<p>No, I’m not really thinking about fabricating my ECs. The reason I’m asking this question is to understand whether I need to have some kind of proves of me doing the stuff or not.</p>
<p>Run of the mill ECs require little to no proof. The more spectacular your claims, the better proof you better have. FWIW, ECs really only count at a handful of schools, if you aren’t going there, no need to worry.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats How can you fabricate test scores and transcripts? Aren’t those sent directly from the testing body and the school? I guess one can put one’s genius to all kinds of uses, and if he figured it out maybe he belonged at Harvard :)) </p>
<p>This is a pretty ridiculous conversation. Just tell the truth people! </p>
<p>@ovrseasmom I have no idea! But he was eventually put on academic probation and his parents forced him to tell. Kid’s a genius for figuring it out though.</p>
<p>@MrMom62
Could you see my chance thread and tell me which of my EC’s for which i should provide proof? My mom and disagree as to which we have to provide proof for, I thought that colleges take you at their word and that if they find out you’re lying then there are severe consequences. ( I don’t need to fabricate EC’s, I already have a bit too many for the common app). I’m just wondering because I have to find the proof for some of the stuff then.</p>
<p>This is the famous story of someone faking into Harvard, courtesy pointer from DrGoogle.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/05/19/wheeler_case_shows_flaws_in_college_application_process/”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/05/19/wheeler_case_shows_flaws_in_college_application_process/</a></p>
<p>He was prosecuted.</p>
<p>Note that if one receives any financial aid, if it’s found the application is fake, one will have to pay back the money. Imagine paying hundred of thousand dollars for an expensive lesson with no degree to show for it.</p>
<p>The really big ECs (like national recognition/championship/award/etc.) that matter the most tend to be the most verifiable.</p>
<p>@theanaconda Most colleges take you for your word, and you don’t have to provide proof for any of them. Although if you say you won some major award or got into the news for something significant, providing a few newspaper clippings couldn’t hurt. Alternatively, you could provide some supplemental LOR, but I wouldn’t advise it unless you think they can speak about qualities about you that your teachers can’t. Most schools can verify certain ECs if they wanted to through a quick google search or contacting your GC.</p>
<p>OP, sorry if I jumped the gun on that one. It’s a honest question, and I had thought you needed to save certificates and stuff so you can send them documentation of your awards and whatnot when I first started applying. But really, it’s not necessary. They make you sign a contract on Common App and if any part is fabricated, there are consequences which deters most people from doing so.</p>
<p>@theanaconda: I sort of agree with what shawnspencer says… the part about keeping a file for yourself. But you DEFINITELY do not have to submit a single thing to any college. They take your word for it.</p>
<p>@theanaconda: Listen to this advice from Yale at about :28 seconds in: <a href=“Advice on Putting Together Your Application | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions”>Advice on Putting Together Your Application | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions;
<p>If its amazing enough that they can’t even believe it and want to verify it, thats awesome because it means your EC really wowed them. Otherwise they aren’t actually going to check to see if you did 12 hours of community service vs 14</p>
<p>@gibby
Thanks. That was helpful (I watched the whole video). I have a couple of questions. First the video mentioned getting a letter from your mentor if you’re doing scientific research (I think it said they encourage you to do so). Would it be a red flag to not get this letter? I’m not really sure a letter from my mentor would enhance my application in anyway and might even make it worse, but would be having no letter be even worse? I’ll be attaching the project report I write to my application if I get it done in time so it’ll be obvious I did it. (And is it better to send the whole report or just an abstract or both (I’ve heard sometimes that research papers are sent to appropriate faculty who review it). Does this vary by college? I feel as it does; I think caltech encourages you to do so).
And then is it okay to approximate community service hours; like say "approximately 100 hours of volunteering (it’s probably ± 5-10), or should I find the exact amount?</p>
<p>@theanaconda I don’t think it would necessarily hurt that you don’t have a letter. The people I work under at the company I’m interning and doing research at are both foreigners (one from China and the other from Poland), so their English is not really perfect. I don’t plan on sending a letter of rec, but maybe information about my research if the supplements allow for it.</p>
<p>Generally, colleges only want an abstract so they can get the general gist of what research you did; they don’t really want to spend too much time reading stacks of papers. If you find that it varies, then just make sure you send the report if that’s what they want, of course.</p>
<p>For the Common App, it’s going to be number of weeks per year and number of hours per week. You can’t really use an exact amount, so estimate. If it ends up being a couple hours off, it shouldn’t matter. If it ends up being a large percentage of hours off… that’s just unethical. 
</p>
<p>@theanaconda: Although I agree with most everything capitalamerica said, here’s my two cents: </p>
<p>Hundreds of students participate in research and lots of them have won MAJOR awards (Intel, Siemens etc). If you submit a research project as part of your application IT HAS TO BE absolutely top notch, as your project is going to be directly compared to theirs. Every student that wins some honor, award or prize will most likely have their mentor submit an additional letter of recommendation. At schools like HYP, many of these students have co-published papers with their mentor. If your research project is not in the same league DO NOT submit it, as it will weaken (not strengthen) your application. And that’s true with or without a letter from your mentor. Look at these articles: <a href=“Most Impressive Students at Yale”>Most Impressive Students at Yale; and <a href=“Most Impressive Harvard Students”>Most Impressive Harvard Students. I imagine every student who did research in these articles submitted an abstract to Yale or Harvard with their application. Student’s like these will be your competition at selective colleges. Is your project of the same caliber? Remember Yale’s motto from the video “More is not always better.”</p>
<p>@gibby
Thanks. I will (if I finish on time) be submitting my project for intel/siemens, but how would I have an idea about how good my project is till we get the results from intel/siemens which is after applications are due? I think maybe I’ll approach my mentor towards the end and ask him (indirectly) whether it will be worth submitting my project for intel; if my project has gone well, i’ll be able to at least write a decent paper which hopefully wouldn’t hurt me. </p>
<p>@gibby and others what should I do if my award was a National Language Exam Award I only have one of the certificates (the one I got perfect cause I was proud) I dont have the other one which i got gold or its lost somewhere is there someway to prove those do i post pics of the certificates? I kno the perfect score one has the name hand printed on to it, but the gold award might not. I looked everywhere online and i couldnt find a list of winners for Year ____ and I searched the NAtional [Language] Association website/publication records but i cant find it in that either and my school newsletter also does not have the award. What should i do?</p>
<p>Swellt: no one will ask for it. You’re fine.</p>
<p>But here is the thing I had a C+/B- for the year in Language 1 but I proceeded to get a perfect score on the language exam, in Language Level 2 I had a A-/A and I got a Gold Award. If I were an admissions officer I would be a bit wary of the Language 1 exam since the grade doesnt correlate, if I were asked in an interview I could explain it, nothing clicked for me until early Feb and then I started doing better in my class, proof is that the next two years ive had A’s or A- and then A in Level 3… Should I take a picture of the Award and put it on dropbox and link it to my commonapp?</p>
<p>@gibby my research is patented and have been published with national awards.
Also my research has been par with engg college students in my country. So how do I represent my research that they get impressed?
Also I don’t have mentor for some of my projects.</p>