Fearless Outlaw Survived Wellesley Only to Get Pinched Robbing Dartmouth

by Alex Howe | April 17, 2009 at 6:25 pm

welleseyfinalToday, we belatedly return to the story of Mohammad Usman, the former Dartmouth student who pled guilty two weeks ago to defrauding the College of over $18,000. Usman’s fabrication of aid and grants carries a maximum of fifteen years in jail. (He’ll serve much less, if any).

We bring him up now for two reasons. First, what’s the deal?? Who is this budding con artist? Dish, y’all. Second, a tipster pointed out, well, who he is: no stranger to publicity, Usman spent his sophomore fall as the only boy at Wellesley. A Dartmouth administrator told him his plan to transfer to the all-female institution for a semester was “impossible,” but already Usman was no man to be held back by mere rules.

I believe the word is chutzpah. The Boston Globe wondered, why go snorkeling in estrogen? To live the liberal-arts ideal of “experiencing a wide variety of things.” Well, if you insist, he’ll cop to being “very attracted to intelligent women.” All that, and some MASSIVE foreshadowing: “It's important to me to get the most of my 50 Gs.”

(Note that when he spoke to the Globe, Usman entered Breastchester single. Interviewed later by Cornell’s Kitsch, his story flipped---a pre-existing “relationship ended while he was still at Wellesley.” Human; all too human.)

The Wellesley coup made Usman a “folk hero” among his friends, and that was before he tried to scam Dartmouth.  You have to be impressed by the pair on this kid, if nothing else. As Nietzsche said, “One is punished most for one’s virtues.” Tell us more about this Icarus of thinking outside all the wrong boxes (well...). You have to hope the bilking wasn’t motivated by the recession, which obviously isn’t real.

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