<p>smoda61 & 2collegewego,</p>
<p>First of all, while the OP has not stated that they are going to claim an ethnicity other than their own, there certainly is something fishy about the question and the way it was asked. My original post was intended to be written in a sarcastic and cynical tone and to question the reasons and honesty of the OP’s concerns.</p>
<p>The two examples you present certainly show one of the potential pitfalls of this type of “fudging of the truth” but they also reveal adjustments to the OP’s strategy. First, in my experience, students must pre-register for the accepted student events; their regional adcom KNOWS their coming. I would suspect that individual adcoms are given the names of attending students and the smart/good ones will review the applications of his/her admitted students, if only to impress the attendees. I doubt that they spend the same amount of time refreshing their memories on students who aren’t attending the reception. So, Tip 1: If you’ve lied on your app but been accepted, don’t attend any admitted student receptions, you’re putting yourself in harm’s way.</p>
<p>2collegewego’s example is a bit different. Apparently there were a few schools who had questions about her daughter’s ethnic background, i.e., she stood out as a potential issue. Given that there was a question about her URM status, it’s only natural to me that she would be sought out at these events in order to confirm or refute any suspicions. As for knowing that she didn’t attend an info session at her high school, I suspect that was one of those “Do you remember her?” type questions when the issue of URM status came up. Those events always have sign-up/email sheets so that a student gets put into the system, so it should be easy to confirm whether a student attend or not. I personally doubt that an individual adcom rep remembers the face, name and high school of every attendee of their info sessions. </p>
<p>I’ll admit that this belief comes from my experiences as a hiring manager. Back in the good old days on milk-and-honey when we’d hire 5 or 10 new college grads at a time there would be a new hire reception not long after they all started. I would make a point of going over the resumes of all the new-hires even if they weren’t going to be working for me. It made for easier conversations and it may have vaguely impressed them, but I certainly didn’t recall anything important about the hundreds of applicants we didn’t hire. My point is, if you’re going to cheat/game the system, it pays to lay as low as possible; unless there is a compelling reason to find you, in most situations I doubt that you will be sought out.</p>