What does Harvard – and other elite universities do to make sure students are truthfully detailing their entire academic history, test scores, etc?
May I ask what evidence you have that indicates that students are lying?
Also remember that there are such things as teacher recs and if a rec letter says that “this kid is mediocre” and the kid claims to have a nobel prize in his application they’re going to get suspicious
High school transcripts and official SAT, ACT scores sent directly to the colleges.
If you are think about “scamming” Harvard I would advise against it.
After the recent scandal involving some well known universities I think colleges are going to review apps more closely. To prevent cheating they probably aren’t going to announce how they plan to do that.
Sometimes college talk to GCs, and discrepancies are revealed then.
No, everyone is responding in a very negative way. First, I would never think of scamming my way into any school. Second, the only reason I asked this question is because I wanted to get a better idea of how the college is looking into each students’ application.
Have people forgotten Adam Wheeler so quickly?
https://www.amazon.com/Conning-Harvard-Wheeler-Artist-League/dp/0762780029
I was just about to mention that.
One should assume that the question is not if Harvard (or any college) will find the lies - they will. It’s a question of when. If it’s before acceptance day, they can reject the application. If it’s after acceptance, but before enrollment, they can rescind the offer. If it’s after enrollment but before graduation, they can force a withdrawal. If it’s after graduation, they can revoke the degree. And it’s all spelled out in the Common Application.
The consequences are not worth it.
As noted above, official transcripts and test scores are required to be sent; discrepancies are subject to the consequences I outlined. One cannot simply omit a community college summer class because all that data exists in the National Student Clearinghouse.
I know someone from my kids school accepted Harvard and Yale this year applied as a first generation although parent graduated college from other country. How colleges verify this kind of things? First gen and low income etc… I’ve seen many people who owns their business and getting financial aid yet they live in million dollar house and paying very expensive tutoring.
Well, I have seen kids write up their achievements in a way that looks as though they started a program, were the essential person in an activity or just “word warped” their activities to make them more impressive. People can read right thru that. My kids participate in an activity at a national and above level. When I read things written by kids who aren’t at the level and are implying that they are, it’s a red flag. I’m sure that AO’s recognize this type of word smithing/word warping.
Also, when you see someone who has so many activities, at some point, it’s logical to think; Where did they get all that time in the day? Though some kids rarely sleep.
HY and the like know that all first gens are not the same. There is no box on the Common App that says “Check here if you are first gen.” Colleges will take the information as presented and do with it what it will. So an applicant that fails to mention that his/her parents graduated from college yet hold well-paying professional positions and live in a solidly middle-class (or above) neighborhood will not be viewed the same as the applicant living in Bed-Stuy whose single mother is working 3 minimum wage jobs to put food on the table.
This is an interesting question. One of my son’s classmates applied ED to a highly competitive college and wrote a Personal Statement that was completely fraudulent. The kid actually claimed to be the co-founder of a school club that my son solely founded (the kid wasn’t even a member of the club in its first year!). The essay was such a flagrant lie, it was mind-numbing. Although the counselors got involved, I don’t know the outcome, and I bet the kid submitted the original essay. Ugh. Some kids have absolutely no shame, but then again, the same can be said for many parents.
Very surprised that some of you know so much about what other kids did for their own applications (how they stated whether they are first-gen or what they wrote in their personal statement)!
I have zero idea what my DS’ classmates did on their applications. And I really don’t care.
I know about this kid’s Personal Statement only because another student brought it to my son’s attention. My son then brought it to my attention. There is an honor code at my son’s school and this is a direct violation of it. I really don’t care about my son’s classmates’ essays either, but in this case, the student appropriated my son’s accomplishment, so yeah, I reacted accordingly.
I think that Ivy and other top school adcoms have learned to sniff out fraud and puffery.
Bloomberg (the news service, not the presidential candidate) reported that colleges are stepping up spot checks to root out fraudulent claims on applications.