<p>“people do both, they know that, they look past that.”<br>
By "“they” - do you mean the adcoms?
No, they don’t look past that. One of the things they’re looking for is credibility in an applicant. They can and do check up if they have doubts. don’t you guys remember the post from a boy who had accidentally written 200 instead of 20 hours for his ECs, and a UC school called him on it? A UC… a school that receives more applicants than a small country! They’re trained to look for these things, so don’t even go there!</p>
<p>dys2k6…good point. Embellishment id just lying’s milder cousin. Both are wrong, and should NOT happen. Just because “everyone does it” doesn’t mean that YOU should too.</p>
<p>To the OP: Don’t you want the confidence and security that you got into a college/university on your TRUE merits and not based on the mindblowing EC’s list that you lied about or embellished? And sure, it feels good to get that fat envelope in the mail, but in the end your guilty conscience would bring you down. And plus, your secondary school report has your guidance counselor’s phone #, so they can always verify something with him/her.</p>
<p>For the life of me…DON’T DO IT.</p>
<p>“don’t you guys remember the post from a boy who had accidentally written 200 instead of 20 hours for his ECs, and a UC school called him on it?”</p>
<p>This is a pretty obvious error, though. There aren’t even 200 hours in a week (I’m assuming that this is hours per week). I don’t think that colleges will bother to check unless it’s a major blunder like this one. And also, what if an app is vague? For example, I know someone who is the Latin-section editor of our school’s foreign language magazine. On her app, she merely put the word “Editor” under the positions section. Would colleges interpret this as editor-in-chief, or would they give her the benefit of the doubt? After all, she is an editor, but not the editor-in-chief.</p>
<p>A lot of you are posting how they could contact the guidance counselor and ask if the ECs are truly real. I could see how that wouldn’t work with a LOT of applicants cuz a lot of people A)don’t have guidance counselors B)have ECs that have nothing to do with the guidance counselor or the school (i dont think you have to mail the application thru the school…they’re just in charge of the transcript…i’m pretty sure) And a lot of the guidance counselors aren’t really involved with the student or what s/he does with thier summer or their free time. Seriously though…I’m not debating whether I should do it or not…I just think this is an interesting topic to discuss.</p>
<p>My college counselor has the exact EC list that is on my common app. For school-related EC’s, colleges can certainly check on you. Even if your counselor doesn’t know your exact EC’s, your school probably keeps records, especially in organized activities like sports and clubs. For out-of-school activities, it’s much harder to validify an applicant’s integrity. From what I’ve heard, colleges will give you the benefit of the doubt unless there are obvious discrepancies in your activites (such as somebody claiming to work for 200 hours a week). Of course, you should still be as honest as possible. If you make a typo on your EC list, colleges will allow you to correct your error. It’s only when someone purposefully tries to deceive the adcoms that they get in trouble.</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t think the poster specified whether it was a week, a month or whatever. Even 20 hours a week is a whole lot, unless it’s a sport.
The point is, adcoms sometimes do check, they can find out through the school in many cases, but also, they know what’s normal. Think about how many applications they see. As for the Latin Section Editor - it actually would have been more interesting to say what she actually did. Plain editor is not untrue, and it’s unlikely they would think she was Editor-in-Chief, or she would have said that. Student publications have a lot of “editors.”</p>
<p>Talking about the “co-president” embellishment, I wanted to point out something that my chem teacher said. I am co-social-director of this club, and she told me to NOT mention that I am co-social-director, but simply put that I am social director. She claims that there is nothing wrong with that…</p>
<p>personally, I do thing that it isnt completely right. not saying that it is the same thing as saying that I was social director when I really wasn’t, but still…</p>
<p>I agree with you Margsala. If you are “co-director” or “co-president,” that’s how you should list it on your applications. If you say you’re “President” and someone else who applies from your school says they are “co-president,” or are also “president,” that could lead to the college’s calling your GC to get the right answer, and that could cause you to be rejected.</p>
<p>It also is amazing how many coincidences happen in connection with things like college applications. The world is small, and a lie can be found often when one least expects it to be.</p>
<p>Well I was the entertainment editor on my school paper. What I did on my apps was I put down editor, and then in the explination below I said what I did. It did not specify editor and chief. simply editor which I was.</p>
<p>I just wrote editor.</p>
<p>ASAP, i was saying, i doubt they will care about the difference between saying you did an activity 10 hours a week, which is normal, or if you did an acivitiy 20 hours a week. These things are just numbers. Its the awards and unique achievements that they focus on, not if you did 10 hours or 15 hours.</p>
<p>If you were “entertainment editor,” IMO it would have been better to have simply said “entertainment editor,” and then to have described your duties. “Editor” does indicate that you were the editor in chief. “An editor,” indicates you were probably a section editor or copy editor. Giving the specific title is, I think, the best way to do things.</p>
<p>Certainly in the journalism field, if you were entertainment editor, but on your resume described your position as “editor,” you’d be judged as someone who is very loose with the truth. That’s not the kind of reputation that one wants in that field.</p>
<p>I put managing editor of copy, ie. copy editor. </p>
<p>I honestly think that just because you think you can get away with it, it doesn’t mean you should do it. </p>
<p>Sometimes I’m so sick of people like that. What happened to doing ECs because you enjoy it? You join things and spend time on ECs because you like it, you have a passion for it. People who think “will this EC look good for college” and “how many more ECs do I need to get in here”, are just really sad. Do people really find satisfaction in spending their high school career thinking like that?</p>
<p>I was completely accurate with all of the numbers I put down but for things like writing or other things that I do I put the average because I’ll maybe write for 5 hours one day and then not at all for 3 weeks </p>
<p>I hope I dont get in trouble for that</p>
<p>this thread has made me go over my app to see if I made any typos … I really hope I didnt… even though my parents and i checked it 4 times what if something slipped through</p>
<p>what I want to know is: how can I get pink text? or another color, for that matter…</p>
<p>sempitern, did you put 5/21 as your hours/week?</p>
<p>i want blue text, how can i get it</p>
<p>I put 2.5 hours per week 21 weeks per year</p>
<p>the time i spend on writing is really variable so I estimated as close an average as i could… I didnt keep a log</p>
<p>Oh, good grief.</p>
<p>The code goes like this but without the spaces: </p>
<p>[ C O L O R = NAME OF COLOR ] TEXT HERE [/ C O L O R]</p>
<p>Ok, thanks, this is typical forum code, no? Anyways, sempitern, I had Student council stuff 6 hours a week for like the first 4 months of school, then fall ended and I only had it for 2 hours a week. I still put 6 hours/week…I guess I did some poor accounting. What stuff do you write?</p>