How do colleges know that you attended particular clubs at school? Like on the common app, it just says to list it but do colleges really just look at that and thats it. I also did an internship and I also just list that in there, but do my schools send in a document that shows everything I have done or…?
They take you at your word. A very small subset of colleges may ask for verification of a percentage of applications. Obviously if you claim an extremely prestigious activity that can be easily googled, you’d be well served to have actually done it. Additionally, if none of your recs reference it, it might raise an eyebrow.
National and regional awards can easily be verified, or not, by the college themselves. That may explain why some high stat students with miraculous EC’s get denied at some colleges.