<p>I mean, can't you just put down that you were in just any club that you've ever attended a meeting to? How do they find out that you were not really involved in it?
I mean, if they can't, then you might as well just put anything down.
But how do they find out if you're stretching the truth, as far as any extracurriculars are concerned.
I'd really like to know.</p>
<p>your college counselors will check with the faculty assigned to each club. colleges have no clue, but your transcript will not lie</p>
<p>but how does that all work?
on your transcript that you print out, it actually says 'was a member of bla bla bla'
i could've sworn the transcript just shows standardized test scores and grades</p>
<p>I guess I have a bit of tunnel-vision going on. I go to a Catholic school in the Idependent School League (the private school league in MA with Roxbury Latin, Nobles, GDA... if any of those mean anything), and because of the size of my school, our single (that's right, we have only one) college counselor checks with your club proctors to make sure that you are an active member of it. This will go on the back of your transcript along with your position in the club/sport the level and the years you were in it.</p>
<p>so when college offices have hundreds of thousands of applications flowing in everyday around spring season, they actually have the time to contact the school that you went to out of 9059634534559035 people with applications, and ask the sponsor if you were an active member of the club?</p>
<p>colleges count on your honesty, if they find out in any way, that you lied, the slightest bit on your app. they can take away your diploma. a friend of mine took IB and got 45 (b/c a Yale student or someone wrote his term paper) got in to some good school, but was later kicked out for dishonesty :D</p>
<p>but how exactly do you think they'd find out?</p>
<p>What's the point of asking? Just don't do it, and you'll never need to know how. Unless someday you become part of a college adcom.</p>
<p>Of course, if you really want to gamble on it, by all means, go for it. I hear from a friend at Stanford that some of her roommates lied about ECs in their apps and got in. Nobody's stopping you. It's your application, after all, and if you're willing to risk getting FUBAR in order to boost your chances by 3%...</p>
<p>Besides, membership in a club doesn't mean anything anyway, unless you haven't any clubs to begin with. It's leadership in a club that counts.</p>
<p>
[quote]
but how exactly do you think they'd find out?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Because an inconsitancy will show up between your EC listing, your transcript, your essays, your interview, and your recommendations. Or said another way ... because your lie needs to be woven across many communications and many people. Are the odds you get caught very high? I would guess they are very low; but the downside risk is incredibly high. (and as a parent I'll add ... the test of your character is what you do when no one is looking)</p>
<p>what's fubar?</p>
<p>Now, that's what I want to know. What is FUBAR?</p>
<p>Our school has about 2000 students, and our guidance counselors probably don't check extracurriculars stated on applications, and our transcripts only reflect grades and tardies. I know I would be extremely bothered by myself if I got into my dream school on a fudged application, though.</p>
<p>this was my question too. it dissapoints me that 10 hours a week, or other hard earned achievements just become a few words.. that in fact ANYONE can put down...</p>
<p>FUBAR means screwed up beyond all recognition. Except, with the F word.</p>
<p>"it dissapoints me that 10 hours a week, or other hard earned achievements just become a few words.. that in fact ANYONE can put down..."</p>
<p>Yeap...it's sad, isn't it?</p>
<p>that saves my life
im mad good at english so i can make anything sound amazing</p>
<p>my guess is that college adcoms don't put much weight on ECs that aren't mentioned in counselor/teacher recs..
after all they're looking for leadership and commitment so they don't give a **** about whether you participated in some club for a few years...
what they care about is whether you were the president (or other position of equal leadership/responsibility) of that club and if that club took an active role in your school, and if you were the head of an active club, it would be odd if none of your teachers mentioned it in their recs.</p>
<p>A long list of clubmemberships isn't going to be a make or break for college admissions. In fact, some schools see long lists as kind of a negative because they'd rather see a real commitment to fewer activities. The really good EC's in terms of helping in admissions involve having held a leadership position in one or more of those clubs. So, to really benefit from lying about being in clubs that you aren't really in, you'd have to also lie about being president or vice president. Which gets pretty dicey, especially when your guidance counselor doesn't mention it in his/her recommendation....or the adcom asks you during an interview about your leadership role that never really existed....or the admissions committee notices that your essays have absolutely nothing to do with all those clubs you say you belonged to. And, many schools - even those that get thousands of applications - do RANDOMLY check extracurriculars on some level. If you're caught lying or they suspect youre burnishing the truth, well, that's a definite strike against your chances. In short, there's not much to gain by LYING about clubs you never really participated in, but plenty to risk.</p>
<p>A high school website in San Diego indicates that UCSD makes the following statement, and I assume that they are referring to ECs,
but I could not find this statement on the UCSD website:</p>
<p>UCSD Application Scoring
UCSD Freshman Comprehensive Review Process</p>
<p>All UC eligible applicants receive a review that considers a combination of the following academic and personal achievement factors. UCSD used the specific scoring rubric shown to award points for fall 2005.</p>
<p>Verification of non-academic information for 2005 fall applicants will be done on random 10% of accepted students prior to admission notification.</p>