It’s bad enough that predatory, for-profit colleges such as Kaplan and the University of Phoenix overcharge and under-educate students every day. But getting prospective students to apply (and pay fees) to a made-up, completely fictional university?
That’s exactly what the “University of Redwood” managed to do.
Okay. So. The University of Redwood doesn’t exist. Instead, it’s a charlatan website out of China, looking to rip off college hopefuls. Would-be students apply and pay application fees, only to receive a rejection notice weeks later.
And when it comes to not only the phony university’s website design, but also its sheer identity, the ballsy minds behind this scheme decided the content over at Portland’s own Reed College was simply irresistible. Reed’s homepage, history, faculty, academic calendar, photos—pretty much everything—was copied and pasted into Redwood’s fraudulent website.
“Clearly, we’ve been trying to get the website taken down,” says Kevin Meyers, public relations spokesperson at the legit Reed College. “We sent a cease and desist back in October, and got them to take it down for about 10 days. But then it went back up.”
“It’s pretty amazing what they did—they basically just switched out ‘Reed’ for ‘Redwood’ in all the text, and took as their own,” he continues.
Here’s hoping Princesston University doesn’t make an appearance on the interwebs anytime soon.
Hey, I graduated from the University of Redwood! It was a very, very good school and I graduated with a very, very useful degree in communications!!
O, Redwoods!
Ye are the tree of knowledge,
so we sing to thee!…
Oh good! I am the first here to make this extremely important correction — it’s “Reed College,” not “Reed University.” Whew. Now I can breathe again.
Apart from that, sure, the U. of the Redwoods is a good enough school, but there’s no freaking way it has as good a Renn Fayre as Reed has — Reed’s has a tradition of stoned naked hippies on the slip n’ slide that is second to none. Also, have you seen the U. of Redwoods’ Doyle Owl? I could crap a better Doyle Owl than that. I say they should start either bring their A-game to imitating Reed or switch to imitating Harvey Mudd or Haverford (burn!).
I went to Renn Fayre at Reed last year and was terribly disappointed. The art walk on Albert is more wild.
I vote for Redwood U!
@Super Chundo: I think you’re mistaking graduating from the University of Redwood with camping for a weekend amidst some redwoods.
LOL?
I kinda feel like this falls in the same camp as people who get the Publisher’s Clearinghouse letter and start spending their millions…. if you’re dumb enough to send money to a school that has no info anywhere else but their own website and no ones has ever heard of….
Hey, now, I graduated from Reed back in the middle 1960’s, and I can confidently state as a member of said group) that the tradition of stoned, naked hippies slipping and sliding LONG preceded the Renn Fayre in Reed traditionland. (Not only that, but I actually met the Doyle Owl face to face, but that’s another story…) On behalf of all stoned naked hippies, Reed-affiliated or not, I hope that such traditions continue everywhere and everywhen…
jd