<p>I have a classmate who lied on his personal statement (exaggerated family/health issues) and put more community service hours and leadership positions than he really has. Now that he got into Cal, he’s been boasting about it and showing everyone his printed UC application. Everyone knows he lies about it. Doesn’t the UC check the validity of information on the application? How could he get in like that? Is it that easy to make yourself sound really pitiful to get accepted?</p>
<p>That’s pretty terrible of the classmate to do… Robs another student of a spot by not only exaggerating the truth but bragging about it. But the thing is they only randomly check for validity of these things. Seems like your classmate was lucky not to get picked.</p>
<p>This is actually VERY common. I know a friend that was decently qualified, ranked #3 or so in my high school, but she lied about being on 3 sports teams all four years and getting MVP for all sports the last two years (she was only on them her senior year), doing 500+ community service hours, made up a story about financial problems that required her to work 30 hours a week on top of school, and all these small details that added up to be very significant. The UCs rarely ever check the validity of these service hours and awards, so it leaves plenty of room to lie. She did nothing but got good grades, and she did get into all the UCs. The only part of the application that you can’t lie about is your grades because you have to send in a transcript. So if you have the grades, you can make up anything really. It’s not like the admission officers are going to ask your parents questions about the “hardships” or your boss if you really did work, or ANYTHING for that matter.</p>
<p>UCs verify about 1% of the applicants for accuracy. Checkout below article:
[UC</a> sleuths seek proof for glorious claims on admission applications - Inside Bay Area](<a href=“http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_14310072]UC”>http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_14310072)</p>
<p>It’s actually about 10%. My friend got checked, and it gave him some statistics about the percentile and how the process is random and what not</p>
<p>I know someone who got into Berkeley with excellent ECs, but cheated all his life to get good grades. I think it’s so unfair that he got in. He was the type to have a friend text him all the answers to a test and was also a person to have everything down on a descrete post it note. I really hope that someday Berkeley would find out and take away his admittance.</p>
<p>Hopefully these people will learn that they can’t cheat their way into everything. I just hope karma bites them in the butt later on</p>
<p>You can report your classmate to the admissions office at Cal and he will be investigated. Cal takes lying on application very seriously and if he indeed lied on his application, he will be blacklisted from all UCs for the rest of eternity.</p>