<p>". This guy founded "Magic Club" and became "President". Basically, he and 6 other guys would play cards and do card tricks once a month.</p>
<ol>
<li>This guy founded "Race Unity Through Films" and do nothing but watch movies. "</li>
</ol>
<p>As an alum interviewer, I see these kind of BS ECs on applications all of the time. They stick out like sore thumbs. If I can see that they are BS, I know that adcoms can, too.</p>
<p>Even if the ECs that you describe had been legitimate, they would not have been something that would have gotten applicants into Harvard. The ECs sound very trivial. They remind me of someone whose claim to fame was starting a "games club" at the applicants' high school. Wow! How impressive! A club designed to help students destress by playing board games. And it was started fall of senior year. Yeah, a real tip factor for Harvard....not!</p>
<p>"And when all ideas run out, this girl simply decided to name herself the founder of the club I founded and got an award from a local newspaper using it."</p>
<p>I hope that you let the newspaper know that she lied. If she got an award by lying about what she did, you had every right to try to get the record corrected. You did not have to passively accept the situation.</p>
<p>NSM, do you think that starting a small business is a BS job? Like, I made this little hole-in-the-wall computer fixing business in my garage because I've been around computers since 3, and I know alot about them. I go around door-to-door with flyers to advertise. It's nothing fancy, but it helps my mom pay bills and helps me pay for school stuff.</p>
<p>Also, is making a band with my best friends a BS EC? Or, do you think it would be neat in the eyes of adcoms?</p>
<p>""Yes, but it should be pointed out that Blair Hornstine's was first ACCEPTED and that her convoluted fabrication of EC passed the smell test and, obviously, fooled the interviewer. Had she and her father not been THAT greedy to sue the school, she would have been a happy student at H. "</p>
<p>We don't know that. For all we know, her lies still would have caught up with her and she would have been kicked out of Harvard or could have had her Harvard degree rescinded."</p>
<p>Oh yes, we KNOW that she had been accepted at Harvard. This means that she DID fool the admission officers and her interviewer. Her father further fooled Harvard as good ol' Louis the Judge was supposed to join the faculty. Let's not try to embellish Harvard's role in discovering the fraud or take quick and decisive action. They did not! It took an unprecedented action of outsiders to voice outcry about the acceptance of such low-life candidate. The discovery of her plagiarism came well after the early outcry, and was far too arcane for Harvard to ever find out.</p>
<p>As far as Blair Hornstine, she found solace in Scotland where she attends St Andrews. She even participate in the Chorus. I wonder if she uses lipsync devices.</p>
<p>yup, they're bs. especially the band ec, no offense.</p>
<p>I have businesses that makes alot of money and I have solid evidence to back then up with official invoices and documents. Not to brag, but your business must be great in terms of numbers with strong evidence of this.</p>
<p>at my school our guidance counselors have to verify all of our ECs, since they go on our transcripts. i can't imagine that a guidance couselor would really risk his/her position by lying about something like this. and if the student is truly outstanding, then he or she has probably made him/herself very visible in the school, in which case the guidance counselor would know which activities they were involved in. like others have said, it will eventually catch up to them, like every other form of lying. and i have a lot of faith in the adcom; they've been doing this a long time, and even though some dishonest applicants slip through, the committee knows what it's doing and can usually spot false activities.</p>
<p>i have a question. is cleaning captain something that you think is BS? because this was an EC i had in korea and it actualyl involved cleaning the classroom, bathroom and the courtyard.</p>
<p>People who lie about extracurriculars need to get a life.</p>
<p>I could be all McCarthyish and hold up a list of members on CC who lie on their apps... and I know they're out there. Oh, sure, they might not say "Intel Finalist (9,10,11,12)", but they'll embellish, weasel-word, and other such nonsense.</p>
<p>I know one teacher who awarded co-captainship of the Academic Challenge team to everyone ON the team. That's almost as dishonest.</p>
<p>Heyyo... I'm sure that kids who join clubs senior year write down (10,11,12) instead... not an outright lie, but more subtle. It stinks, and it demonstrates something about their character.</p>
<p>Why lie? You'd never get away with anything big, and the stuff that you could lie about would be pretty trivial in the eyes of the Harvard admission officers.</p>
<p>northstarmom, what if you started something the second semester of your senior year, but you've been planning for it for quite a whole, would it be considered dishonest to check off "12th grade"? </p>
<p>how do adcom view EC's that you didn't devote a whole lot time to?(under 10hr/week for each one...). and besides, if you transferred school after junior year, u obviously wouldn't be able to continue some of your EC's at school. would it be your fault?</p>
<p>anyone who lies in his/her app doesn't deserve harvard or any other college for that matter. have honor and don't lie ! lying in your app proves that you have no morals whatsoever. i wouldn't want to be in the same college with people who lied themselves into college.</p>
<p>i for example, have sent written proof for every extracurricular that i have done. and there on the written proof, is the phone number, email, whatever, so i have no worries, harvard can check them, they're all ture. i may not have done many extracurriculars ( i'm taking 15 APs per semester, looots of schoolwork) but what i have done outside the classroom represents me and i am pleased with what i have done. i am not trying to be someone i am not.</p>
<p>on my common app on the extracurricular activities, one of my extrac was organising a poetry festival in my school. 12 hours, 1 week per year, in the 11th grade and in the 12th grade. i could have easily put 10000000000 hours, but i'm not like that. now most of you would say that 12 hours/1week per year is nothing, but for me it meant something. </p>
<p>to cut a long story short. just be yourself and don't lie. there is nothing i hate more than the act of not telling the truth. please get a life.</p>
<p>bmfbpi, <em>how</em> did u take that many....online classes? or was a boarding school? i thought 5 aps/semester was a pretty solid rate...guess not now...ugh...</p>