<p>I mean, I realize they can call up the school if an EC looks sketchy, but otherwise, would they really do that? Like let's say I put on my college application that I was in a club for three years instead of two years. Would colleges bother calling the school of each applicant, just to make sure that they're telling the truth?</p>
<p>I don't think my school even has official means of checking if a student has been in a club. Because the best effort they make is having each student sign their name on a sheet every meeting. And it's just a piece of looseleaf that the club's teacher makes you sign.</p>
<p>I know lying is bad and I shouldn't do it, but let's assume I'm asking for the sake of curiosity. Because uhh, I am in fact asking for the sake of curiosity. :P</p>
<p>If you’re just putting that you’re a member of the club for 3 instead of 2, I doubt they check. I’ve heard of some people even putting positions they didn’t hold and got away with it.</p>
<p>Most colleges don’t really care about ECs. Since it won’t affect your admission either way they’re not going to bother to check. For the very selective colleges where they do matter in admissions, member of a club for two years or three years is the same. Neither looks good compared to the students that have strong ECs.</p>
<p>Yes, lying is bad, and you will probably get away with it this time. That will make you believe that it’s OK to lie as long as you think you won’t get caught. But eventually you will be caught. I guess that’s when you’ll learn that it really is smarter to be honest.</p>
<p>Colleges do check extracurriculars, although I do not know to what extent or what causes them to.<br>
My Student Council advisor and Guidance Counselor have both mentioned calls from admissions officers confirming a student’s participation in an activity. Both said that it was to check if the student was active in the club, and not just name only.<br>
While it is highly unlikely that your ECs would be checked (if colleges just randomly check) I would not take the chance of adding another year of involvement.</p>
<p>It is unlikely, but definitely a possibility. As I’ve heard some say, “If the lie is significant enough to help your application, it is significant enough to be checked.” Stanford, I know, started auditing some percentage of applicants randomly this year.</p>
<p>High school clubs are worthless. Admissions officers aren’t gonna bother to check that you sat in a classroom during lunch for 3 years instead of 2.</p>
<p>I agree with physicsnut1 in that if it is an EC that is so good it is going to put you over the top and turn a rejection into an acceptance it will be checked. As qwerty2001 admissions officers aren’t gonnna bother to check to see if you sat in a classroom during lunch for 3 years instead of just 2. I would not lie because if for some reason the lie was discovered it would likely be an automatic rejection. It might cause you to get rejected to a school that you would have gotten in with the truth. It might cause an acceptance to be rescinded. Don’t do it, I see nothing to gain.</p>
<p>Well I wanted to write an essay about said club in conjunction to the notion that I’ve been part of it Sophomore year. I know being in a club three years instead of two years is practically worthless, it would just help me write my essay more smoothly. So I was wondering if such negligible white lies were checked.</p>
<p>Yeah pretty much. Welcome to Corporate America, where honesty and guilt trips directed towards the unjust are not the optimal means of survival.</p>
<p>CalvinTBOD, it’s hard to imagine how an applicant’s true nature can bleed through to the surface, but way more often than not it does. </p>
<p>It may not be that a student gets caught for adding a year of participation onto a high school club. It will instead be noteworthy that this student didn’t demonstrate enough leadership to stand out in an application pool, probably for the same reason that he didn’t achieve a leadership position among his peers in his school (he was a member, not the president, for example). And the reason this student didn’t stand out among his peers is probably related to the same kind of personality glitch (always temporary in a young person - I have hope) which would incline a person to fib on a college application. See how that works?</p>
<p>Another scenario…The lie is never discovered, yet the recommendations are meh. They seem great to the student, who is very preoccupied with other things and living in a land of ego rather than humility. He has no idea that in that applicant pool are glowing recommendations which are distinctly different than in his own in a way that he could not imagine. The reason for the disparity is related to the same quirk that caused him to tell the undiscovered lie. It wasn’t the lie that got him, it was the lack of personal development behind it.</p>
<p>The main reason why a lie like this will go undetected is that the type of student who would fib about being a member of a club for three years versus two is probably not applying to the type of schools who care about being a “member” for any number of years. This is not to say that the future won’t hold great things for such a person, just that he has not yet hit his stride in getting there.</p>
<p>None of this should cause a person to worry too much, however. Relatively few human beings are true stand-outs in high school. Most of us take longer to develop. Those who never fully develop their character end up like Bernie Madoff and other adults who only think that everyone else is lying as well. As they sit in their jail cells, they seethe over getting caught, never realizing that respectable business people are supposed to be just that: respectable. Beyond the barred windows is the rest of society, happily enjoying the freedom that comes with a commitment to character and following the rules.</p>
<p>Only thing that gets you to become a president in any club in our school is being hot and/or popular. The only leadership positions that actually require talent and merit is sport captains.</p>
<p>But besides that unimportant issue, I’ll take your point into consideration. Note that this is all still “hypothetical,” I really don’t have much concerns for whether I should do it or not, only the consequences of committing such acts.</p>
<p>But if I end up not lying, it won’t be because I fear those extremely ludicrous situations. It will be because I’ll learn to value personal integrity and worth more than some trivial crap that gets me into a good college.</p>