City University of New York

City University of New York is the setting for a crucial early stage in Michael Ferris Burke’s assumed academic career: posing as a twenty-six-year-old transfer student, he entered as a sophomore pre-med major with a forged transcript. The institution’s acceptance of that record helped him continue toward medical training, while the credentials and identity he presented concealed his actual age and past.

Burke’s Enrollment and False Credentials

A year after Irma Huie’s death, Mitchell Sartin reappeared under the name Michael Ferris Burke and enrolled at City University of New York. He claimed to be twenty-six, matching identification he had copied from a dead baby in Connecticut, although he was actually twenty-two. His application included a transcript purporting to show a year of study at Michigan State University and a 3.8 grade-point average; the transcript was later shown to be forged. City University of New York accepted it, allowing him to enter as a sophomore pre-med student.

Pre-Medical Work and Academic Record

Burke supported himself in part by working as a lab assistant to a biology professor. The work was essentially nighttime bottle washing, and student housing kept his expenses low; money associated with his grandmother also gave him financial latitude. His later record was stronger than the forged transcript alone might suggest: he earned a 3.85 grade-point average, which the investigator believed he had genuinely achieved. During summers, he worked as an orderly at three public hospitals, gaining experience in medical settings while continuing his education.

Role in Burke’s Path to Medicine

City University of New York marks the transition from Burke’s assumed identity and falsified academic history to a sustained course of pre-medical study. After his time there, he applied to ten medical schools, was admitted to four, and chose the University of Washington in Seattle. The episode makes the university an important institutional waypoint in the account of his progression toward medicine: it accepted credentials that were false, while Burke’s subsequent academic performance appears to have been real.