<p>Basically, my question focuses more towards how colleges view what people claim to be their extracurricular activities at their school. In other words, how does an admissions officer for a school such as Duke University verify claims towards someone being an officer of a club? I am asking this specifically due to the fact that I just reestablished a club at my school and the only thing that I had to fill out on a form in regards to officer positions was me being president (the form only asked for that specific position, and the form itself was a universal one not specific towards any sort of club). So, what worries me is the thought that my other legitimate positions may not actually be seen as legitimate in the eyes of an admissions officer due to the fact that they are not actually recorded and filed into a system. How can I avoid this if what I am saying is true and that the admissions officers do not heavily look at school extracurriculars? I am involved in extracurriculars outside of school that I receive community service hours for, so they are in fact legitimate.</p>
<p>The truth is colleges don’t check. Because school like Duke know applicants’ positions are commonplace.</p>
<p>Clubs? meh</p>
<p>Admissions people are looking for what you ACCOMPLISHED in whatever venue you chose to participate in.</p>
<p>Adcoms know that most clubs don’t do much–and that most officers are chosen either by being teacher’s pet, or via popularity contest, or by being one of the very few who bother to even show up–and so don’t give much weight to being in/being an officer of a club. So if French Club or Key Club or Environmental Club don’t do a whole lot, and/or you are not a primary mover in whatever worthwhile the club might actually do–it doesn’t count for much at all. So colleges aren’t going to bother checking up.</p>
<p>If, however, you do claim to do something worthwhile, often adcoms will indeed check up on it because they know a lot of applicants lie on their applications. These days it is very easy to Google just about anything and it only takes a few seconds. Or it takes only a moment for the adcom to call the high school and have a brief conversation with the GC, the principal, or the relevant teacher in order to fact check. Also, realize that if you brag about an activity on your application, adcoms can become suspicious if it is not referenced else where in your application packet–for example, if you did something stupendous with the environmental club, it would be assumed that the GC would mention it in his LOR.</p>