Lying about Race

carolyn1954
Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:48:25 +0000

Lying about anything in order to increase your chances of getting into a school does does say a lot about your moral character and there is a good chance that the lie will come back to haunt you. Your racial classification will be whatever you put on the application, and who knows where that racial classification will show up in the future. If you go into government service and a background check is conducted on you, you will probably need to authorize the release of all of your college records and it is likely that your racial classification will appear on some records and someone will notice the discrepancy between what you said on your application and what you are. Etc. If you don’t want to answer something truthfully, then don’t answer it at all. Also, I have read that Harvard’s undergraduate admissions staff includes a former professional background checker whose job it is to verify the facts contained in applications and essays. Obviously, not every fact in every application will be verified, but what if your application is picked for fact checking? I assume that other admissions offices, at least at competitive schools, will follow Harvard’s lead.