<p>I would like some opinions on how a school should handle the situation if they become aware that a student ( or parents) has submitted incorrect information and exagerrated EC accomplishments on a scholarship application.</p>
<p>This is a scholarship application, and applicants should be held to the highest standards of ethics. Junk the application.</p>
<p>They should let the college know.</p>
<p>It would depend on whether they were material or not. Without more information it’s hard to give any other suggestions.</p>
<p>The phrase “incorrect information and exaggerated EC accomplishments” is quite vague. If there was a delibrate lie on the part of the applicant, the school should notify the student that they have discovered the lie. Nothing should happen behind the student’s back. The student or the school should notify the college and state what on the application needs to be changed. In most cases, I do not feel that it is necessary for the school to tell the college that the changes are because the student delibrately lied on his application. The college advisor or GC should alter his recommendation if he personally feels that it is necessary. The school should feel free to punish the student within the school for his actions.</p>
<p>Any one may be excusable and considered immaterial (could be honest mistake , typo, misinterpretation. careless, " a little exaggeration can’t hurt") , but what if there are many ( more that ten, minimum)? It starts to add up. And doesn’t that call into question everything that can’t be easily checked?</p>
<p>^^^
According to the MIT thread, whoever does this should be very concerned that it can come back to bite 'em big. And yea, if someone is going to lie about their level of involvement in an EC then they are capable of lying about anything. Whether it’s one or ten. There’s a difference between “padding” and lying. Most padding is an attempt to make your accomplishments seem more important than they really are through wordplay. Any experienced admissions rep is going to see through the padding. However, lying is lying. Anyone who needs to lie to get into college shouldn’t be going in the first place. So if the school finds out that he/she has lied, then they have a responsibility to let the college know that a fraudulent application has been submitted. Sometimes the only way to keep people honest is through hard and fast consequences.</p>
<p>Truth: “I was at the very first meeting of the XYZ club.” </p>
<p>Padding: “I was a founding member of the XYZ Club.”</p>
<p>Lying: “I was one of the founders of the XYZ Club.”</p>
<p>Worse: “I founded the XYZ Club.”</p>
<p>Nice, Digmedia. Your statements perfectly describe each word.</p>
<p>I forgot to add one: </p>
<p>Outright, punishable dishonesty which could in no way be considered “stretching,” and a blatant attempt to mislead: “I am President of the XYZ Club.” (when it is not true)</p>
<p>Truth: I use the internet.</p>
<p>Not so truthful: I invented the internet. ;)</p>
<p>Sounds like “marketing” to me. ;)</p>
<p>Fact: Student was member of organization when event started and was officer (not pres.) in second year. Advisor says student really did “nothing” for the event.</p>
<p>App. for scholarship says: I am most proud of creating “event”…and it will be my legacy to future students for years to come.</p>
<p>Marketing or lie? </p>
<p>Also, misstates some academic stats and classifies local awards as state/national.</p>
<p>Honest incompetence or lie.</p>
<p>When do you start to doubt other statements in app.?</p>
<p>Hmmm, not good, that’s for sure.</p>
<p>The first – about “creating” the event – could be deemed marketing, if it weren’t for the fact that s/he is bragging about it being “his” or “her” legacy. That’s clearly not the case.</p>
<p>In addition, “misstating” accademic stats cannot just be deemed to be marketing. These are quantitative stats that have been – um, misstated, right? A number is a number; there’s no marketing allowed.</p>
<p>And third, citing an award one received requires being very specific about what that award was. If one was the best in one’s sport in the county, you don’t extrapolate and say you were first in the state, or the region. Ditto for something academic. </p>
<p>In my book, the three examples you’ve cited are all outright lies.</p>
<p>So then, if high school has been asked to review application and respond with any errors, do they specifically report each one they know, bring in student with or without parents to support their application first, simply say we have noticed several errors and can’t verify the rest? What about other scholarships student has received or applied for? Does school have any obligation on these? Seems like a real ethical mess.</p>
<p>I think they should call the student in WITH PARENTS, and point out the “errors”. At that point, depending on the “explanation” given, it would have to be a judgment call on the counselor’s part as to how to proceed. Scrap the app, or submit the revised one WITH a to-the-point letter. And yea, re-check all his previous apps. If it were me, I’d verify every last claim on the app, and those that couldn’t be would be removed. </p>
<p>After all, if this kid gets the money, someone else doesn’t.And that someone probably deserves it more than him.</p>
<p>Cad, I have no idea what the process should be, but I’m curious to learn why you care. Are you a GC? If so, I would have thought your school would already have a process. Are you another student – perhaps one who is also applying for the scholarship? Are you the lying student, and you’re wondering what the school will do if/when they realize you’ve lied? Are you the parent of a student who lied, and you’re wondering what they’ll do to your kid? Or is this just all hypothetical?</p>
<p>Parent of another student and just want some independent feedback to make sure I am keeping a proper perspective in what I should expect the school to do to be fair to all involved. Sometimes it’s easy to see these things from a biased point of view and over-react.</p>
<p>If the student actually “misstated” his academic stats, that absolutely, positively must be corrected by the school.</p>
<p>Besides, I would have thought that an official transcript would have been required; they usually are.</p>
<p>Let us know what ultimately happens. This is very interesting.</p>
<p>How about opposite: D was nominated to Natl Honor Soc, needed the faculty advisors for EC to sign app. Model UN advisor (who told kids he didn’t want to be advisor but was forced into it) was unavailable for signing NHS apps, so D left it out (she’s also pres-elect for Model UN). I think D should have put Model UN in and let the NHS advisors know what was going on.</p>