College Application Ethics

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>There's a friend in my class and he's totally fabricating activities for his common app. I'm not indignant at his immorality because he will have better chances of getting accepted to mutual colleges that we are both applying to, but at the fact that he is lying.</p>

<p>I told him a couple of times not do this or at least attend the clubs that he's putting down that he did for 2 years. He said "OK" I will, but he didn't come again...</p>

<p>Again, I really don't mind for my part. Our SATs and GPAs are not even comparable, but it really isn't fair to all the other students around the country.</p>

<p>Should I just ignore this and accept the fact that there are other students like him that exaggerate activities and clubs as well?</p>

2

<p>It’s an interesting dilemma, isn’t it? The disadvantage to the other applicants is so widely distributed and, thus, individually minor that rationalizing inaction is simple. Threatening the student by warning him that you will tell unless he changes it might be a good option, although he could just lie to you; you could go further, however, and demand to be there when he submits the apps. Or you could adopt the not-my-business/don’t-rat-a-friend-out mentality. It’s up to you.</p>

3

<p>It truly is. Furthermore, it really irritates me when I ask him jokingly (I don’t want to hurt his feelings) why he wasn’t at the community service club yesterday, and he just does the Sign of the Horns (the rock-star hand gesture) and smiles. How could one be that casual?</p>

<p>Are you sure that the disadvantages of the other applicants are really that minor? </p>

<p>I mean let us say that my scores/GPA/recommendations/etc… were very similar to yours. Wouldn’t it make a difference between our applications if I had more activities with more leadership positions than you do?</p>

4

<p>Blackball him/her.</p>

5

<p>let it go. you aren’t going to change his morals. let him keep doing it, and when he gets caught he’ll be ****ed</p>

6

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<p>The chance that he would be caught if no one says anything is very low.</p>

7

<p>Minor exaggerations are probably common.</p>

8

<p>Coming from a person who has spent 16 years with the piano, and 10 years training in the martial arts…it is absolutely atrocious when there are people who are willing to fabricate two, even four years of the lives simply because the college application process is a real *****. It clearly demonstrates an extremely deplorable lack of creativity. Can these people be any LESS unique?</p>

<p>I’d tell somebody.</p>

9

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<p>Do you think adding 2 years of community service is a minor exaggeration? (This is not a rhetorical question.)</p>

10

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<p>No. I was thinking more along the lines of rounding 88 hours to 100 hours lol.</p>

11

<p>I’m saying he will get caught doing something similar in the future. It’ll come back around lol.</p>

12

<p>Exaggerations are common and to be expected. Everyone adds something to their activities so they can look like a better applicant. But straight-up lying is unacceptable.</p>

<p>An exaggerator could BS about how they were involved in the club as a dynamic leader or whatnot because they at least had SOME affiliation with it. But it’s much more difficult for a liar to look like he/she was actually in the club.</p>

<p>This is a serious situation. You’ve already approached this friend about it, but he hasn’t responded to you. If this will give this friend a significant unfair advantage, you NEED to contact a school counselor or someone about this.</p>

<p>How do you know if it’s significant? Consider the school you are applying to. State schools do not put as much weight on ECs, but LACs do. Also, any reach school will evaluate your ECs to separate you from the other students with good grades and SATs. If these ECs will really affect your chances, then you NEED to contact someone about it. I don’t think your friend will be called out on his lie unless he gets called in for an interview and cannot present any credible evidence that he was in all of these clubs. So YOU have to be the one to step up.</p>

13

<p>I hope people don’t think it’s okay to exaggerate. I was so careful to be exactly honest on my app. I sure hope it doesn’t come back to screw me over because everyone else on the planet lied…</p>

14

<p>it will come back to him, somehow.</p>

15

<p>Sorry for the confusion, I didn’t mean that exaggerations were “common and to be expected” as a GOOD thing. I meant that there will be people who pad their applications and this padding will be inevitable, no matter how much you stress to them to be honest. Not everyone does it, and it in no way should be encouraged, but it DOES happen.</p>

16

<p>The question was “Do you consider yourself latino/a?”</p>

<p>My friend, who is not, put yes, because the wording only asked what he considered himself…</p>

17

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<p>His lying will not affect my chances, really. I just wanted to know the opinions of other students on these forums. They could mention their own experiences with similar acts. I think I will just ignore it, but I strongly believe that students like him do screw over the students who are honest on their apps, especially if the other factors of their applications are similar.</p>