<p>Some schools, like the UC system, randomly choose students to be audited and prove what they are saying is true. Fail the audit, you’re rejected. </p>
<p>As for those that don’t have a formal audit process they tell you about, they fall into 2 camps. Truth be told, most colleges admit students based on scores and grades. So even though they have a place to list ECs because everyone expects to see it, the list doesn’t play much of a part. For those colleges that do care about ECs, the ones that matter are readily checked. Nobody at Harvard cares if you volunteered for 50 hours somewhere; the ECs selective schools look for are much more involved and consequently can be easily verified.</p>
<p>There is a thread with comments by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. The post is at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html[/url]Take”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.htmlTake</a> a look and you can see that most of them are easily checked.</p>