Princeton Op-Ed Piece Disses Harvard Cheating Scandal In Perfect, Nerdy Fashion
AP Photo/Mel EvansA day after Princeton broke away from Harvard to claim sole rights to the spot on U.S. News & World Report's university rankings, one Princeton student has decided to pour a little salt on the wound.
While a lot has been written about the Harvard Crimson's report that 42% of the school's incoming freshmen have cheated on a homework assignment, Benjamin Dinovelli - a Daily Princetonian opinion writer - may have just issued the single best line in the whole discussion.
Dinovelli opened his column today with the devastating dig, "Sophocles once said, 'I would prefer even to fail with honor than to win by cheating' - but then again, Sophocles didn't go to Harvard."
For those of you not in the know, Sophocles is the 5th century BC Greek dramatist best remembered for his plays such as "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone."
To his credit, Dinovelli goes on to say that these cheating numbers could easily have been from the recently crowned "Best University in America" and may be a consequence of the schools' high pressure peer institutions, pointing to recent studies that claim "high achievers are more likely to cheat."
"Both Princeton and Harvard are made up of students from similarly competitive high school backgrounds. It's not far fetched to imagine that if The Daily Princetonian sent out a similar survey to this new incoming class, it could potentially get similar results," he writes.
Check out Daily Princetonian writer Benjamin Dinovelli's full column here >