Dave Tomar was a cheater… or at least he helped cheaters cheat.

For years, Tomar made a living writing term papers - over 3,500 of them - for college students, but now he is coming clean about his questionably unethical line of work in a new memoir called “The Shadow Scholar: How I Made A Living Helping College Kids Cheat.” In the book, Tomar exposes the sordid underground world of higher education where lazy students buy good grades, colleges overcharge students, and misguided parents help make it all possible.

Tomar contextualizes his story in the post-2008 recession economy when students are strapped with more college debt than ever before and the national unemployment rate is dangerously high. Ultimately, the author examines the true value of the expensive American education system and attempts to explain why so many students end up cheating.

Guest:

Dave Tomar, author, “The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat” (Bloomsbury USA); Philadelphia-based freelance writer