How do other colleges know if you've attended another college if you don't tell them?

<p>If you've attended another college and you don't want to the school you're applying to know can you apply as an incoming freshman and get admitted?</p>

<p>Let me introduce you to a concept called “the Internet” on which you can find almost anything about almost anyone. </p>

<p>If you ever applied for financial aid, that’s on record and will certainly be discovered (it will come up when you again apply for financial aid).</p>

<p>If they do admit you and then find out, you will be expelled or, if you’ve already graduated, your degree will be revoked.</p>

<p>People talk, and the admissions world is much smaller than you may believe. </p>

<p>Don’t do it.</p>

<p>Colleges also have a specialized consortium for sharing that information. They have to share some information of that kind to meet federal regulatory requirements of not giving undergraduate financial aid twice to the same person.</p>

<p>Also, keep in mind that if the college finds out you lied on your app at any point, you can be kicked out.</p>

<p>Don’t even go there. A organization exists, called the National Student Clearinghouse, that is set up to track students who try to pull the stunt you’re suggesting. But its even better than it seems; you CAN probably apply somewhere else and get admitted; the joke comes when in the middle of the summer you get another letter revoking your admission. While it only costs a few cents per student for a college to check the database, they’re not going to bother until they know who will be attending in the fall. After all in the application you promised the information you gave is truthful, and if it was there won’t be any surprises. During the summer they’ll check, find out you’ve lied on your app, and rescind your acceptance.</p>

<p>But don’t believe me; give it a go and see what happens…</p>

<p>I hear alot of “Try it and find out” threats but no substantial proof that colleges actually use the National Student Clearinghouse or if used at all, how a college goes about utilizing it. It seems that the school a student is admitted to will use the NSC if they are suspicious of a student’s attending history or for financial aid verfication. A potential employer may use it to verify an employee’s status at the school he or she attended, which is usually attainment of a degree at said college.
I think the only way you can get caught is if A) you applied for and received financial aid from previous colleges (the one you’re trying to hide), B) you have given those transcripts to a previous school (usually a community college) C) there is some “other” link between you and that school or D) someone that knew you went to that school rats you out.
Of course this is just my opinion and there is always some way they can catch you, but again, no one on here has solid proof of anything.</p>

<p>You’re right, there’s no ‘proof’. So why don’t you do it and get back to us, OK? :rolleyes:</p>

<p>They’re not worried, they know most are not dumb enough to take the risk.</p>

<p>@ skeller & Rickmoranis: it’s in any college’s **utmost **interest to know in advance, if the person they are admitting has attended a previous institution – is there a history of poor academics and defaulted fin aid arrangements. The solution? You subscribe to a national database and as a normal course of business, you data dump your student rosters (and their status) into it continually. And you also compare your incoming students to the massive database. Does it sound very difficult? No?</p>

<p>It shouldn’t. Time to put on your thinking caps, ladies and gentlemen.</p>

<p>[What</a> We Do | National Student Clearinghouse](<a href=“http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/about/what_we_do.php]What”>http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/about/what_we_do.php)</p>

<p>What is the problem with wanting to start over and be a freshman? Let’s say you took classes at college year s ago, did nothing and now want a fresh start?</p>

<p>So what if you have a thousand credits?</p>

<p>What harm does it do the colleges? I am really curious. Taking fin aid out of the picture, if a student wanted to start fresh and is will g to go back to basics, how does that hurt a college.</p>

<p>If the person says, yes, I went to psu and had to leave because i wasn’t ready and now o want to start over as a freshman, does that hurt the school.</p>

<p>What is the motivation of a school to not allow someone to be s freshman if there are no issues besides credits?</p>

<p>Im curious about seahorsesrock question, I don’t why this is an issue</p>

<p>Say someone took an accredited “online class” would that have to be listed? Where do you draw the line?</p>

<p>Google ‘academic renewal.’ Maybe that’s an option.</p>

<p>Holy cow, again with the “better look over your shoulders, boys and girls.”</p>

<p>T2- they often cannot even identify if a kid left college A due to sexual assault charges. Everyone is just so certain there’s a big brother aorund every corner and plenty of organizations willing to pay the big bucks to them to reveal. I dunno.</p>

<p>ps. Read that clearninghouse site carefully. They are a profit venture. They seem to do a great deal of resume verification for employers. And, when they list “Participating Enrollment Reporting Institutions,” the emphasis should be on enrollment reporting - it does not say participating clients. tbc.</p>

<p>

Since few colleges accept 100% of their applicants, taking someone who already has a degree for a brand-new undergrad degree means turning down someone who doesn’t. Taking someone who already has enough units to graduate in 2 more years from your college but letting them stay for 4 because you think they don’t have any units means that someone else isn’t enrolled for those 2 extra years.</p>

<p>I do see the show as a non-profit, but anyone else curious about how Ferpa plays in? </p>

<p>Also, from OP’s question, I was thinking it meant a kid who had, say, a semester or two, simply wants to apply fresh, somewhere else- and not have to show past grades, prior academic mistakes. Not multiple undergrad degrees.</p>

<p>Adding this:
*Privacy Commitment
The Clearinghouse has maintained the confidentiality and privacy of the student records in our care since our inception in 1993. We are scrupulous in our concern for student privacy and compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which protects students’ privacy rights in their education records.
We require certification from all verification requestors that the student or alumnus has given permission for his/her academic information to be released. Requestors also agree not to re-release degree data to third parties (unless the requestor is a background screening firm releasing data to their employer client).
*</p>

<p>Read the legalese on your applications. By voluntarily applying to a university or college, you give permission for them to disclose your registration/attendance to the Student Clearinghouse, and give permission for the university or college to cross-check your enrollment history in the Clearinghouse.</p>

<p>To a great extent, this has to do with the colleges and universities “playing nice” with each other. If College/University A wants to have its degrees recognized nationwide (this is generally achieved by seeking, receiving, and maintaining regional accreditation), then it behooves College A to recognize degrees earned (and hence individual coursework completed) at other colleges and universities across the country. Part of this is the practice of recognizing course credits that are decades old. Part of this also is the insistence that applicants provide official copies of all academic transcripts - even when those transcripts are decades old.</p>

<p>Many colleges and universities are perfectly willing to admit students for second bachelors degrees, a bachelors in a new field following a masters in another, or even an associates in a new field after a PhD! Starting over truly is not an issue at all. Keep looking. If you are ready, willing, and able to pay for your studies, you will be able to find a place where your old academic history does not lead to instantaneous rejection.</p>

<p>Re mikemac obeservatiom</p>

<p>So it’s a matter of space? And people double dipping into the college pool? Thus pushing others out? </p>

<p>If I had a job I hated and left or was fired ten fifteen years ago, would I put it on my resume? Don’t think so. It’s unimportant. Somehow colleges appear to want to be extra special your past will haunt you forever institutions. Hey you are a felon and weren’t perfect in your past and messed up first time in school, so, too bad for you</p>

<p>Seahorsesrock, any college or university where the admissions office is staffed by people who can’t understand that who you were at age 18 and who you are at age 35 are very different, is an institution that doesn’t deserve your tuition money. It doesn’t take all that long for a serious applicant to find places that will admit that applicant based on his/her more recent life history.</p>