Randy forwarded me the story of Azia Kim, a high school graduate who was recently caught on campus months after posing as a Stanford student. Initially, Kim pretended there was a housing mixup that caused her to be without a housing assignment in the Fall. She squatted in Kimball for the first two quarters before working her way into Okada House. Amy Zhou’s prior roommate was going overseas, opening up a room in the Asian-American Theme House; Kim used this opportunity to get a permanent room in the house until the Housing Office finally uncovered the ruse.
For this to happen almost all the way to the end of the year is pretty remarkable. I can see housing mixups happening, but I wouldn’t think that someone could pull this off for so long without a Stanford ID nor key. Remarkable!
I’m wondering a few things after reading the article:
- What are Kim’s parents thinking and how are they reacting to the news?
- What’s going to happen to this girl in the future? Will she be scarred for life from this experience or will she pull herself off the ground and move forward? Will society let her move on?
- What are Zhou’s parents thinking after learning that their daughter had been spending many nights at her boyfriend’s dorm?
There’s so much pressure to succeed pushed onto children. It make situations like these more and more likely. In fact, the story makes me think back on the Blair Hornstine saga from a few year’s back. Sad.
tow.com 
In addition to your questions, this one came to my mind as I read the story that morning as well.
4. If this happened at UCB, would anyone even notice? =)
Too bad for her, she *almost* made it through the entire year as I believe Stanford finals are only in 2-3 weeks! I wonder what she would have done after that… continue to try squatting at the Farm, or move on and after being able to say “I spent a year at Stanford” and actually go to a school for real.
I remember in 1996 or 1997 when a homeless guy was sleeping in the common area of a dorm (Florence Moore I think) for a whole week before getting caught, but being able to squat in a dorm room with a bed for an entire year (!) Crazy.
Wonder what was her main motivation… sounded like trying to impress or please or parents might have been a big part of it, but that is really going to some extremes!