<p>but its not a good thing to snitch. well they deserved it anyway. thats why they say "if its not a human watching "then god is watching"</p>
<p>should I include certificates and proof with my apps? how much is too much? the schools and the common app keep saying they don't want certs included, but I do have many things, big and small, outside school that I've focused on.</p>
<p>like how I'm actually part of a government taskforce studying education right now, and doing grassroots work too. should I include written statements for each, plus contact numbers? and the worst thing is, I'm serving out my conscription right now in a classified, security-related unit, and I've just won the unit's best serviceman award for the month. how the hell are they gonna verify that?! I'm an international btw, so I'm quite worried that if they can't find proof through their own checking, they're gonna assume that I've lied. But I don't want to send in overly thick envelopes that might annoy them and work against me either.</p>
<p>Do not send in certificates, etc. Colleges don't want all of that stuff.
If they need to verify anything, they'll contact you, your references or your guidance counselor or principal.
If you're part of something major like a government taskforce, if where you're applying accepts extra recommendations, you might want to send an extra recommendation from a person on that committee. You'd send such a recommendation not to prove what you're doing, but to give further testament to your character and contributions in an activity that is rare for high school students to be involved in.</p>
<p>"Harvard admin officials know this better than we do. They know the half their applicants are full of ****. Thats how they get in in the first place. They lie to get in. Thats why they don't have a good reputation. "</p>
<p>I don't believe this, and I'm an alum as well as an alum interviewer who has headed my area's team of alum volunteers.</p>
<p>I have caught applicants in lies during interviews. Those applicants didn't get in. I believe that one reason that H tries to interview all applicants is to catch them in lies, something that particularly is easy to do with ECs when alum interviewers talk to students because alum interviewers may thoroughly know their communities. For instance, I caught one student in a lie when the student claimed strong involvement in a community activity that my own S happened to be a top officer of, and that I also was a frequent volunteer with. I knew from my own experience that the student could not have been very involved with the activity.</p>
<p>The fact that H has one of the most active campuses in the country even though students don't get academic credit for being involved in campus activities, and the campus clubs, etc. are run by students, not faculty proves that most of the applicants weren't lying about their EC involvements. If they had been lying, they wouldn't bother to be involved in college.</p>
<p>THe students whom I have seen get into H typically had at least 2 very strong ECs. At least one tended to be at the state or regional level. It's fairly easy to find out whether someone really is a national officer of an organization or on the board of a local nonprofit.</p>
<p>haha, thanks Northstarmom for your tips. I do have some problems though... a) the taskforce is still ongoing and not ending anytime b) it's headed by a friend my age.</p>
<p>If you want to highlight it, you could include info about it in your essay or interview (if you'e able to get one. I know that's hard for internationals).</p>
<p>You also could say in the EC section of the app how many people are on the taskforce and what the taskforce's duties are.</p>