Hi everyone! I was fortunate enough to be accepted by the only college I applied to, and I have already committed. However, looking back at my application on Common App, I realized I included an extracurricular activity that I had intended to delete.
The activity is a social science research assistantship (nothing impactful, nothing fancy, no publication or whatever). I had discussed it with a professor who agreed to take me on, but I ultimately didn’t do much beyond the preliminary readings. My description on the application essentially details what I expected to do rather than what I actually accomplished.
This is just one item out of ten-ish total activities on my list, which otherwise features selective fellowships and summer programs. Given that I have already committed, should I proactively note this mistake to the admissions office, or am I fine to leave it as is? I am genuinely freaking out at this point because I am afraid to be audited over the summer from the contact info I left.
For context it is a selective school (somewhere between T10-T15) and as far as I know does not have a publicized audit policy such as UCs or Brown.
As far as I know, colleges only audit for grades, graduation, and reported standardized test scores. Are there really schools that check back on all declared ECs? Maybe there’s more of that post-Varsity Blues, but I would imagine that most auditing takes place before admissions offers are sent out. It’s hard to imagine that universities have the staffing to track all of this down over the summer after the admissions cycle.
If you were starting a research assistantship that you fully expected to pursue, but circumstances changed and you did not complete the work, that would not be considered dishonest, and no college will follow up on that, anyway. If you lied about being a co-author on a publication or about winning a well-known award or playing on a team, that would be an integrity problem, but an activity that didn’t amount to much will not be an issue.
It is generally easier to pre screen (audit) things before the acceptance, than to “verify” something after accepting you. If they catch something untrue or embellished, you just won’t get in, no explanation is required and you won’t even know. AFTER accepting you and rescinding an acceptance due to some factual error may invite a lawsuit which is PITA for the school to have to deal with (unless it is GPA/test score which there is no room for interpretation). At this point, I would call it and move on. Congrats for getting in.
If it bothers you, call the admissions office and talk to an actual admissions officer. It is highly doubtful it will have any effect but if it eases your conscience, go ahead and call. Or maybe I am misunderstanding and you are just concerned about an audit. I have never heard of EC’s being audited but there is a lot I don’t know!
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