The Chronicle of Higher Education

Bribery Attempts, the Unbearable Pushiness of Parents, and Other Admissions Tales

While visiting colleges in the Northeast last year, Andrew N. Lazar had the kind of campus tour that gives admissions deans nightmares. As the tour began one morning, a car pulled up and four young men dressed in black jumped out, grabbed the student guide, and tossed her into the trunk. A fifth young man emerged from the vehicle and announced that he was the new tour guide.

"All of us were jolted awake wondering what just happened," says Mr. Lazar, who recently graduated from Irvington High School, in Irvington, N.Y. Before anyone could go running for the police, the new guide explained that it was all a joke. Mr. Lazar decided to attend Cornell University this fall, for reasons unrelated to the pseudo-kidnapping, which took place at a different campus.

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