<p>I'm not looking to fabricate my extracurricular activities at school, I promise. I was in orchestra 9th and 10th grade, and then quit because it was too much to handle. My orchestra teacher is really ****ed at me for quitting.</p>
<p>It doesn't seem practical that every college I apply to will call up my school and ask each adviser if I was really in their club. Is this what they do? Sorry, I am clueless, and I would really rather not have my orchestra teacher talk to admissions people.</p>
<p>If it changes anything, I will be applying to NYU, Vassar and some other LACs. I'm thinking a huge school like NYU wouldn't actually call up every school and adviser.</p>
<p>No, they won’t call up your adviser, and you’ll be fine if you put that you were in it in 9th and 10th grade. However, I’m not sure that it counts strictly as extra-curricular if it’s an actual class that meets in school (which is what orchestra at my school was).</p>
<p>No. It’s based on an honor system for the most part, unless things conflict (such as THREE people from the SAME school claim to have founded the SAME club), or it’s like really special (international science teams or something).</p>
<p>Usually, no. Sometimes they will if something stands out that causes them to wonder. Also, some colleges, like the UCs, have gone to taking a random sample of their applications and checking to verify the ECs of the applicants in the sample, including by sending a request to the applicants to provide verification from the high school or organization involved.</p>
<p>Schools do not routinely check ECs. They just don’t count heavily enough to make a difference in admissions for most kids. Those ECs that make a big difference, the hooks, are the type of things that are easily verifiable such as semi finals in the Siemans Intel, National Merit, National distinction in an event, winner of some prestigious award or accomplishment.<br>
When you get your teachers and GC to write your recs, they will usually ask for a list of things you do so that they can refer to them in their recs. If there is a major discrepancy in what they say, and what you write, it can raise a flag. So could other apps from your school. The world is a lot smaller than you would think, and most peculiar bits of info make their way to the most unlikely people. Adcoms are usually invisible folks that you don’t know and don’t know who they know. I remember a few years ago, someone who was a regional rep at a college not around here was heavily involved in a cancer walk (relative involved). A kid claimed to have done heavy duty work organizing the event on his college app when he had not. Yeah, caught. Strange things like that happen all of the time. They say there are only 6 degrees of separation between each of us and another person. When you start getting into an exclusive enclave like college admissions, there are far fewer degrees. It’s a small world.</p>