Sure, repaying student loans stinks, but it could be worse…you could be facing criminal charges for trying to go to college.

Let’s look at the strange case of people trying to fake it through college – and I’m not talking about slacking off or cheating in classes. We’re talking about the students who aren’t exactly paying tuition, but still attend classes and have a place to sleep at night.

Let’s look at the example of Azia Kim, who, by all accounts looked to be just another freshman on the campus of Stanford University. The problem is, there were no records to prove it.

Kim lived on campus for almost a year, somehow dodging RAs and professors, and burned a lot of friends in the process.

Last week the Los Angeles Times took a look at why someone would want to go through the trouble of creating such an elaborate deception. It takes a lot of work to convince people you’re a college student, and it takes even more lies to keep it up. The article speculates that some people are just serial liars and are desperate for the game, while others say it may just be the strange pressure to get into college.

So the question is, why do it? Anyone?

Meanwhile, a few college links for the day:

- In case you missed it last week, a report from Education Week says that continuing education after high school graduation will lead to better pay in the future. Maine has a higher graduation rate than the national average but prepares students for jobs in lower wage fields.

- Maine is inching closer to providing tax credits to recent college graduates who stick around to work after getting their diplomas. The Maine House of Representatives gave unanimous support to Opportunity Maine and the bill now heads to the Senate. If it gets through the Senate it goes on to Gov. John Baldacci, who has already said he supports the idea. Under the Opportunity Maine plan, graduates would receive a tax credit to help pay down student loan debt.

The credit, which would be around $2,100 a year and $8,400 total, could be used by the graduate or their employer. Like so many other citizen-led initiatives, the Opportunity Maine proposal appeared to be headed to statewide referendum, but it could be going right into law. According to all-knowing historian and state Rep. Herb Adams, D-Portland, this would be only the sixth time in the state’s history that a citizen-initiated bill would be signed into law.

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