Asian student fakes being a Stanford student...

[doe-sun]

...for 8 months!!
link to questionably reputable source (http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/5/24/imposterCaught)

"Azia Kim was like any other Stanford freshman. She graduated from one of California’s most competitive high schools last June, moved into the dorms during New Student Orientation, talked about upcoming tests and spent her free time with friends.

The only problem is that Azia Kim was never a Stanford student.

Kim, an 18-year-old from Orange County who graduated from Fullerton’s Troy High School, lived in Kimball throughout fall and winter quarter. She lived in Okada, the Asian-American theme dorm, until Monday night, when University staff finally caught onto her ruse."

---------------------------------

Wow... if true. This is a student paper, so read with appropriate grain of salt, but absolutely fascinating nonetheless.

[Craig]

This is nothing. When I worked at Stanford, there were plenty of people there who pretended to be employees that gave a shit; I also dealt with quite a few 'engineering' students who pretended to care about their majors (while really being incompetent morons who wanted to ride on the coattails of their famed Jr. University alma mater to be).

[SunWuKong]

how did she get a room at the dorm?

[nameless]

dude, this is insane. squatting from room to room is one thing, but she even bought books and studied the material? talk about commitment.

*waits for usctrojanz obligatory ivy league response*

[kimpossible]

.
The only problem is that Azia Kim was never a Stanford student.


S'okay. With a name like that the porn industry is tapping its collective foot impatiently.

[LaiSteve66]

rofl, a year wasted haha. She could of been a real sophomore at some other school.

[USCTrojanzNo1]

*waits for usctrojanz obligatory ivy league response*

Azia Kim is simultaneously sad, pathetic, and absolutely hilarious. And yes, it is pathetic to see someone so obsessed with prestige that she's willing to go this far to impersonate a student from an elite college.

It is also sad as well because she will likely be charged with criminal fraud and/or misconduct for what she's done. And unlike Allen Lee and other ppl, Azia wasn't making a careless mistake or having a lapse of judgment.

Her life is ruined....all because she was seeking validation.

At least I can add her name to my ever-growing list of Azns Behaving Badly (in 2007) (note that this has been TM)

[applehead]

It is also sad as well because she will likely be charged with criminal fraud and/or misconduct for what she's done.

Really?
wow. that's serious. and seems a bit harsh

[TB4000]

What was her purpose for doing that? Some coworker over here read this story and was like, "damn, you gotta start watching them asians at college, don't you?", basically hinting back to that school shooting thing.

Back on topic, how did no authorities at the school catch this?

[USCTrojanzNo1]

Really?
wow. that's serious. and seems a bit harsh

No criminal charges have been filed yet (to my knowledge), but this is definitely a lot worse than some idiot writing violent fantasies.

Regardless, I was reading some comments about what people thought of Azia Kim. To my dismay, a number of comments (this was on the Stanford Daily) believe that Azia should be given a chance to attend Stanford University as a full-time regular student. Many sympathize with her and believe that she only wanted a better life for herself. Furthermore, many comments argue that if Azia was able to fool everybody into thinking she was a Stanford student, that must demonstate how bright and intelligent she really is...

I'm sorry, but Azia Kim gets no sympathy from me. She essentially committed criminal fraud. How would you feel if the surgeon operating on you was not a licensed medical doctor? How would you feel if the attorney representing you in court was not a real lawyer and that the JD he displayed in his office was fake?

I think she deserves to be prosecuted. It's absolutely disgusting and downright pitiful what she's done.

[VV o n g B a]

I'm sorry, but Azia Kim gets no sympathy from me. She essentially committed criminal fraud. How would you feel if the surgeon operating on you was not a licensed medical doctor? How would you feel if the attorney representing you in court was not a real lawyer and that the JD he displayed in his office was fake?u can't make that comparison. she wasn't in a position where she had responsibility over anyone else except for herself. she wasn't operating on anyone and she wasn't defending some guy up for the death penalty.

sure she was a fraud, but a fraud student who actually takes her classes seriously is much less worrisome than any of the riduculous examples u conjured up. there's no way she should be let into stanford, but her "crimes" are pretty petty. the only thing they should prosecute her for is stealing b/c she didn't pay tuition for class.

[SunWuKong]

I'm sorry, but Azia Kim gets no sympathy from me. She essentially committed criminal fraud. How would you feel if the surgeon operating on you was not a licensed medical doctor? How would you feel if the attorney representing you in court was not a real lawyer and that the JD he displayed in his office was fake?

I think she deserves to be prosecuted. It's absolutely disgusting and downright pitiful what she's done.

i think the article says that it's not likely that she'd be charged with anything. i don't know about the legality of what she did, but i don't see that she's done any harm to anybody. this is a case where i think rehabilitation is better than punishment. she needs psychiatric help.

[USCTrojanzNo1]

i think the article says that it's not likely that she'd be charged with anything. i don't know about the legality of what she did, but i don't see that she's done any harm to anybody. this is a case where i think rehabilitation is better than punishment. she needs psychiatric help.

How about criminal fraud? Willful misrepresentation? Falsification of information? Disorderly conduct? Disturbing the peace?

Thinking about it, perhaps Azia will more likely be civilly liable then criminal. But it doesn't excuse her actions.

[SunWuKong]

How about criminal fraud? Willful misrepresentation? Falsification of information? Disorderly conduct? Disturbing the peace?

Thinking about it, perhaps Azia will more likely be civilly liable then criminal. But it doesn't excuse her actions.

well, i just don't see what punishment will accomplish in this place. deter the next person wanting to fake being a Stanford student for two semesters?

[kasia]

maybe she's doing some sort of field research or experiment. i doubt she's crazy. she probably had to be friendly and outgoing enough to make friends and convince them to allow her to stay in their dorms.

[kasia]

How about criminal fraud? Willful misrepresentation? Falsification of information? Disorderly conduct? Disturbing the peace?

Thinking about it, perhaps Azia will more likely be civilly liable then criminal. But it doesn't excuse her actions.


what are you talking about? you name a bunch of crimes and then you say that she will more likely be civilly liable than criminal??

and how would a civil action work in this case? what exactly are the damages? two semesters of investing in a friendship that was based on lies?

[SunWuKong]

maybe she's doing some sort of field research or experiment. i doubt she's crazy. she probably had to be friendly and outgoing enough to make friends and convince them to allow her to stay in their dorms.

the article says her friends say she's shy.

[kasia]

the article says her friends say she's shy.

then that's weird of them to let some shy girl that they don't really know live in their dormroom.

[USCTrojanzNo1]

what are you talking about? you name a bunch of crimes and then you say that she will more likely be civilly liable than criminal??

and how would a civil action work in this case? what exactly are the damages? two semesters of investing in a friendship that was based on lies?

I named a bunch of crimes that I thought she might be charged with. Will it hold water? I dunno. I do think this is fraud no matter how much you spin it.

Civil liability is probably more likely though I do think criminal charges are possible (at the very least, trespassing and maybe willful misrepresentation or false pretenses). As for civil damages, maybe the fact that Stanford spent all its resources on providing services to a person who wasn't genuinely a student. She induced Stanford to provide her with a home, food, services, by the false pretense of being a student (yes, I'm mixing criminal with civil here but the message is there). She essentially gained something of value by misrepresenting herself (including the intangibles, such as respect from parents and peers b/c she was attending Stanford).

I admit that I'm a bit surprised at the outpouring of sympathy people have for Azia. What she did was downright pathetic, if not disgusting. Sorry, but that's how I feel. This is just her having a massive ego and trying to seek validation because of her own insecurities.

She simply could not "accept" getting rejected by Stanford. It seems to be with Asians, it's the whole "I gotta go to an elite school or I'm doomed to a life of poverty" kinda mentality that makes them do really absurd things. I think its pathetic she had to lie about being a Stanford student regardless of the reasons (trying to please her family, etc.).

[Banana]

My heart goes out to her honestly. I don't think charging her with anything is going to accomplish anything and hopefully she'll be comfortable going to another school.

[SunWuKong]

I admit that I'm a bit surprised at the outpouring of sympathy people have for Azia. What she did was downright pathetic, if not disgusting. Sorry, but that's how I feel. This is just her having a massive ego and trying to seek validation because of her own insecurities.

i don't see why she doesn't deserve sympathy. what harm did she do? i guess she hurt her friends' feelings, and the resources that she could possibly have used of the university is so minimal that it's practically negligible.

[USCTrojanzNo1]

i don't see why she doesn't deserve sympathy. what harm did she do? i guess she hurt her friends' feelings, and the resources that she could possibly have used of the university is so minimal that it's practically negligible.

You know, after reading my previous posts concerning this subject matter, I acknowledge that I was being a dick when I chatised Azia for impersonating a Stanford student and insinuating that she would face severe criminal charges. When I hinted that she might be facing disorderly conduct, criminal fraud, and similar charges, I realized that I began sounding almost exactly like Mike Nifong (the former Durham DA who tried to prosecute the Duke LAX case). A reasonable judge will probably throw those charges out (the ones I hinted/suggested). Though I still think there's a possibility she might face criminal charges, the ones she'll face are extremely minor (at worst, maybe a trespassing charge) and perhaps the prosecutor investigating this case will share everybody's sympathy with Azia and decide that criminal charges are not worth filing.

With that said, I still feel that what Azia did was not right. I see nothing wrong with her wanting to visit the Stanford campus on occassion and making friends with Stanford students. If she really wanted to attend Stanford, she should've done it the right way: perhaps go to a JuCo or a UC, work hard, get a 4.0 GPA, and then try to transfer to Stanford. Some argued that Azia only wanted to get a good education and the fact that she went so far as to "pose" as a Stanford student only shows her determination to learn and better herself through education. I disagree with that assessment; first of, that view is extremely condescending especially since it suggests that one can only get a good education from a school like Stanford.

Further, I think that she not only exercised extremely poor judgment in trying to deceive everybody into thinking she's a Stanford student, but she was doing so continuously without thinking about the consequences of her actions. I'm amazed--and not in a good way--that she took these extreme measures just to feel like she's part of the elite. I think that what she did also showed a lack of maturity; instead of accepting her rejection letter from Stanford and trying to move on and live a productive life (in case you didn't notice, you can have both a happy and productive life without a Stanford pedigree), she was still obsessed with attending Stanford. I don't see how anybody could admire someone who's obsessed with attaining an unrealistic dream. Part of growing up is learning that you can't always get what you want, but you can make the best with what you have. There's more to life than attending an elite college and to think that an elite pedigree is the pathway to a lifetime of riches and job security is short-sighted and narrow-minded.

Maybe I'm being really hard on her, but it's just unbelieve she would do something like this. Do I think she deserves a second chance? Absolutely; she's only 18 and she deserves to make amends in life. However, do I think she deserves to attend Stanford? Absolutely not, because if Stanford ultimately offers her admission, it will send the wrong message and consequently, Asians out there will start impersonating Ivy League students with the hopes of getting into those schools.

[TB4000]

Some people interviewed are saying they don't feel safe now, because if she can do it, who else can?

[mr. x]

man fucking stanford squares. if she went to berkeley (and was white, asians are too numerous here and therefore a non-student asian would be considered too much) she'd probably be hailed as a hero and just another berkeley eccentric

[sageb1]

Azia Kim earns my respect man.

Can she be my pretend GF? I promise to wait until we're married for the fake sex.

[LaiSteve66]

Another impostor found at Stanford

Stanford University officials, for the second time this week, found themselves Friday dealing with an interloper who has managed to pass herself off as a member of the university community for months.

The latest incident involves a woman, identified as Elizabeth Okazaki, who essentially made herself at home in the campus' Varian Physics Laboratory, sometimes spending the night there, using the computers and attending seminars, according to students.

University officials say they are taking steps to keep Okazaki off campus. Some students say the situation has been going on since at least 2004.

"I thought she was just another grad student, but then you talk to her and you realize that perhaps she doesn't really know what's going on," said Surjeet Rajendran, 24, a graduate student in physics. "She pretended to know physics, but it was very obvious that she didn't have any idea what she was talking about."

Okazaki alternately said she was affiliated with another academic department, was working on an ambiguous project that combined physics with humanities, or was working with renowned physics Professor Leonard Susskind, one of the leading contributors to the string theory concept, students said.

Susskind, in an e-mail, said he knew very little about Okazaki, and she had never worked with or for him.

How Okazaki came to frequent the physics lab is unclear. Several students said they had heard she used to work for the department years ago, perhaps as a temporary clerical worker. A university spokeswoman said she could not comment on whether Okazaki had been a university employee.

Whatever the reason, the largely nonconfrontational atmosphere in the physics department allowed her to go unchallenged for years, some students said.

"A university has a lot of weird people," Rajendran said. "Some of the faculty are weird, some of the grad students are weird. So you don't really know who's who. And you feel rather, I guess, rude asking them, 'What the hell are you doing?' I guess in that way it helps some strange people hang out without too many questions being raised."

Undergraduate physics student Brendan Wells, 22, said Okazaki is harmless.

"A lot of what she does is just use the computers, make tea and just kind of use the space as a place to be," said Wells. "I don't know if that's because she doesn't have somewhere else to go or she prefers it here."

Wells said he last saw Okazaki in the physics building Friday morning. She could not be reached for comment later in the day.

University attorneys are preparing a letter notifying Okazaki that she is not allowed on campus while police and university officials investigate her actions, Stanford spokeswoman Kate Chesley said.

"Stanford is a private institution," Chesley said. "We have the legal right to bar anyone from the premises, including people we reasonably believe will disrupt or have disrupted operations."

The emergence of Okazaki comes on the heels of revelations earlier this week that an 18-year-old Orange County woman, Azia Kim, had passed herself off as a freshman for most of the school year, convincing students to let her room with them in two separate dorms for about eight months.

Vice Provost for Student Affairs Greg Boardman said the university is launching a sweeping investigation into the Kim case, including "seeking to discover where there may be gaps in Stanford's system of identifying enrolled students."

Both cases are being investigated by Stanford police and campus officials.

"We consider this very serious," Chesley said. She added, however, that Okazaki's situation was different from the young woman who lived in university housing as an impostor. "You're really talking apples and oranges," she said.

While some physics students described Okazaki as "harmless," they said her presence could be worrisome.

"It is a little creepy that there's someone always there," Wells said. "Sometimes she likes to talk a lot, even when people are busy. At times I know it can get a little annoying."

At one point, Okazaki had to be scolded for bothering the physics theory group, Rajendran said.

"She used to spend a lot of time on our floor trying to talk to people," Rajendran said. "That was kind of a pain because it was distracting us from doing work. She stopped doing that after we sort of very harshly told her not to come there."

Okazaki also used to prop doors open in the building, apparently because she didn't have a card key, triggering concerns about security or theft, students said.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in scientific equipment has been stolen from campus science buildings in recent months, university officials said, but all the students interviewed said they were confident Okazaki had no involvement.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/26/MNG5JQ2AP01.DTL

[SunWuKong]

guess i spoke sarcastically too soon about the hypothetical situation where they need to deter other people from pretending to be a Stanford student for months.

if this can happen at Stanford, it's possible similar cases exist in other schools.

[sageb1]

the sad thing is, both kim and now okazaki are probably deathly afraid of real intimacy with men.

i smell hikikomori here.

[kasia]

guess i spoke sarcastically too soon about the hypothetical situation where they need to deter other people from pretending to be a Stanford student for months.

if this can happen at Stanford, it's possible similar cases exist in other schools.

of course the azia kim situation can happen. how easy is it? you enter into a lecture room - sit through the lecture on the first day of school, turn to person next to you and comment on how excited you are to be away from home. "what school did you go to?" "which dorm do you live in?" tell a horror story about your bitchy snooty mean-spirited roommate and how she dissed you on move-in day and voila - you have an offer to sleep on the couch of your new friend's dorm.

or you can attend an asian student association first meeting of the year. pull the same stunt. or even just make some friends, go to their dormroom with them, stay up all night talking, and just become a permanent fixture there.

or you attend a sorority rush party and do the same thing.

a huge part of the dorm/college experience is about making new friends, becoming close quickly, partying, and late-night chats.

it happens all the time in college. i had several ppl live in my room my freshman year for months at a time - some to hide while they were pledging. did i have any confirmation that they were students? not at all. is it really that big of a deal? no.

i know there's that comment about her being shy and stuff, but i still believe she had to have made some sort of an effort - like how i described above - to have pulled off what she did.

[SunWuKong]

of course the azia kim situation can happen. how easy is it?

it's not difficult to pull off, but i'm wondering why people would want to pretend to be a student for months at a time. i mean we're talking about elaborate lies to everybody you know on campus and pretending to actually be a part of the student body.

[kasia]

it's not difficult to pull off, but i'm wondering why people would want to pretend to be a student for months at a time. i mean we're talking about elaborate lies to everybody you know on campus and pretending to actually be a part of the student body.

i see. i wonder if it really is the result of extreme parental pressure.

[Yeahman]

i see. i wonder if it really is the result of extreme parental pressure.
I knew someone who dropped out but kept her parents in the dark and just took the tuition money they were giving her, for years. But it's not like she bothered to go to class during that time and she didn't keep it from her friends.

[LaiSteve66]

I knew someone who dropped out but kept her parents in the dark and just took the tuition money they were giving her, for years. But it's not like she bothered to go to class during that time and she didn't keep it from her friends.

So, how did that go?

[Yeahman]

^ I haven't kept in touch but I know she did go back to school. Probably just told her parents that she's taking longer to graduate because she switched majors a few times.

Those who didn't know her well probably thought she was always going to school. She didn't advertise the fact that she dropped out and she was always hanging around campus and at school parties.

[SunWuKong]

I knew someone who dropped out but kept her parents in the dark and just took the tuition money they were giving her, for years. But it's not like she bothered to go to class during that time and she didn't keep it from her friends.

jeez i wish my parents had that kind of money.

[MD2020]

She should be punished by being forced to enroll at Chico State.

[USCTrojanzNo1]

She should be punished by being forced to enroll at Chico State.

What's so bad about Chico State?

They should send her to Fresno State instead.

[AngryABCGirl]

another aa female imposter at stanford. is stanford really that great? I mean I've been to the campus and it's just okay. seriously.

it's the year of the death of the model minority and hello to model minority cracking under the pressure and becoming loony


http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/5/25/imposterIiFourYearsInVarian

For the last four years, Elizabeth Okazaki has attended graduate physics seminars, used the offices reserved for doctoral and post-doctoral physics students and — for all intents and purposes made the Varian Physics Lab her home.

The only problem is that Okazaki appears to have no affiliation with Stanford and, according to physics professors and students, no real reason to be there.

Even more surprising on the heels of Azia Kim’s exposure as a squatter in Okada yesterday (http://stanforddaily.com/article/2007/5/24/imposterCaught), Varian administrators know that Okazaki has become a permanent presence in the lab and yet claim to be able to do nothing about it.

In interviews with The Daily, several theoretical particle physics graduate students said that Okazaki has been in the lab almost every day over the last four years. At various points in time, they claim, she has assumed a locker space, procured rooms in which to sleep and perhaps even acquired a key to enter the building after-hours and over the weekend.

Okazaki, the students said, has claimed to be a visiting scholar in the humanities, looking to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on string theory. On several instances, she has said that she was working with Physics Prof. Leonard Susskind, one of the world’s most respected string theorists.

But Susskind told The Daily that Okazaki was not officially associated with him or his lab in any way.

“As far as I know, she has no official connection with anyone in the physics department,” Susskind said. “In fact, as far as I can tell, she has a very limited knowledge of physics itself.”

Susskind also told The Daily that Okazaki had said she was affiliated with an academic department on campus, yet StanfordWho and Facebook searches for Okazaki showed no indication that she has ties to Stanford.

When approached by The Daily after she emerged from an advanced physics seminar for graduate students, Okazaki repeatedly asked that a story not be written and declined to confirm or deny that she is a squatter or imposter. The woman also would not confirm her name or describe the nature of her research. Before walking away and declining to comment, Okazaki said she found the whole pretense of the story “to be quite bizarre.”

But to the physics doctoral students who work in the lab, Okazaki’s lack of an affiliation with Stanford was not surprising. Dan Green, a doctoral student in theoretical particle physics, said he became suspicious that Okazaki was at the lab under false pretenses more than two years ago. He said that his relationship with Okazaki soured about a year and a half ago when she moved into a visitor’s office in the building and stayed there for more than a month.

Green said that he immediately proceeded to inform the lab’s administrative offices about Okazaki’s behavior, but to his surprise, he said that Physics Department Services Manager Rosenna Yau refused to block Okazaki’s entrance into the building.

“We met significant resistance from the office,” Green said. “When we tried to describe Okazaki’s behavior to them, they gave us the same stories that she had told us. The office was willing to accept every excuse she gave them.”

Surjeet Rajendran, a physics doctoral student who also complained to the administration, echoed similar sentiments.

“The department is very aware of who this person is,” Rajendran said. “There’s tenderness for this girl, in my opinion, because she’s a past colleague of theirs.”

In an interview with The Daily, Yau acknowledged meeting with several physics students about Okazaki’s presence in the lab and confirmed that Okazaki worked in the administrative offices as a temporary employee for a brief period. The administrator, however, defended Okazaki’s presence in the lab.

“She’s a visiting scholar in either the music department or the German studies department,” Yau said. “She’s shown me her visiting scholar card.”

Yau also vehemently disputed the fact that Okazaki has a key to the lab, which some students said Okazaki has used on several instances to open office doors. The administrator claimed that Okazaki’s frequent presence in the lab, especially after the building had closed and on weekends, could be attributed to the carelessness of the physics students, who she suggested must be permitting Okazaki to enter the building.

“We have sent out so many emails because students don’t ask questions when people follow them in through the door,” Yau said. “Students even prop the door open on weekends.”

The department administrator also suggested that Okazaki has not committed any crime in attending a number of advanced physics lectures and seminars or in assuming office spaces in the building. Yau told The Daily that the lab was a “public space” and that she could not legally prohibit Okazaki from entering the building without a restraining order.

The administration’s apparent unwillingness to prevent Okazaki from assuming a permanent presence in the building angered many of the doctoral and post-doctoral students who spoke with The Daily. The students attributed Okazaki’s four-year-long stay in the department to both the administrative office’s refusal to act as well as the attitude in the physics department.

“She’s smart enough to leave most of the faculty alone,” Green said. “Most people here are non-confrontational, so few have really pressed the issue. Her visible presence changes over time depending on how much people have tried to get rid of her.”

While no one who talked with The Daily viewed Okazaki as a “security threat,” most described her as a “nuisance,” and some suggested that her continuing presence evinced how easy it is to gain unauthorized access to the building.

Over the last three months, different laboratories, including the Varian Physics Lab, have been burglarized several times with hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment stolen. Green expressed frustration that the department’s administrators continually called on physics students to be more vigilant when he said the office refused to deal decisively with Okazaki.

“The most likely person to prop the door open,” he said, “is the person who doesn’t have a right to be here and who’s not on the list.”

Many students said they felt sorry for Okazaki, who they speculate is homeless.

“I feel really bad for her,” said Alessandro Tomasiello, a post-doctoral scholar in theoretical particle physics. “I don’t want to have a conversation with her that will actually hurt her.”

Green partially attributed the lack of protest regarding Okazaki’s four-year-long stay in the department to the fact that Okazaki is an Asian woman.

“If she were a large, intimidating man, there’s no doubt that something would be done,” he said. “There’s a huge bias against appearances and it’s prevented people from taking action. I can’t see any reason why our department is special. This could really happen all over the place.”

[kasia]

and then she joined the rotc (azia kim) at santa clara u...

http://sfgate.com/c/pictures/2007/05/30/ba_azia.jpg

from the sf chron:

Until she was discovered 10 days ago, Azia Kim, 18, spent eight months living at Stanford in two dormitories with unsuspecting roommates.

The Stanford Daily reported Tuesday that she used her guise as a Stanford student last fall to sign up for Santa Clara University's ROTC program, which accepts students from other campuses. Kim took military science classes at Santa Clara until March, said Bob Rosenburgh, spokesman for the Western Region Cadet Command at Fort Lewis, Wash.

Rosenburgh said Kim did not break any laws in participating in ROTC.

"She was not a contracted cadet, and ROTC is not an accredited course at Stanford, and that's where she slipped through the cracks," he said. "Reporting requirements at Stanford are nominal for ROTC. ROTC says they are looking to close that loophole with better communication."

Santa Clara University spokesman Karen Crocker Snell said she could not provide any details about Kim.

The student newspaper reported that Kim had to show academic progress to ROTC officials and provided a fake transcript with grades that earned her the Dean's Award, a special ribbon for her uniform.

Efforts to reach Kim and her ROTC classmates were unsuccessful.

Stanford banned ROTC programs in the 1960s, so now Stanford students attend military classes at other schools. Stanford generally has about a dozen students who participate in ROTC each year.

Rosenburgh said Kim took military science courses on such topics as military history and military equipment.

"She apparently did well in the classes and took some tests and did well," he said.

Kim was issued military equipment including a uniform, pack and canteen worth less than $500 but did not receive a scholarship because she never signed a contract to become an Army officer, Rosenburgh said. The equipment has all been recovered.

"If she tried to become an Army officer, it wouldn't have made it past the first hurdle," he said. "There would have been a background check and a variety of other checks."

Stanford University spokeswoman Kate Chesley said she could not comment on the latest twist in Kim's hoax other than to say the university has added her ROTC participation to its investigation.

"It is one of the many pieces of the puzzle," she said.

Kim, who graduated from Troy High School in Fullerton last year and told people back home that she had been accepted to Stanford, apparently was able to keep up her deception at Stanford for almost an entire year.

She persuaded students in two different dorms to let her share their rooms and then to leave the window open -- allowing her to slip into her dorm room even though she didn't have a school-issued card key. She apparently socialized with other students, relaxing in the dorm lounge and talked about tests she apparently never would take.

Last week, student affairs staff members in one of the dorms raised questions about the young woman, and within hours she was asked to leave the campus. The university then opened an investigation and will forward information to the Santa Clara County district attorney's office, which will decide whether to prosecute.

E-mail Tanya Schevitz at tschevitz@sfchronicle.com.

[bluemonq]

then that's weird of them to let some shy girl that they don't really know live in their dormroom.
not that it really matters, but i remember the explanation being something like, "i really can't stand my roommate but i'm a little afraid of bringing it up with the RA." i'm surprised it didn't fall apart at that point.

[applehead]

well, this is getting really pathetic.
they need therapy.

[hooligan]

Too many name-whores out in the real world. Just go to school, pick up a decent education and move-the-fuck-on with life. No one will give a shit what school you went to in the long run, just so long as you do well.

I know too many douchebag kids who went to Troy High School, being that my school was in the same district. I know too many people who pimp their top tier school like it was the shit. Neither of which are people I respect.

[mr. x]

and then she joined the rotc (azia kim) at santa clara u...

http://sfgate.com/c/pictures/2007/05/30/ba_azia.jpg
.

She hella looks like this girl who lived on my floor back in my dorm days

She was into the gothic lolita thing. Weird. Fucking. Girl