<p>In common app, do people just write down their extracurricular activities? do they need like an official proof? For example if i went to 4 months acting classes, do I just write it down?</p>
<p>then everyone would lie!!!??? o.O</p>
<p>Hopefully, people have the decency and strong enough morals to tell the truth on their apps. I don’t think you need to send any proof, which I guess it is kind of a bad thing because people could technically lie, but it would be kinda tough to get proof for all your activities. I can totally picture one of my friends lying/major exaggerating on her app.</p>
<p>that sucks 
I’ve been involved in a lot of things in my life but it sucks that everyone can just lie about it. and im sure they do, i mean why not</p>
<p>I think you should try getting a signed signature and phone number from a person who can confirm that you did indeed do all of those EC’s. Adcoms probably suspect some liars as well. Proof of your endeavors might give you an advantage.</p>
<p>They don’t, but if they happen to ever find out, you could be in trouble, so don’t lie.</p>
<p>Some schools, like the UC system, randomly choose students to be audited and prove what they are saying is true. Fail the audit, you’re rejected. </p>
<p>As for those that don’t have a formal audit process they tell you about, they fall into 2 camps. Truth be told, most colleges admit students based on scores and grades. So even though they have a place to list ECs because everyone expects to see it, the list doesn’t play much of a part. For those colleges that do care about ECs, the ones that matter are readily checked. Nobody at Harvard cares if you volunteered for 50 hours somewhere; the ECs selective schools look for are much more involved and consequently can be easily verified.</p>
<p>There is a thread with comments by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. The post is at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html[/url]Take”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.htmlTake</a> a look and you can see that most of them are easily checked.</p>
<p>To be honest, most of the time they don’t. Many schools, do however, perform random checks. This means they’ll call your school and ask for verification. If you fabricate your EC’s and get caught, you will be immediately rejected/rescinded but you’ll probably be black-listed as well. Basically, not a good idea.</p>
<p>Are you going to lie? Yeah, neither are most people.</p>
<p>I always added references from any supervisors that I could actually get(In some activities you might not be able to though). It’s kind of you like your work CV. That way, the school can check with the supervisor in question if need be.</p>
<p>Often they don’t check. Basically b/c most ECs are not going to make a difference. The ones that do (won some major competition, etc.) are easy to verify. The ones that are difficult to verify (which are open to exaggeration) – don’t do much for you – like the vaunted community service hours. 5 or 500 – it’s “meh” to colleges.</p>
<p>yeah they don’t check. not very clever, is it</p>
<p>I heard that colleges check ECs by seeing if you’re in the club picture in the yearbook…is this true? There have been years when I was a member but missed the yearbook photo (we don’t get a heads up about when they are taking it)…</p>
<p>How are they going to get a hold of your HS yearbook? I mean, really? It’d be kinda weird if they tried to order a copy! You’re just supposed to be honest about your ECs.</p>
<p>The funny thing is that its easy to prove as well. You cant lie about community service though, you would need connections. BTW, Colleges love it when your EC’s are strongly associated with your intended major. I know people who got accepted to TOP schools and they’ve partially lied about their EC’s on their application. They put that they were president of a club in our school, yet they asked the actual president of the club for permission to do this. Try not to be obvious though. If both of you are applying to the same school than don’t put that you were both president of that club. Don’t worry about integrity, just do it, but be smart about it.</p>
<p>What a lot of you don’t realize is that your application is kept on file for years. They can bust you at any time for lying on your application and therefore expel you. It’s the same situation as lying on a CV. It can come back to haunt you.</p>
<p>They can also rescind your degree after it’s granted. Don’t even think about it.</p>
<p>First of all, EC’s mean very little to anything but the Top 25 schools. Even the top-ranked public schools are generally stat-based. They like to see that you’re doing something, but the fact that you organized a car wash doesn’t equal 4.0 uw GPA or a 36 ACT.</p>
<p>Generally, there aren’t going to be any doubts as to whether someone who is Ivy/Top-school caliber is involved in their society through things like EC’s. </p>
<p>As far as cheating to get in goes, it would makes more sense to list your ethnicity as a URM when you aren’t one (which people do) and increase your chances that way.</p>
<p>I always see people saying: “You need to cure cancer to get into Harvard.” Brother, if you cure cancer, you don’t need college.</p>
<p>Rule of thumb is that if you can lie about it, it isn’t helping you much. There are two attributes of an “impressive” EC:</p>
<p>1) Major awards - these are easily verified. Major awards are typically on a state level or higher, and the results are typically published somewhere.</p>
<p>2) Strong passion - this comes across through an essay, and if it is genuine enough, it would be very difficult to lie about.</p>
<p>Is there corruption? Of course. But it probably isn’t as bad as you think.</p>