<p>I don’t know about anyone else, but my recommendations were done through Naviance and I didn’t have any control over them outside of asking for them. </p>
<p>As far as lying about ECs, I don’t think the payoff is large enough. Colleges are mostly concerned with grades and test scores. If a college was going to reject you but then decided to accept you on the basis of an EC, it would have to be a very impressive EC and there’s a chance they would try to verify it. </p>