Like if you attended a program at a UC or volunteered under a UC professor or something like that would they call or email to check? Literally just out of curiosity, because I’ve UCs are more strict or something about verification, and the professor I interned/volunteered for takes quite a while to respond to emails which makes me nervous.
Our daughter had to intern at a research facility for her HS Biotech class lab requirement. My neighbor was a PI working on diabetes research at our local UC. Our daughter did a year of “work” monitoring the “subjects” lab work- PCR’s and other results. (Initially, they were going to reject our daughter because of research and minors, but DD was a late November Bday and we held her back in Kinder. She was 18 when she was interning.)
I don’t think the UC’s asked, but a Harvard researcher reached out to our neighbor, who reported that she received a call from a “distant” colleague working on a similar study, and had our daughter’s name and the name of the study, and the PI’s info. I think they were curious but I don’t know if it was a check on her EC.
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Yes they do. We have a friend who was asked to have a teacher verify one of her activities. The student was notified first so you would be notified and can follow up with the professor.
UC Application Verification
UC selects a random sampling of applicants who are required to verify information in their application. The selection and notification takes place in late December. Applicants are notified by postal mail, email and text message that they have been selected for verification along with instructions on how to meet the requirements. Applicants are asked to provide original documentation to verify one item from the following sections on the UC Application: academic history, honors and awards, extracurricular activities, volunteer work and community service, special program participation, employment or information contained in the personal insight responses.
The instructions sent to the selected applicants details how to complete the process as well as a list of appropriate documentation. Appropriate documentation could include official transcripts, a letter from a teacher, counselor or coach on letterhead, or a copy of a certificate or award. Letters from a counselor, teacher or a coach can be emailed to the UC Application Center directly from the counselor, teacher or coach. Failure to respond to the request by the deadline will result in cancellation of the application.
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@lkg4answers this is great info! Thank you! When does this period normally end? Has anyone received any audit requests late into Jan/Feb? We’re trying to prep for this by getting a few letterhead memos signed ahead of time. Will they accept an email with the letter directly from students or do they only accept them from teachers?
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@sawadeeka My son was selected by the UCs for random verification in early January 2021, and as I recall he was given several weeks to provide the verification.
I’m not sure how you can prep for this ahead of time, though, since the UCs can ask to verify any item from any section of the application. In my son’s case, they asked about a reference in one of his essays to a class that he had taken. We assume they asked this because the class sort-of wasn’t on his transcript. It actually was, but under an abbreviated name. The class was called (made up example): The Pursuit of Happiness: Studies from the Declaration of Independence. He referred to it in his essay as “The Pursuit of Happiness” because that’s how everyone at his school (including faculty, I think) referred to the class. However, on his transcript, it was only listed as “Studies from the Declaration of Independence”. A letter from the school cleared up the confusion. But I don’t think we could ever have anticipated that this would be a question they would have asked.
If I recall correctly, he was told that his application would be put on hold until this got resolved and that his application would be withdrawn if he did not clarify the issue within the allotted time frame.
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@MMRose thank you for this info! It’s pretty scary to think that your son’s entire life career can be placed in jeopardy if the response doesn’t get resolved by the school within a few weeks. I guess my DD and I need to stay on top of her email over the next two months.
Do you recall if the response email need to come directly from the school or can it be a memo signed by the authoritative source, and emailed by the student?
Thanks!
This is the instructions that were provided.
Acceptable Documentation
A copy of your official school transcript or grade report. This does not need to be a sealed transcript.
Letters must be on school or organization letterhead and should refer to the item identified above. Include your name as well as a phone number to contact the author of the letter. If you are providing other types of documents (e.g., certificate or newspaper article), you should send copies (not originals) labeled with your name and birth date, or application ID number. Remember you only need to present one document to verify the item requested. Documents will not be returned.
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@MMRose thank you so much!
You’re welcome!
I sent you a private message. Let me know if you have trouble accessing it.
You can prep by not lying on your application!
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Well, yes – but I don’t think that’s what either I or @sawadeeka was talking about. The UCs randomly audit a certain percentage of their applications and ask for external validation of information that was provided. In my son’s situation, he used a shortcut course name instead of the full, 10-word name. Not a lie – that’s how everyone referred to it. I guess he could have double-checked how his transcript referred to it, but that didn’t occur to him. In other cases, students might take part in ECs where the person who can validate them might not be a quick responder, especially over the holidays.
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The person I know that was audited was a leader in an extracurricular activity that didn’t match his academic profile. For example, a humanities kid who was a captain of the robotics team. They asked for verification about his role in the extra curricular activity.
Was this apart of the random verification they do in late December-January or was it something different/later?
Random verification. I don’t know the timeline but it was before admissions decisions were released.
So that’s really interesting, since both my son and your friend were asked about a potential inconsistency, yet the official information from the UCs is that verification is based on random selection.
So maybe this is how it works? The UCs randomly select a certain percentage of applications to audit (I think I read somewhere that it’s about 10-15% but I could be completely wrong on that). Then they review those apps to see if there are any potential inconsistencies and ask for verification if they find something that appears to be potentially inconsistent.
This is just a guess, but these two examples (an n of 2 being so very rigorous!) seem to support that idea.