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Simone Biles and the (lack of) education at the University of the People
Simone Biles worked for a UoPeople advertising campaign from February 2018 to February 2019 under a one-year contract. However, UoPeople continues to use these ads, making them misleading and deceptive. Even in 2023, University of the People falsely claims that Simone Biles "has joined" UoPeople and is currently attending, which is an obvious attempt to mislead potential students.
Biles has not participated in any new ads or issued any official statements about UoPeople since February 2019, and it remains unclear whether she ever received a (useless) UoPeople diploma. Her official website and biography do not mention the University of the People at all.
Simone Biles did not attend UoPeople nor did she get a degree from this diploma mill
If it is true that Simone Biles has been studying at UoPeople.edu since 2018, why doesn't anyone ever see her? This is particularly strange because UoPeople's controversial peer-assessment system requires students to assess each other's assignments (including Biles', in theory). We conducted research through the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), and the result was that Simone Biles has never enrolled in any UoPeople.edu classes. However, NSC added that, hypothetically, "the individual may have chosen to keep it private" or "the school may have blocked this information". This explanation makes no sense. University of the People still publicly claims in many press releases and YouTube videos that Simone Biles is a "global ambassador and spokeswoman" for the organization. If that's the case, why should her enrollment status be "private" or "blocked"? If she truly earned a legitimate business administration degree, why is it completely omitted from her official biography and from the National Student Clearinghouse records? UoPeople's so-called ambassadors are typically just young, underpaid representatives or social media spammers. Did Simone Biles actually agree to become an unpaid rep or spammer for an offshore diploma mill like UoPeople? We highly doubt it. Regardless, the entire situation remains strange and highly suspicious—with a total lack of transparency, even assuming this isn't just another piece of UoPeople's fabricated marketing.
In conclusion, Simone Biles
dropped out of UCLA
is not on the National Student Clearinghouse's records
exploiting the previous two points, University of the People still claims her to be a "student", an "ambassador", a "spokeswoman", you name it. Too bad UoPeople.edu is not a real US college and is not located in California, nor does it have any notable alumni.
Update: UoPeople.edu finally admitted that Simone Biles never graduated from the University of the People
From bbb.org:
I signed up because a YouTube video uploaded by this self-described school states that [Simone Biles] is studying here and we can all become students together with her. The video also claims that [Simone Biles] is a "representative" and "ambassador" of the University of the People. Fake news! As soon as you log on, you realize that the whole story is invented. [Simone Biles] never studied or graduated here. This website likes to make fun of people.
Reply from a UoPeople.edu verified account:
Hi Francis, please note that Simone was a student with us and she was our global ambassador before taking a break to focus on other engagements. […then they add some old commercials]
Obviously, "taking a break" means that Simone Biles quit, simply because she never came back. There are no records of Simone Biles because she never took any exams on UoPeople.edu, and it is evident that she has no intention of doing so. Bottom line: this is yet another example of UoPeople's misleading advertising and fake news, reinforcing its reputation as one of the biggest scams in the history of education.
More importantly, Simone Biles never attended the University of the People! UoPeople sales reps are now trying to spin the story by saying, "Simone Biles is a dropout because she was not intelligent enough to attend the prestigious University of the People, which was too difficult for her." Fake news! Firstly, UoPeople is a joke: students simply copy-paste random content generated by ChatGPT or other free AI tools, making it one of the easiest ways to buy a degree. If UoPeople were truly "difficult", any idiot would not be able to graduate just by using AI-generated responses. Secondly, a "dropout" is someone who abandons a course of study. Simone Biles never abandoned anything because she never started in the first place. Despite this, a few years ago, UoPeople reps also falsely claimed that Simone Biles was part of their "Notable Alumni". How ridiculous.
Conclusion
After Shai Reshef and his sales reps read this article, they stopped claiming that "Simone Biles is a UoPeople student who just received our degree", simply because it was completely fabricated. In other words, they tacitly admitted that we had exposed their latest scam. University of the People has no notable alumni, let alone Simone Biles.
Update (2024) from Simone Biles' press office
We received an email from Simone Biles' staff: «Simone has never attended the University of the People and severed ties with them as soon as she realized it was a scam.»
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