An American influencer who lied her way into Cambridge University has revealed exactly how – and why – she falsified her application to the prestigious school after being rejected for a place on two previous occasions.
Virginia native Caroline Calloway has been called the ‘Gatsby of Cambridge’ after it was revealed that she tricked the university into giving her a diploma place in 2013 by lying about her qualifications on her application.
The 31 year old, who regularly documented her life on social media while studying art history at St Edmund’s College, has now released a memoir exposing her motivations.
She admitted she doesn’t feel guilty and said her decision was about “what’s best for the art.”
Virginia native Caroline Calloway has been dubbed the “Gatsby of Cambridge” after it was revealed she tricked the university into giving her a diploma place in 2013 by lying about her qualifications on her application
The 31-year-old, who regularly documented her life on social media while studying art history at St Edmund’s College
In her recently released memoir, titled Scammer, Calloway explained that when she was first turned down by Cambridge, she was “less hurt than surprised.”
She applied a second time, but received a similar response before deciding to change her credentials.
Recalling how she signed up for the third time, she wrote: ‘For example, I lied about my application for Cambridge. I started photoshopping my Exeter transcript. Was this difficult with their complex visual watermark? Yes. But I am an art historian and an artist.
Calloway has now released a memoir titled Scammer
“The reason Cambridge didn’t get a hold of me was that every time you apply to the school, you are applying to one of the individual colleges and not the university itself. These colleges are completely decentralized and hate to share anything with each other – sports fields, teachers, even applicant files.
‘I only had to change one mark on my Exeter report, but it was a bad mark. My last spring I had a D+ in Ancient Greek because that class was at the same time that Andy had a free period where he liked to fuck me in his top bunk.
‘I changed that D+ to an A-. Then I lied to Cambridge like this: on my two AP English Lit exams I had a 5 and a 4. Ditto AP Latin exams. I told Cambridge I got four fives instead.
“My lies looked so rhythmic next to all my other 5’s in AP Art History and Italian – and so believable next to my perfect score on the reading portion of the SATs!” I almost failed the math part because I can’t count, but I also failed the writing part because I didn’t finish it in time.’
Calloway claimed that her mother’s side of the family labeled her decision to apply for a third time as an “overwhelming madness” and “a spoiled fool.”
Calloway admitted she doesn’t feel guilty and said her decision was ‘about what’s best for the art’
Her picturesque photos of life in Cambridge, which were part of a blog she started in 2012 about the experiences of an American student at the university, attracted thousands of fans at the time
But she was not deterred and after the entrance interview on her 21st birthday, she enrolled in art history at St Edmund’s College.
She continued: ‘You might think I feel guilty about lying about my Cambridge application, but I don’t.
“I think I made the right choice then, just as I make the right choice now by writing about my lies. It’s not about what’s best for the texture of my everyday happiness. It’s about what’s best for the art.
‘Will Cambridge take away my degree? Will there be public outcry? People already think there’s nothing but tinsel and fluff in my beautiful evil spirit. I can’t imagine that shooting myself in the foot of the best reference I have will help the literary critics take me seriously.
“But my goal is to write as if I’m already dead. Living so long with a veil of daydreams between myself and reality – all those years I’ve been telling people I’m a writer who hasn’t written any books yet – was good practice for this.
“Courage takes courage, but you can always substitute self-deceit if that’s all you have in the pantry.”
In 2019, former girlfriend Natalie Beach published an op-ed in The Cut claiming that she was in fact responsible for Calloway’s success.
Calloway studied at Cambridge from 2013 to 2016 and now says she was in the grips of a prescription drug addiction at the time, taking the amphetamine Adderall
Calloway’s picturesque photos of life in Cambridge, which were part of a blog she started in 2012 about the experiences of an American university student, attracted thousands of fans at the time.
She told MailOnline when she was a student at St Edmund’s College, “I feel like I’m in Harry Potter, turning up in my robes in the Great Hall for dinner and having wonderful three-course meals.”
She studied at Cambridge from 2013 to 2016 and has since said she was in the grips of a prescription drug addiction at the time, taking the amphetamine Adderall.
In 2015, on the back of an ever-growing Instagram following who collected posts about her life as a college student, she received a book advance in a $500,000 deal to tell her life story.
But she failed to deliver and scare fans off two years later by claiming that the book’s premise had been “sexist.”
In 2019, former girlfriend Natalie Beach published an op-ed in The Cut claiming she was in fact responsible for Calloway’s success and was the person behind her famous Instagram captions — and the influencer’s life quickly unraveled.
Cambridge University has not commented on Calloway’s admissions about how she achieved her university place, telling MailOnline earlier this year: ‘We cannot comment on individual students, but we take statements like this very seriously.’
Caroline Calloway’s Scammer is now available to order from the author website.