<p>Sure. Lie on your app, and someone who knows you may tip off the college, and the college may reject you or rescind you. There also may be an odd coincident such as your being interviewed by the same interviewer who had just interviewed a person who really holds the office you’ve claimed or who happens to know the person who holds that office. The world is very small. I’ve caught applicants in lies, but never bothered to confront them: Just told admissions, and those students didn’t get in.</p>
<p>hey Invoyable, im sorry.
I didnt mean that to come off as directed at your or be a nasty comment at all. It seemed like the overall consesus on the thread was kinda like oh it doesnt matter that much u wont get caught. I was addressing that. Not your comment.
sorry…i wasn’t questioning your morality in any way.</p>
<p>Again, you will probably not get caught for minor exaggeration…such as putting down “president, member for 4 years” instead of “co-president, member for 2 years.” It’s just one ec, and if you have been active in the club, colleges will NOT check for such a minor detail.
I know for UC’s, they check like 10% of applicants for their major leadership/volunteering ec’s by calling the school/counselor or reference number.
I don’t know if its the same for Ivies/private schools. </p>
<p>I do know that you should not make up a huge award “state qualifier for debate, league champion for football” or something like that, as they are much more likely to check. And also, you should not entirely make up something in your essays…they can tell.
However, it would be entirely fine to slightly exaggerate…many, many applicants do so. These minor improvements, however, will not benefit you much, and so would not have any dramatic impact in your admission.</p>
<p>Why would you get caught at all? Do they really have time to check everyone?
Not that you should lie, that’s bad.</p>
<p>They don’t check everyone, but my friend who spoke to a UC admissions committee member told me that they check about 10% of applicants. And they only check MAJOR awards/leadership/ec’s. This is only for UC’s though, I don’t know about other schools.</p>
<p>BS tour EC’s are actually asking people about this? Yeah go ahead lie so that way all the hard work people actually do seems like nothing… wow… if I was ur parent and read this… ud’be living in a dump for the rest of ur life…</p>
<p>Zman, no one is saying it is moral or right to lie on an app, it absolutely isn’t. No one should ever lie on an app.</p>
<p>I think people are just saying that tiny lies like slight exaggeration (while still immoral) will rarely be caught, but will also have little impact on admissions. Lies with influence will virtually always be caught because they tend to be significant accomplishments that will be checked.</p>
<p>Basically, don’t lie on your app. It’s dumb (not to mention immoral) and it will almost never benefit you.</p>
<p>
Nah brah, I got nothing against you either, and I was just clarifying incase people thought I was advocating cheating or something like that…I actually agree with you.</p>
<p>But either way, let’s be honest, regardless of the morality of it and whatever else little anecdotes there may be about how an applicant got sabotaged for cheating a little (and I’m not saying these don’t have validity) - for the most part, and usually, minor things like adding that one participated in a club for 4 years instead of 3 or 2, or embellishing your hours a bit (especially when the lines for such criteria are arbitrary to begin with in many schools - for example, my school, all you need to “be in a club” is sign up and come to like 3 meetings, then technically you aren’t “lying” by saying you’re in the club, even though you’ve literally spent 1 hr the whole year on it), most likely won’t do you significant harm.</p>
<p>With that said, as others have said, it usually won’t make a big difference, and personally I’d be too lazy to do such a thing. It’s all up to you, really.</p>
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<p>QFE.
same at my school, all you need to do to be in a club is sign up and go to 3-5 meetings a year. some clubs like CSF have like 1 meeting a year. 7 bucks to join. they give you 5 bucks back if you “tutor” for 5 hours, and take the other 2 dollars for their own enjoyment.</p>
<p>dayummm lol. i didn’t know that one question could end up in such a huge controversy. lol guys don’t get too harsh on me, it was just a question. i won’t BS my ECs to just let you guys know. i’ve decided i’d rather live with honesty and not deal with deception later on…either way even if i do its just gonna hurt me. so hope it ends right there.</p>
<p>err…bumping my question 
“i, too, wasn’t that active in my freshman & sophomore years [even though i am now].
i plan to put key club member, which i was, technically, even though i wasn’t actually active in the club. would this be considered lying if they find out?”
anyone?</p>
<p>if ur technically in the club…how would it be considered lying??
its such a minor thing…ofc you can put in on ur app…though it prob wont help u</p>
<p>Well, competition is rough and dirty…I know tons of people who actually lied and exaggerated their EC’s this year and got into college fine…And YES! these people are lowering your chances to get into the college of ur choice. So, you can either:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Be moral, and do the right thing, and simply present urself the best u can with what u really did all these years…yet, possibly expect a rejection if ur EC’s are terrible.</p></li>
<li><p>Or cheat the system, boost ur EC’s, and make them amazing, and more than likely get accepted since ur chances are boosted. But, morally, that’s incorrect.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t apply to college and live free in the jungle like a wild animal :)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>^^lol living in a jungle is a kind of freedom ~~~~</p>
<p>Do it…you’ll forget all about your moral dilemma when you get that Harvard acceptance letter =)</p>
<p>HOWEVER, make sure you’re smarter about it than my friend who go his offer rescinded from Stanford because someone wrote to the school about how he lied on his app and the school decided to check. He is now selling crack at UCSD (he’s still acing all his classes though because he’s such a genius–2350 SAT)</p>
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<p>Trust me, writing key club member will not help you at all</p>
<p>No. Just don’t even bother with it. If I even thought about lying on a college app, I would be uneasy for a long time and part of getting in is knowing, “Hey, I deserve to be here and I earned it.” Honestly, if you need to lie, don’t even bother man.</p>