Explained: What Lyle Menendez’s short time at Princeton University was actually like

One thing that gets brought up a lot during Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix is Lyle’s life at Princeton University. It very much seems from the Netflix series like father José pushed Lyle into attending the Ivy League college, and would do anything to ensure his son stayed there.

So, you might be wondering what Lyle Menendez was actually like at Princeton University, and whether stories of plagiarism and not enjoying education as shown on Netflix really happened.

Here’s a full rundown of Lyle Menendez’s time at Princeton, his suspension, and how he ultimately left the college.

Lyle Menendez was accepted to Princeton in 1987

via Princeton Archives

After graduating high school, when Lyle Menendez first applied to go to Princeton University, he was rejected. He then attended a local community college, where he fell in love with a girl called Jamie and wanted to open a restaurant. His parents disapproved of this, and instead had him continue with applying to the university as José Menendez had always dreamed Lyle would attend an Ivy League college.

In 1987, Princeton accepted Lyle’s second application. He was accepted to the college more because of his background and tennis ability, over his actual academic success. Lyle had pretty average high school grades.

Shortly after he was accepted, during his first semester there, Lyle Menendez was suspended from Princeton for plagiarism. The real life story is much like how it was shown in Monsters on Netflix: Lyle had been required to complete a lab assignment in his psychology class, and was accused of copying a lab partner’s homework and claiming it as his own.

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It was reported that at the time, Lyle had been travelling a lot back and forth to California to visit his family, and had left his notes at the airport. So, he asked a classmate if he could see their notes, which he subsequently copied.

via Netflix

Lyle’s father José found out about the plagiarism from another family member who Lyle had confided in, and then sent Lyle a statement to read about ethics before the disciplinary committee. According to Crime Library, after a four-hour hearing, the disciplinary committee deliberated for a further one hour and found Lyle guilty of plagiarism and suspended him for one year.

Lyle returned after the year, and during this time continued to see his girlfriend Jamie. It’s been reported Lyle Menendez hated school, and only went through the motions there because his parents had wanted him to. He rarely participated in campus activities, and spoke of wanting to transfer somewhere else.

Jamie introduced Lyle to Donovan Goodreau, who became Lyle’s best friend at Princeton. According to reports, Donovan was willing to write Lyle’s uni papers for him, in an effort to keep him from failing. However, Lyle constantly got low grades, and this led to academic disciplinary action. Eventually, Lyle Menendez withdrew from Princeton.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Where is John Sweeney now? Dominique Dunne murder case brought up in Monsters on Netflix

• Leslie Abramson: Where the Menendez lawyer is now, decades after the brothers’ trial

• The real Erik Menendez blasts ‘blatant lies’ told by Netflix show in bombshell statement