Do colleges REALLY know ....?

<p>Well, what I mean is this:</p>

<p>1.) Do colleges really know which school districts are competitive and which school districts aren't competitive? ( I mean a Class Rank of 1 in an uncompetitive school =/= Class Rank of 1 in a highly competitive school)</p>

<p>2.) Do colleges really verify your ECs? (Like when you're applying for college, do they require an EC verification form or do they like call your club's supervisor or something?)</p>

<p>3.) Also, do they really know how many times you took the SAT/SAT II? (I personally plan to take it a couple of times but I heard that they don't want people taking it more than twice.)</p>

<p>Those are all my questions for know. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance for answering them.</p>

<p>1) I believe the top colleges are aware of the caliber of your high school. they have regional counselors who only focus on a certain area of the country. </p>

<p>2) Generally no. Yes, it is possible to lie but it is very risky. if by chance they find out you lied after you're admitted and enrolled, they can kick you out and if you graduated from the college, they can revoke your degree (and I would assume that revoking a degree can have some serious implications for the student's career and life).</p>

<p>3) Yes, they can see everything that you sent on the score report up until the report date. For example if you sent your score report in October 2005, they can see all tests up till that date but not any tests after. Usually they only note down the highest score from the score report so its not really a big deal.</p>

<p>1.) i'm sure after so many years of receiving apps from various school districts they can tell. like, if someone applies from exeter, they'll know it's really competitive, but when they look at, let's say my public school, they'll be able to tell by the school profile that it's not extremely competitive. school profiles are good keys to find out how competitive a school is.
2.) probably only if they're inconsistent with the rest of your app, or there simply aren't enough hours in the day to do all that you say you do
3.) yes, the college board sends them all of your scores.</p>

<p>I've just been reading A Is for Admissions and the author (from admissions at Dartmouth) says that the regional admissions people keep files on most of the high schools within their regions, so they're familiar with the curriculum and student body at each one. </p>

<p>She seems to imply that that's mostly for the high schools that send a lot of applications--so if you're going to a school in Montana that has never had an application to Harvard before, Harvard's admissions committee will not be familiar with that high school.</p>