Do the college admissions find out that you are lying?

Applying to College
1

<p>You can say that you have been doing a club for 4 years and is the president. </p>

<p>However, in fact, you have been doing it only for 2 years and does not have a position.</p>

<p>This is a lie, and do the college admissions find out that you are lying? If they do, how?</p>

2

<p>Yeah, they can through various means.</p>

<p>One way is to simply call your school and ask them for verification.</p>

<p>Another way is if you get randomly (or not randomly) selected to provide documents that prove your participation in such activities and roles.</p>

<p>For example, with the UC schools, they randomly select a bunch of people and ask them for proof for this type of stuff.</p>

3

<p>The UCs do this, but I don’t think too many other schools do.</p>

<p>My friend lied about a few HS club positions and sort of embellished a few of his awards for his HYP apps, and they haven’t found out about them. This kid is pretty much a jerk (and used to be my friend) who won’t get into HYP anyway, so I don’t know why he felt like he needed to lie, but whatevs.</p>

4

<p>If you search some of the postings by Adofficer.</p>

<p>Misrepresentation on your application is grounds for rescinding your admission even after you have been admitted and are attending classes at the university (you can even have your degree rescinded leaving you with a worthless peice of paper).</p>

<p>keep in mind if you have done the things you have said, the information is likely to be corroborated in your recommendations from your counselors or teachers.</p>

<p>for example:</p>

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<p>if your recommendations don’t corroborate your saying you have been president, considering that GC’s and teachers will not be remiss to mention that eggbert is president of the widget club, it is going to raise a flag. </p>

<p>keep in mind that most of the things that students lie about are not worth any thing and the things that they do lie about (being president of something) will be easy to verify.</p>

5

<p>The question I would ask the OP is … is ti worth the risk … if an applicant gets caught in a lie they will be denied entry. A lie could come in two flavors.</p>

<p>First, a minor embellishment … I was really only the club 3 years but I listed 4 years. I would guess the odds of getting caught are pretty small but the lie is so small it’t not going to enhane your chances for admittance … so why take the risk?</p>

<p>Second, lying about a big thing … well, now the lie may “help” the application but it is not all that unlikely the applicant will get caught. I am an alumni interviewer and applications should all fit together … the courses, the ECs, the recommendations, etc … if someone makes something up it may very well set off a red flag for the admissions folks or the interviewer. In addition, living a lie is tough to do and can really come back to haunt someone. Foe example, the OP mentioned lying about being a club president … if an applicant did this to show their leadership capabilities at the same time a teacher writing an recommendation, trying to help, may write something like … “As an example of the OP’s leadership capabilities while not an officer of the XYZ club the OP stepped up in a leadership vacuum and worked with the elected officers to drive the club to great things” … the teacher just exposed the lie while trying to help. Again, is it worth the risk?</p>

<p>Bottom line … a small lie probably won’t get caught and won’t help … and a big lie may very well be exposed … is it really worth it?</p>

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<p>" a small lie probably won’t get caught and won’t help:"</p>

<p>I am a Harvard alum inteviewer and have caught students in what might be described as “small lies” --embellishing their roles in organizations that coincidentally either my S or I were involved with. I did note those lies in my reports to H, and those students were not admitted. I don’t definitely know whether their lying caused their rejection since admissions doesn’t provide alum interviewers with reasons that students were rejected. I do assume, however, that a university that would even rescind a student’s degree based on lies would probably not knowingly accept students who made even “small lies” as part of the admissions process.</p>

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<p>Oh, PLEASE, sybbie719!
That is one of the most absurd things I have ever read on this forum.</p>

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<p>then this means that you are not doing much reading out side of this forum or the fine print on your application when you attest that all statements you are making are true. Even the common app states:</p>

<p>*I certify that all information in my application, including my Personal Essay, is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented.<a href=“page%204%20of%20the%20common%20app”>/i</a></p>

<p><a href=“http://www.commonapp.org/common2007_PrintApp.pdf[/url]”>http://www.commonapp.org/common2007_PrintApp.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>What would you think the repercussions for lying would be.</p>

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<p><a href=“Home | Dartmouth Student Affairs”>Home | Dartmouth Student Affairs;

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<p><a href=“http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter4/admission_materials.html[/url]”>http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter4/admission_materials.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>shall I go on???</p>

<p>oh btw, misrepresent on law school applications, you will rack up 200k worth of debt and just so you won’t be able to be admitted to the bar.</p>

9

<p>with<em>one</em>voice, I hope you are being sarcastic. What sybbie said is more than enough grounds to rescind your offer of enrollment at a school, or if you’ve already graduated, your degree. Plus, she was quoting something an admission officer said.</p>

<p>And of course, sybbie’s new post containing a couple of colleges’ own statements about lying only helps to strengthen the argument.</p>

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<p>i too hope you’re kidding. think of your admissions materials as part of a contract, which really it is–would you lie on any other sort of contract? by signing, you’re saying that you portrayed yourself truthfully. risk it, and you may have to deal with consequences. if you did misrepresent yourself, you’d probably be better off getting rejected right off the bat instead of 4 years later you’re getting your degree and the university wondering if you really should be receiving it.</p>

11

<p>i accidentally checked 11 and 12th grade boxes for a certain club when I didn’t mean to. I also said it was a club exclusively for 12th graders, but started to promote the club end of 11th grade. I was putting them in order of importance by copying and pasting after filling them all out.
Will this ruin any chances?</p>

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<p>One of kids in my class said he lied in his app. I hope he is kidding. He is the biggest joke in my school.</p>

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<p>bottom line…just don’t lie. it won’t do you any good.</p>

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<p>Search for posts by AdmissionsOfficer (Tufts adcom I believe), kids get caught in all kinds of lies…</p>

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<p>I know about the agreement and I def would never lie in a college app for pure fear of being caught (I’m the most paranoid person in the world), but I’ve never actually heard of someone attending a college and having to leave because the college found out months/years later that a part of their freshman app was wrong. Same with a degree earned.</p>

16

<p>Actually, I have a different kind of problem. My school sends a slip of all your clubs and positions along with the transcript. There’s a club I’ve joined after club dues were due and my name was not put on the members list. I’ve contributed far more than most others in that club, so I would probably list it on my app. How would admissions officers view this?</p>

17

<p>I think my school sorta does that too.</p>

<p>It shouldn’t be a problem… For example, on my app I listed Mathletes, since it’s a separate group from the Math Club, but Mathletes isn’t like, a choice thingy for my HS to include on their transcript, so all they wrote for me was Math Club… So yeah. I don’t think it’d be a big deal. I think CCers tend to over-hype things sometimes, and I’ve never read about non-UCs calling to confirm ECs. But so long as you’re not lying it’ll be fine anyway, haha.</p>

18

<p>A girl in my class got a teacher to lie for her and say she was in Mock Trial and Model Gov for four years in his rec letter. She was NEVER in those clubs. She applied to an ivy and some other good schools. She got a 450 math on her SAT so she’s not getting in anyway, but if by some freak accident she does, I’m thinking of writing a letter and telling them because there are so many more qualified applicants who didn’t NEED to lie.</p>

19

<p>“A girl in my class got a teacher to lie for her and say she was in Mock Trial and Model Gov for four years in his rec letter.”</p>

<p>I have a hard time believing that the teacher would lie for her. My thoughts are that what’s going on is the girl is lying to you. After all, more than likely, you didn’t see her recc letter. Anyway, the colleges that care about ECs when it comes to admission wouldn’t be impressed by her membership in those clubs. Those colleges are the most competitive in the country and to stand out, students need more than belonging to organizations. Her 450 m would also keep her out of contention for the places that care about ECs.</p>

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<p>It’s being totally blown-out of proportion on here.</p>

<p>If you embellish, such as putting an extra year you were included in the club when you were, it won’t hurt you. No college will take the time to research this. Why? Because it isn’t something that will make your application.</p>

<p>If you embellish, such as putting that you won the Intel Science Fair when you didn’t, it will hurt you. If you’re getting the Grand Prize at Intel, more than likely a college will research that. Why? Because it’s something that will make your application.</p>