Dive Summary:
- After nearly a decade ghostwriting student papers at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels, 32-year-old Dave Tomar is "retiring" from his career of helping students cheat and telling all in a memoir titled "The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat," due out next month.
- Tomar previously published a confessional essay under the pseudonym "Ed Dante" two years ago for "The Chronicle of Higher Education," and, in his new book, looks to present himself as an antihero of the current generation while admonishing colleges for caring more about money and status than student learning.
- The Rutgers University graduate also attempts to rationalize his former career by citing larger cultural problems, including a culture where he says Wall Street can crash the economy at no consequence, a sense of entitlement in young people who value a grade over learning, universities' pursuit of prestige and the "economic implications of college."
From the article:
When The Chronicle published a confessional essay two years ago by a writer for a student-paper mill who had spent nearly a decade helping college students cheat on their assignments, it provoked anger, astonishment, and weary resignation. The writer, under the pseudonym Ed Dante, said he had completed scores of papers for students who were too lazy or simply unprepared for their work at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels. The academic ghostwriter has retired, and in his new memoir, he reveals his true identity: Dave Tomar, 32, a graduate of the bachelor's program in communications at Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus and, now, a freelance writer in Philadelphia. ...