California: An Indian American student has been sentenced to five years' probation as she forged documents to get admission and financial aid in medicine in three elite US universities. According to a statement, Cavya Chandra, 26, of Carmel, Indiana, admitted that she obtained admission to, and attended, three universities - Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh; Cornell University in Ithaca and Indiana University, Indianapolis - by forging various documents. Chandra also pleaded guilty to forging financial aid documents at Cornell University.
She was ordered to pay $70,000 in restitution to Cornell as prosecutors stated she received more than $130,000 while at Cornell. According to the Justice Department, in 2008 as Chandra was denied admission to the freshman class at Cornell University; she then applied to Carnegie Mellon University, submitting a forged letter of recommendation from a high school teacher. CMU accepted her into the class of 2009.
During her second semester at CMU, Chandra tried again to get into Cornell by submitting a forged transcript showing she had a 4.0 GPA during her first semester at CMU. She also submitted a forged high school transcript to Cornell, with a much higher GPA, as well as another forged letter of recommendation from a high school teacher. Chandra was admitted to Cornell in the fall of 2010.
In 2013, while still enrolled at Cornell, Chandra began the process of applying for medical school through the American Medical College Application Service. As part of her medical school application, Chandra submitted forged transcripts from Carnegie Mellon and from Cornell, according to the Justice Department.
Her elaborate forgery began to unravel as AMCAS reported to Cornell that it suspected Chandra had submitted a fraudulent transcript, and Cornell launched an internal investigation, during which it uncovered Chandra’s previous admissions fraud. When confronted, Chandra admitted that she had falsified information in her transfer application, and Cornell expelled Chandra in November 2013.
Following her expulsion from Cornell, Chandra applied for admission as a transfer student to Indiana University, again submitting forged copies of her Carnegie Mellon and Cornell transcripts. Purdue admitted Chandra as a transfer student and gave her credit for a number of classes that she did not actually take or pass at Cornell. The university conferred a bachelor’s degree on Chandra in 2015, but rescinded it after her fraud was exposed.
