First, as proof that he was the "most honest student" in his Psychology 301 class, Mr. Carson reproduced this article on his Facebook page, with highlights to make sure no one missed the salient points:
Unfortunately, Mr Carson missed the whole point of this article--it was PARODY. The article references a joke issue of The Yale Record--the university's version of The Onion.
There is no date visible on the article, but Mr. Carson claims it was published on January 14, 1970.
If that date is accurate and we add that to the fact that this story was written in jest, a logical conclusion would seem to be that Mr. Carson read this story while he was a student at Yale, had no idea what parody was, decided it fit with his burgeoning Walter Mitty persona, and incorporated it as a true incident in his life story, adding details about a photo and a $10 reward (for authenticity?). In other words, he lied; and he just proved it. Good work, Ben!
Just to make sure he had made his point, Mr. Carson also used his Facebook page to post a link to the class he claimed he took, complete with a dig at how stupid reporters are.
Follow that handy link, and lo and behold!, it's the syllabus from a psychology class called Perception! Vindication for Mr. Carson? Well, actually, no. The syllabus is from 2002 (long after Mr. Carson had exited Yale) and the number is 323b (not 301 as Mr Carson claims in his story.) Also, the professor seems to be male while the professor in Mr. Carson's tall tale is referred to as "she." It's possible a the professor used a female teaching assistant, so I'll give him that point.
But on the basics of the issue, it looks like the secretary who responded to the WSJ inquiry was right after all. No class like the one Mr. Carson claimed he took, and where he says he earned "Most Honest Student" status, appears to have existed during the years he spent at Yale.
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