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 Febrary 2019 (one-year contract). However, the ads are still shown today by UoPeople and they can now be considered a scam, because University of the People still claims — in 2023 — that Simone Biles "has joined" UoPeople and is going to college at UoPeople, which insults our intelligence.
Biles has not taken part in any ads or issued any official statements since February 2019, and it is unclear whether she got a (useless) UoPeople diploma or not. Her official website and biography does not mention University of the People at all.
Simone Biles did not attend UoPeople nor did she get a degree from this diploma mill
Last but not least, if it is true that Simone Biles has been studying at UoPeople.edu since 2018, why doesn't anyone see her? This is strange to say the least, because UoPeople's controversial peer-assessment mechanism forces students to assess other students' assignments — including Biles', in theory. Besides, we did some research through the National Student Clearinghouse and the result was that Simone Biles 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". In many press releases and YouTube videos, University of the People still claims Simone Biles to be a "global ambassador and spokeswoman" for the organization, so why should it be "private" or "blocked"? If she got a real degree in business administration, why does her official biography omit it and so does the National Student Clearinghouse? Also, UoPeople's "ambassadors" are basically young underpaid reps and/or spammers on social media: did Biles actually agree to become a new spammer or underpaid rep manipulated by the offshore "UoPeople" diploma mill? We doubt it and remain skeptical. Anyway, the whole affair is very strange and obscure: total lack of transparency, even assuming this is not fake news.
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 the 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. In other words, there are no records of Simone Biles just because she never took any exams on UoPeople.edu and it is evident that she is not going to take any. Bottom line: typical misleading ads and fake news from UoPeople, which is one of the biggest scams in the history of education.
More importantly, Simone Biles never attended the University of the People! UoPeople sales reps now tell us that "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, the University of the People is ridiculous because you just have to copy-paste random stuff generated by ChatGPT or other free AI services — and any idiot can buy a degree this way; secondly, a "dropout" is a student who abandons a course of study, while Simone Biles never abandoned anything simply because she never started. Nevertheless, a few years ago UoPeople reps also claimed that "Simone Biles belongs to the Notable Alumni of the University of the People". 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", just because it was all made up. To put it simply, they tacitly admitted that we had discovered their latest scam. Remember: the 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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