Yale University Rejects Shin’s Fake PhD Claim

Yale University officially denied Shin’s assertion that, “It is correct that I received a doctoral degree at Yale University.”

Yale University said on September 21 that Shin Jeong-ah did not register as a student, did not attend any classes, and did not receive a doctoral degree. The university revealed that all documents supporting Shin’s assertion of receiving a doctoral degree at Yale University were forgeries.

With regard to her assertion that she received a doctoral degree with the help of a private teacher, Yale University said the university didn’t allow private teachers to write papers, mentioning “Any student has to write a thesis by him/herself in order to receive a doctoral degree at Yale University; moreover the paper should be creative.”

When Shin Jeong-ah was examined in the prosecutors’ office recently, she asserted that John Tracey, a part-time instructor and broker in the department of art history at Yale, helped her receive a doctoral degree. But Yale University revealed, “there is no person named John Tracey in the art history department. In addition, the university said, “Yale has no relationship with brokers and the concept of broker is alien to Yale University.”

kong@donga.com