By Chung Hyun-chae
The father of a Korean high school student studying in the United States has apologized after her story of gaining admission to both Harvard and Stanford universities turned out to be a lie.
“I am sorry for causing a stir with a false story,” Kim Jung-wook, father of the girl, Kim Jung-yoon, said in a statement emailed to several media outlets.
Earlier this week, Korean media outlets reported that Harvard and Stanford created a unique admission program to recruit the “math prodigy” ― which the two schools later denied.
“Everything is my fault and my responsibility in that I failed to look out for my daughter’s state without knowing how pained the child has been,” he said.
“The family will concentrate on treating her,” he added, without elaborating on what he meant by her "state."
When the allegations emerged about fabrications in her admissions letter, the father initially denied everything and said he would deal with the case through his lawyer, but he changed his stance soon thereafter. His apology email hinted that his daughter forged acceptance letters by herself due to pressure of being admitted to prestigious colleges.
Based on the family’s story, several media outlets reported that the girl, a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, would study at Stanford during her freshman and sophomore years and at Harvard for her junior and senior years, and then choose which school she wanted to do her bachelor's degree.
Both the universities denied that.
“Stanford University does not have a program with Harvard such as the one described,” Lisa Lapin, associate vice president of communication department at Stanford University, told The Korea Times in an email interview.
“In addition, statements have been published from a Stanford University professor that he never made. Also, we have been shown copies of a letter of admission that was provided to some news organizations, but that letter was NOT issued by Stanford University,” she added.
Harvard University said the same thing.
“Despite recent media reports, there is no program in existence through which a student is admitted to spend two years at Harvard College and two years at Stanford University,” Anna Cowenhoven, an official of public affairs and communications department at Harvard University, told The Korea Times.
“We have been made aware of an alleged admissions letter sent to Ms. Jung Yoon (Sara) Kim by Harvard University. We can confirm that this letter is a forgery,” she added.
Her high school Principal Evan Glazer also said in an email interview, “I cannot confirm this information for you. The universities do not notify us about college acceptances.”
Kim also insisted that she earned a perfect score at high school, but it was also found to be made up as another student argued that another student earned a higher score than Kim.
Kim’s father is an executive director of Nexon Korea, the online game developer.