<p>Imagine this situation.You write a letter of rec and a friend of yours signs it.You write in your app that this letter was signed by the minister of education.Then the college officers contact the minister members of his staff and find out you lied.Then what happens with you ?You got rejected by all the ivies.</p>
<p>well thats kinda extreme...i wouldnt get my friend to sign my letter of rec and say it was from the "minister of education.." .</p>
<p>i was talkin more about the things you say in ur application and not the letter of recs...though i guess people could "cheat" on the letter of recs too.</p>
<p>but i think the one thing u cant manipulate is the transcript</p>
<p>The point here is that the risk of lying outweighs the benefit. To rephrase what Dean J said, to get any significant benefit from lying, you'd have to lie about something so big that your risk of getting caught in the lie is substantial.</p>
<p>Unless you are Barack Obama and nobody can have access to your college records, medical records, state senate records, etc...anyone else yes it could probably come back to haunt you...</p>
<p>They don't check everything, obviously. But you know how the one time you decide to cheat, you get caught? Don't risk it, seriously. If it's honestly significant enough to make an impact (500 extra community service hours won't matter that much), then it's probably significant enough for them to realize it's not true. Big awards, like Debate national champs or Scholastic Art and Writing winners, are easily checked up on.</p>
<p>^^That seems to be the general consensus. Little exaggerations (like a slight increase in # of hours) likely won't get caught, but won't make any difference either...</p>
<p>mmk.. i have a question guys........
so the common app activities asks for the number of weeks per year for each activity......
i just simply did 52-12 for most activities because there are 52 weeks in a year and summer break is usually around 12 weeks.. showing that i spent 36 weeks on my activity.. however this is not really accurate because i didn't deduct winter break weeks, etc... is this like lying? >_< i just estimated the number of weeks i spent.. so it should be reasonable right? im a lil worried</p>
<p>That's not lying, that's fine (52-12 is 40 though ;)). They ask for an estimate anyway. Where it's a problem is if you tack hundreds of hours onto your total or something. I doubt it would be considered lying if you added 50 because you could have guessed wrong...</p>
<p>No one knows EXACTLY how much time per week they spend on activities, unless its really structured sports practices. Other things are much harder to quantify, and colleges know this. The numbers are not scientific facts, just reasonable estimates.</p>
<p>oops, yeah it's 40 looool but i put 36 on most of my activities.... phew thanks it's not lying xDDD</p>
<p>so if you have like 290 hours and you say 300 hours, they don't care... right?</p>
<p>^^^Not at all. The numbers should be reasonably close estimates (even the difference between 150 and 200 probably isn't that significant since it's just a guess), few people know exactly how much time they spend on activities...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Years ago when I volunteered at an aquarium they know exactly how many hours.
[/quote]
OMG lucky - i'd totally love love love to do that but i don't think there's an acquarium aroujnd here!</p>
<p>"If we don't check, then the number probably doesn't matter as much as you think it does and there's no point in lying.</p>
<p>If we do check and you lie, you're sunk.</p>
<p>You would be hard pressed to find an admission officer who would let the number of hours of community service dramatically change their admission decision. There is no reason to lie."</p>
<p>that should explain everything, thanks Dean J.</p>