cheating',etc. there are official statements somewhere that you can probably dig out too. people were selling the answers before the test for $5 on discord. my kids are taking these exams, and it saddens/discourages them so much as their classmates are bragging about those $5 answers and got super high scores. it's a public scandal, just that the media paid no attentions, so far.