Minnesota colleges are dealing with a growing wave of enrollment fraud in which criminals use stolen identities to pose as real students, apply for classes and attempt to collect taxpayer-funded financial aid, and one community college says the problem has become so large that nearly one in three applications is now being flagged as potentially fraudulent.
KSTP 5 Eyewitness News investigative reporter Eric Rasmussen said Normandale Community College in Bloomington has processed roughly 29,000 applications that were considered fraudulent or suspicious since the problem began surging in 2023.
Dara Hagen, Normandale’s vice president of Student Affairs, told Rasmussen the share of questionable applications was once even higher…