Fabricating/Exaggerating Extracurriculars?

<p>I'll be a senior next year, and naturally I'm pretty anxious about the whole college application process. I'll get right to the point - I pretty much have no EC's to date. Because of transportation/family issues (no car/license/other means of transportation), it would have been pretty much impossible for me to stay committed to a club, sport, or other EC. I couldn't come early to school nor could I leave late. Next year, however, these issues will no longer be a problem, so I'll be buckling down and joining several clubs (realistically 3 or 4) now that I can arrive and go as I please. But it will be my senior year, so on my college application I won't be able to list any multi-year EC's. So basically, I was wondering how to make my college application look decent in terms of EC's, even though I've barely participated in any thus far. I understand this is wrong, but I assure you if I could have participated in EC's sophmore or junior year, I would have.
Morals aside, I know a couple of friends who are the heads/co-leaders of some school clubs. I have absolutely no idea how colleges check and confirm information for EC's, but would it be possible to fabricate prior participation in a couple of clubs? Let's say I join the recycling club next year. How would colleges know for sure if I participated 2 years instead of one? Or if I said I was a member of the Philosophy club, whose members are ironically some of the dumbest people in the school? Or even if I said I was the founder of some sort of philanthropist club, with 5-10 members? As long as I gave a couple of cans/toys/etc to some local charities, and mustered up some paperwork confirming the donation under my clubs name, how would colleges differ between my efforts and someone who legitimately spent years as a member of such a club?</p>

<p>Once more, I realize this is morally wrong, and I understand the consequences of getting caught. Also, I apologize if this post in any way offends those of you who actually spent countless hours of time and effort dedicated to whatever EC's you may have participated in. But I'm not looking for a moral lesson. Like I said before, if I could have participated in past years, I would have. So please no comments telling me how I'm a bad person. Instead, I would appreciate those of you out there who understand this process at a higher degree than I do. I've worked my off sustaining my GPA in all AP's, and preparing for the SAT/ACT. It would kill me if my lack of EC's became my defeat. Thanks in advance to all those knowledgeable in this subject who are willing to inform me how all this works.</p>

<p>Hey, I get it. It’s understandable that you may not have stuff, but there’s a section where you can write about that. It’s not fair to lie and it’s wrong and to they must surely do random checks. It’s understandable that you’re thinking about it but when people congratulate you on getting into college all you’ll be thinking about is yeah… that’s not really me who got in…</p>

<p>The overwhelming majority of colleges don’t factor ECs into admission, they factor only academic stats and --for public universities – state of residents. The ones that do factor are places like Harvard that have the luxury of using ECs to pick and choose from among a overabundance of students with impressive stats those who’ll most contribute to creating a campus with an active student body.</p>

<p>Don’t lie. You’ll just feel guilty, and lying about your ECs isn’t going to help you. If colleges learn that you have lied, they may reject you even if they would have accepted you without ECs. </p>

<p>Someone posted on CC that her kid was interviewed at a college far from their home right after another kid from the OP’s kid’s school was interviewed.The first kid had lied and had said that they held a school office that actually was held by the OP’s kid. The two students had had no idea that both had interviews scheduled that day at that college.</p>

<p>If you do have the stats for places like Harvard, still don’t bother to lie about ECs. The ECs that cause students to stand out for places like Harvard aren’t the kind of things that one can lie about. Being in NHS or even a school NHS or school SGA officer isn’t exceptional in that pool. What stands out are students who have accomplished significant things like organizing major community service projects or being a national officer of NHS or winning top state or national awards for ECs. Those achievements are easy to verify, and liars are very likely to be caught.</p>

<p>On one hand, they probably can’t confirm the duration of your participation, or at least they don’t want to spend the effort doing so. Considering all the apps they go through, I doubt they’ll bother calling your school to ask if you actually spent X years in Y club. </p>

<p>On the other hand, the number of years doesn’t really matter that much. Honestly. If you can come off as an interesting person in your essays and perhaps explain your situation, I don’t think the years will matter. I doubt it will make or break you as to whether you spent 1 vs 2 or 3 years in chess club at the Ivy league level. </p>

<p>What <em>does</em> matter, like Northstarmom said, are major achievements and contributions. Those things can be verified as they are more substantial. Lying about these things will actually make a difference, but you are easily caught.</p>

<p>I think you have an essay topic: How my life changed after I could finally participate in after school activities.</p>

<p>Marist, the answer is simpler than you think.</p>

<p>Don’t lie.</p>

<p>Like other posters have said, your fabricated list of extracurriculars will not be significant enough to help you at the best schools. The things that matter are hard to lie about and for adcoms, easy to verify. Your teacher/counselor recs will also reflect your (lack of) participation and involvement. And if you’re going for an interview, I doubt you will be able to convey your fabricated interests. Just explain your story. By no means is it an excuse for zero involvement, but making up transparent ECs will not help you–nor will you be able to get away with it when your teachers note your lack of involvement. </p>

<p>Adcoms are understanding to the context of applicants’ situations. However, if you participated in absolutely nothing all throughout high school and sat around and
moped about your situation, that is not a good way to overcome setbacks. Were you involved in anything over the weekends? And surely you could have received your permit/license by junior year…</p>

<p>I am appalled that people would resort to desperate means to help themselves in the college app process. But realize that making up a list of ECs with minimal involvement ( as extensive dedication is impossible to fabricate since your passions would be reflected in recs,essays, interviews, etc) is a futile effort and will
not help tip your application. </p>

<p>Tell it like it is.</p>

<p>I think ECs matter at only the top schools. And at the schools that look at ECs, I think they’re only impressive if they’re at a national or at least state level - and those are the ones that are easily confirmed. Example: Your app says you did gymnastics during HS…big deal, no one cares. You app says you are an elite gymnast and competed at Nationals…very impressive but a quick google search will disprove it.</p>

<p>Just out of curiosity, if you weren’t in sports or clubs or whatever, what WERE you doing with your spare time?</p>

<p>^second
10char</p>

<p>Why don’t you just give college admissions officers the same explanation you provided in this thread in the additional info section of the Common App rather than lie in an attempt to cheat the system?</p>

<p>If you are explaining this in the additional info section, you need to more convincing. Sure, maybe you had no rides, but you didn’t ask other people? There was no way to be involved outside of school? I know a few EC’s you could have participated in without having to be committed to staying after school. Your school doesn’t have a late bus even?</p>

<p>As for years go, it wouldn’t make a difference, like others have told you. I heard that people can easily mistake how many years they’ve been involved on the application, its not a big deal whatsoever.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I’d like to know as well.</p>

<p>If you did absolutely nothing to make the best of your situation, then you aren’t fit for the best schools to begin with. There is a section for “reaction to setbacks” on your teacher recs. Hopefully you were able to accomplish something despite your situation. Otherwise, this is a great demonstration of poor reaction to setbacks.</p>

<p>Good luck with your apps, and don’t stress too much on ECs. Like many posters have mentioned, only very few schools care about your EC involvement. There are many great schools out there; you will not be “defeated” if you don’t go to HYPSM.</p>

<p>Lastly, you say that you realize this is morally wrong…but you are still willing to go along with it? I will not tell you what’s “right” per se, but now you are not only making this a case of poor reaction to setbacks, but also a poor demonstration of character.</p>

<p>You don’t have to provide any explanation because most colleges don’t factor ECs into admissions.</p>

<p>Was there not something in the news of a Harvard graduate who faked his application (not necessarily ECs but something along the lines?) and was recently caught? </p>

<p>Even if you managed to fool an adcom, you have to live with this for the rest of your life.</p>

<p>1) Some colleges (not the selective ones like HYP) will accept students who have limitied ECs.</p>

<p>2) There was a Harvard student that just got caught for faking everything. If you fake ECs good enough to get you into top schools, they’ll probably have to be big things. And as soon as an adcom looks at that organization with the big national competition that you won, then they’ll know it’s a fake. You’d have to do a good job at lying, and you’d still probably get caught, which will ruin the rest of your life as no college will accept you. When you say you’re aware of the consequences, you need to realize that getting caught means never getting a college education and being blacklisted for jobs.</p>

<p>You are also forgetting that for many schools you will need to provide letters of recommendation which are sent directly to colleges and you will not be able to read them unless your letter writers provide you a copy. If those letters don’t square up with what you are putting down in your application, because you have lied about your extracurriculars or other things, you will be automatically disqualified from schools that may have admitted you if you had told the truth. Don’t lie.</p>

<p>Boiledegg is correct. At our HS, each student who needs a counselor letter of rec must fill out a form which includes a list of ECs. If your GC dosen’t know you, you might be able to fill it with a bunch of made-up activites from outside of school - church or non-profit work, scout honors, etc. But since the GC works and probably lives in your community, you are taking the risk that she doesn’t know the pastor of the church or that her husband isn’t president of the local chapter of the non profit or scoutmaster or whatever.</p>

<p>I do have a friend whose son got into a very selective school with zero ECs. He was the kid who came home every day after school to play video games. But he’s also crazy smart.</p>

<p>

Are you an idiot? People can get their admission rescinded for making mistakes on their application.</p>

<p>An EC activity can be almost anything you do outside of class. As a result, a lack of transportation from school after school hours doesn’t fully explain your situation if you haven’t done anything but go to school and study for three years. If, on the other hand, you had to come home from school early to take care of your younger sister after your mother died and your father descended into an alcoholic haze and lost his job, but you successfully organized an intervention, your father went into rehab and is now employed, your sister now has after-school care and you worked over the summer to buy yourself a car that you fixed up yourself so you can now participate in school clubs, you at least have a good explanation and perhaps an essay topic.</p>

<p>When you consider where to apply, check the Common Data Set for the colleges in which you might be interested to see whether EC activities are important to the colleges. Think about whether you’d be happy at a highly-selective school where the other students are easily able to handle both coursework and ECs and are used to doing so. Instead of lying about non-existent ECs, it makes much more sense to go where they aren’t crucial.</p>

<p>Also, please don’t waste your time applying to colleges with honor codes that are enforced. Why spend four years of college worrying about whether you’ll be caught, either because you lied on your application or because you lied about the next difficult situation that arose?</p>

<p>For anyone who’d like a summary of the OP’s last paragraph, here is a simplified version:</p>

<p>I want to lie. I know it is wrong, so don’t remind me. I worked hard for my grades and SAT scores, so I deserve to get into the college of my choice even if I have to lie about my ECs. Please help me cheat.</p>