She changed her name and faked her past to get into Yale. How she was caught

A student who changed her name, faked her identity and falsified transcripts to get into Yale was recently expelled after being caught. Katherina Lynn had her admission rescinded after authorities realized she had “submitted falsified information” and “misrepresented themselves” in her application, Yale Daily News reported.

How one student faked her past and changed her name to get into Yale.

When Air Mail News got in touch with Katherina Lynn — which is not her real name — the former Yale student admitted to the long con that secured her a place in the Ivy League institute.

Changing name, faking identity

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, Lynn said she grew up in a Chinese family in California. She always hated the name her parents gave her, and was often bullied for it in school.

Halfway through her sophomore year of high school, she decided that an Asian kid with average grades had slim chances of getting into Yale. And so she came up with a plan to fake her entire identity.

Lynn decided to give herself a fake background by claiming in her Yale application that she was born and raised in the 2,000-person town of Tioga, North Dakota.

In order to forge her transcript, she learned to use Adobe. She also wrote her own letters of recommendation, coming up with ways to skirt college security measures.

Erasing her real identity

It was not enough that Lynn crafted a whole new identity for herself, she had to wipe out every trace of her original identity.

To that end, she missed her high school graduation in California in 2024. She even begged that her real name not be read out during the convocation ceremony – a request that was ignored by her school.

She then legally changed her name, becoming Katherina Lynn.

According to an Air Mail News report, in the fall of 2024, this California student applied to Yale under the name of Katherina Lynn, pretending to be from Tioga, North Dakota.

“I wrote about how being from a small town would shape who I am,” she said.

Getting into Yale

The ruse worked. Lynn was accepted to Yale and arrived at the campus in August with a single suitcase and a purse.

When she arrived on campus, Lynn was assigned to a small four-person suite in Old Campus’s Lanman-Wright Hall — known to students as “L-Dub.” The rooms were tiny, with bunk beds crammed into each bedroom and a narrow common area in between.

Outside the suite door, her new roommates had already decorated the entrance with colourful stickers displaying everyone’s names and hometowns. Hers read: “Katherina Lynn — Tioga, North Dakota.”

The sight made her stomach drop. Her plan had always been to tell people she was from California — it was easier to keep her story straight that way in case she ever slipped up.

“It was just a sticker on a door, and I should’ve taken it down,” she later told Air Mail News. “But I’d just flown in from California on a red-eye. I was exhausted and not thinking clearly.”

(Also read: This Reddit confession led to Indian student’s deportation from US: ‘I planned something very wrong’)

For three years, Lynn had obsessed over every detail of her fake identity, making sure there were no cracks. But she was beginning to realise that not everything could be controlled.

From there, things started to unravel.

Things fall apart

Lynn says that one of her suitemates, Sara Bashker, took an immediate dislike to her.

Problems between Lynn and her suitemates began with complaints about a mildew smell emanating from Lynn’s room and accusations that she left rotten food behind.

Students also told Yale Daily News that Lynn was in a BDSM relationship with an older man in California, and spent three to four hours on the phone with him every day.

Sara Bashker said that at different points during her time at Yale, Lynn mentioned that she had lived in California, China and Canada. Her differing accounts raised suspicions.

How Katherina Lynn was caught and expelled from Yale.

Getting caught by roommate

Then, on September 16, Bashker noticed a luggage tag on Lynn’s desk with a name that she did not recognize. She took a photograph of the tag and sent it to her freshman counselor.

That same night, while Lynn was in the shower, Bashker sneaked into her room and looked through her purse. She found an ID card that Lynn had used to fly from California to Yale. The name on the ID card matched the name on the luggage tag that Bashker had earlier spotted. The ID also listed a California address.

Bashker showed the ID to the college dean.

Shortly afterwards, Lynn was told that her admission had been rescinded.

Bashker recalled that she was folding her laundry when a police officer arrived at the suite with Anjelica Gonzalez, the head of college. They told Lynn to pack her things, she said, and the officer stood by as Lynn quietly gathered her belongings.

“Yale receives thousands of admissions applications each year, and the process relies on the honesty of the applicants and the accuracy of the information that is provided. When it came to the university’s attention that a student misrepresented themselves in their application, the university rescinded their admission as outlined in the admission’s policies. Yale will not be sharing additional details,” a Yale spokesperson told Air Mail News.