<p>I just learned that my daughter’s good friend plans to “embellish” her life experience in her essays to help her get into the best colleges. My question is, other than it not being ethical, do the schools have ways to verify the applicants background?</p>
<p>This girl has grown up in a more affluent area than us, drives a convertible BMW, and admittedly has done very well in school in leadership roles and grades. However, my daughter just learned she is describing her life as having a drug addicted father (she has lived with her step-father since she was 1 year old and never shes her real father), an alcoholic mother (not true as far as we know), and lived in a car for a period of time (again, not true as far as we know).</p>
<p>My daughter is concerned that because she doesn’t have a similar story to tell, (she has lived an average middle class life with a stable family environment) that she will be at a disadvantage to getting into UCLA or Berkeley (although her grades and SAT scores should have her as a very competitive applicant).</p>
<p>Does anyone have any thoughts on this subject or any advice for us? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Your daughter is not competing one-on-one against this dishonest friend. Her chances are not made worse by a single cheating classmate applying to the same schools, which get thousands of applicants each year. Tell her not to worry about it, and be glad you have an honest child who wouldn’t do such a thing. :)</p>
<p>She doesn’t ‘need’ special circumstances to be considered a good candidate. What her friend is doing is despicable, if true, and I hope your daughter recognizes the character deficiency there. Also, there will be nothing in the GC statement to back that kid’s assertions up and it may backfire. Otherwise, the schools are not going to investigate such assertions.</p>
<p>She may or may not get into her UC of choice, just remember it is very competitive, UCLA admissions are said to be quirky, and she needs to have some backup UC’s in the mix.</p>
<p>Which doesn’t sound like all that great of an essay anyway, especially if it’s written badly.</p>
<p>I’ve embellished small things for descriptive purposes, though (saying someone was wearing a red shirt when I don’t actually remember, for example). I don’t think every single thing you say has to be 100% true, as long as the ultimate message is accurate.</p>
<p>Application puffery is very common, and I agree unethical. But the hard fact is that most people likely do it in forms small to large. The personal statement is even more troubling since arguably it is given more weight than EC’s. All you can really hope is that the girl doesn’t have the writing talent to capture the passion of the story or even worse hire a writer to pen it for her. But even if she does, Adcom is pretty good at sniffing out inconsistencies in a story, and there are a lot of other moving parts to the application besides the personal statement. GL</p>
<p>And as far as UCLA and Cal, they actually don’t use affirmative action. That’s why they have so many Asians. She won’t at a disadvantage because she isn’t a child prodigy or doesn’t have a Life of Pi interesting story.</p>
<p>Fact: People can be truthful and insightful without being dishonest.</p>
<p>What this friend is doing is creating ‘poverty p0rn’. “Look at how much I suffered” is basically the theme of the day.</p>
<p>It can work on a naive audience. But chances are your admissions officer has seen enough applications from ACTUAL low-income students and knows how they write, especially when it comes to hardships. I’ve worked with inner city students and can spot upper-class suburbanite BS a mile away (I’m from a wealthy area myself), but even if the reader doesn’t, the self-pitying style is bound to turn people off. </p>
<p>It’s okay to embellish, in the right places and in the right way. But not in the way you’ve described. </p>
<p>Because you are describing a relation and not your own child, I would encourage you not to worry too much about what happened. Your daughter is not competing against one other applicant alone. Don’t have her adapt her own essay to what was heard, as that will only hurt in the long run. Focus on your own battle. </p>
<p>For some further details on what can be embellished and what shouldn’t be, you can check out a short piece I’ve written here - </p>