<p>There is a vehement and heated debate going on in the College Admissions group about what someone should do if they find out that someone they know at their high school forged recommendations and got accepted to Yale. So, if there’s anyone out there from an adcom or with adcom experience, I’m curious to know how important that information would be to you, and if it’s important, what would your school/any school with which you are or were affiliated do?</p>
<p>Thank you laxtaxi, a great solution.</p>
<p>An additional question: Would the timing matter? Would you want to know even at this point if someone you accepted during the last school year forged his recs?</p>
<p>Here are articles quoting admissions officers including those at Yale, the college involved in the other thread:</p>
<p>Yale Daily News
Published Tuesday, April 8, 2008</p>
<p>For some applicants, a Yale education is worth lying for.
After discovering serious discrepancies in the transfer application of a Morse College junior, Yale rescinded his admission last summer, and police arrested him in September for larceny and forgery. In a season of single-digit acceptance rates, the case is a jolting signal of the vulnerability of the Ivy League to admissions fraud.</p>
<p>Facing stiffer competition and heavier pressure than ever before, an increasing number of increasingly desperate students are willing to bend the truth to get into their dream schools, experts say. …</p>
<p>University officials said they have no way of knowing how many applicants have gotten away with forgery, fraud or even minor exaggerations.</p>
<p>But if the accusations levied in court documents are true, this student did not merely pad his resume; he defrauded Yale University wholesale.</p>
<p>And he was not the first.</p>
<p>According to a sworn affidavit obtained by the News, the Yale Police Department has investigated admissions fraud before, including instances of inaccurate birth dates, altered or counterfeit transcripts and fake letters of recommendation. Such cases at Yale and other elite schools have captured national headlines in the past.</p>
<p>In 1992, James Arthur Hogue, a 32-year-old man who posed as a 20-year-old Princeton student and fraudulently received almost $22,000 in scholarships, was sentenced to nine months in jail. Charges of forgery and falsifying records were subsequently dropped in a plea bargain.</p>
<p>Then, in 1995, Lon “L.T.” Grammer, a 25-year-old senior in Davenport College, was expelled and charged with stealing $61,475 in loans and scholarships. Yale officials said the student, who transferred from a California community college where he maintained a C average, forged his transcript and letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>And as recently as 1999, Tonica Jenkins, a 24-year-old Ohio woman, pleaded guilty to larceny and forgery for forging recommendations and transcripts in her application to a Yale graduate program. She was ordered to return $16,000 in scholarships…</p>
<p>Yale’s penalty for lying on an application is revocation of admission, [Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeff] Brenzel wrote in a statement Monday night.</p>
<p>[Yale</a> Daily News - Case suggests vulnerability](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24284]Yale”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24284)</p>
<hr>
<p>ERKELEY, Calif.-The Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley rejected five applicants for admission after finding they’d lied on their applications.</p>
<p>One candidate forged a letter of recommendation and lied about promotions received; the others fibbed about how long they’d been out of work. All five would’ve been admitted if they’d told the truth, says Jett Pihakis, director of domestic admissions at Haas.</p>
<p>This is the first year the school has run full background checks on students selected for admission, but after last year’s corporate scandals, business schools have a new commitment to ethics.
[College</a> rejects applicants for lying | Group | Find Articles at BNET](<a href=“http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3835/is_200307/ai_n9252141]College”>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3835/is_200307/ai_n9252141)</p>
<p>"College students using fake IDs is definitely nothing new, but students using computer programs to make fake college applications is something a little less familiar. This seemingly simple offence can leave offenders with a lofty fine and or even jail time. </p>
<p>Kevin MacLennan, director of admissions at CU, said students and transfers using computer programs like Microsoft Word to make fake transcripts is no rumor. </p>
<p>CU receives applications and transcripts from all across the United States, but MacLennan said he and his team can pick a fake out of the bunch. </p>
<p>“We can tell when transcripts don’t have appropriate seals or envelopes,” MacLennan said. </p>
<p>Once a fraudulent transcript has been identified, the admissions office is required to file a police report with the CUPD. Students who turn in fraudulent applications will be denied admissions to CU and its sister campuses every time they apply."
[CU</a> receiving fake college applications - News](<a href=“http://media.www.thecampuspress.com/media/storage/paper1098/news/2007/02/04/News/Cu.Receiving.Fake.College.Applications-2695184.shtml]CU”>http://media.www.thecampuspress.com/media/storage/paper1098/news/2007/02/04/News/Cu.Receiving.Fake.College.Applications-2695184.shtml)</p>
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<p>[Yale Director of Undergrad Admissions Margit] Dahl said that her office sends out postcards to some of the writers of letters of recommendation to say thanks. “We hope people will respond if they never wrote any such letter,” she said. “If there’s a whiff of anything funny, we get right on the phone. We have conversations with a great many school guidance counselors.”
[Bogus</a> Candidates Sometimes Slip Through the College Admissions Screen - New York Times](<a href=“http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE2DF123BF935A25757C0A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2]Bogus”>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE2DF123BF935A25757C0A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2)</p>