Plotting further, feeling his way, it came to him that he could reach his goal by seeing if the school had a graduate with the same name as his, who had earned a computer science degree any time during an appropriate span of years. If so, he could just put down the other Michael Parker's social security number on employment application forms; any company that checked the name and social security number with the university would be told that, yes, he did have the claimed degree. (It wouldn't be obvious to most people but was obvious to him that he could put one social security number on the job application and then, if hired, put his own real number on the new-employee forms. Most companies would never think to check whether a new hire had used a different number earlier in the hiring process.)