RSS FeedHow Quami Frederick Got Busted
We previously wondered how The Star discovered that Quami Frederick used a fake degree to get into Osgoode.
Yesterday, The Star revealed how they came across the information,
Frederick’s name is on a list of bogus-degree buyers compiled by U.S. Homeland Security and Secret Service agents who took down a Washington State diploma mill in 2005.
Fine, but what if she had a more common or generic name like Jane Doe? She probably would never have been cross-referenced to a law student in Canada.
And do we really want to rely on terrorist watchlists for law school admissions? Privacy concerns around the admissions process are already discouraging some potential applicants.
Osgoode has proclaimed they will tighten their admissions process to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Ontario graduates already have to go through OLSAS, which receives transcripts directly from the institutions in the province. Foreign graduates are supposed to have their education reviewed by the World Education Services. How Fredrick circumvented this last control is still unclear.
What this will probably mean is that foreign graduates, who comprise a small minority of law students, will come under greater scrutiny. Those with non-traditional names will probably attract even more attention.
If minority students or those with diverse backgrounds, including educational experiences abroad, and inadvertently excluded or discouraged through the law school admissions process it would be truly unfortunate.
On the other hand, the new Osgoode admissions criteria is supposedly planned to give greater weight personal statements, which could ensure that a rich student body is maintained.
Of greater concern are law firms like Wildeboer Dellelce, who may be reluctant to get burned a second time. Let’s hope they continue to value the importance of diversity, in all of its forms, to the success and future of their firms.
Quami Frederick Forged Law School Marks Too!
I have just a little bit of sympathy for Quami Frederick, the young woman who faked her undergrad degree to get into Osgoode Hall.
A single mother, she now has $80,000 in student debt that she will have a tougher time paying back without a law career.
Fredrick recently resigned from her position at Wildeboer Dellelce.
But the sympathy quickly dissolves when The Star reveals today that she faked her law school marks too to get the job with Wildeboer Dellelce.
The altered marks, with a C upgraded to A in some cases, came to light when the law firm and Osgoode shared notes on Frederick.
Fredrick will be going to formal inquiry at Osgoode. Whereas some leniency or remedial work may have been possible with just the undergrad situation, the fact that she continued this dishonesty all the way through law school does not bode well for her future.
Dale Brazao at The Star also gives us a shout out,
In the last three days Frederick has become a cause célèbre among bloggers on the Internet, who have posted reactions ranging from outrage and mockery to praise for Frederick for beating the system.
We love you too, especially for catching the dishonest people that exclude other hard-working applicants to law school, and perpetuate fraud in the legal hiring practice.
Tip: Don’t Use Fake Degree to Apply to Law School
Okay all you eager undergrads who read our site faithfully, here is the best tip we could ever give you regarding your law school applications.
Do not, under any circumstances, try to use a fake degree to apply to law school. Chances are it will catch up with you eventually.
Quami Frederick made it all the way to her third year in Osgoode Hall before the Toronto Star found her out. She was even scheduled to article at Wilboer Dellelce next year, the firm that has no billable hours, their own building, and a gym inside the office.
She had applied to Osgoode with a B.Sc. in Business Administration from St. George’s University in Grenada. The university exists, her degree does not.
She was one of the 290 students accepted from the 2,500 that applied that year. But when your degree is fake, grade inflation probably isn’t a major issue.
Fredrick is one of many people The Star uncovered as using a degree from a diploma mill, where a fake degree is forged from a real university, or an entirely fake university is created. (No Steyn, that’s not an option for you either)
Chances are Fredrick won’t be able to finish her law degree this year given her admission was premised on a false academic background. She also probably fails to meet the values expressed on her firm’s website,
Our firm’s greatest strengths are its people and the environment of care and mutual respect that they have created for one another. It goes without saying that to be a success in the Bay Street legal world, you must possess intelligence, integrity, dedication, some common sense and you must work very hard.
The upside is that Wildeboer Dellelce probably has an opening right now if you’re your third year and looking for a place to article in Toronto.
Try contacting Kevin Fritz at 416 361 2933 or James Brown at 416 361 2934.
