What can institutions do about the rise of ‘ghost students’?
Alcino Donadel
April 5, 2024
A perfect storm of circumstances has led to a significant rise in fake students applying to college and enrolling in classes to take advantage of the higher education system. Ghost students, also called “Pell runners,” have caused particular havoc in California, upsetting the institutional security measures and often stealing millions of dollars in financial aid.
In July 2021, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office discovered that about 20% of the state’s college applications were scams. Of the 2.3 million who had applied, 460,000 were found to be fake. Pierce College in Los Angeles recently gutted nearly 3,000 “students” after discovering that 36% of its enrollment consisted of phony accounts.
At the most nefarious level, scammers use the identity of other unsuspecting persons to collect financial aid money. In March, three California women were indicted for obtaining nearly $1 million in federal student loans. The San Diego Community College District is still reeling after discovering it was paying out over $100,000 in fraudulent claims in 2021, Faculty Focus reports.
