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You’re asking for permission to lie on a college application. I think most responders would say no it’s not OK, and even if you put last year as the start date, most admissions officers would see that you most likely founded the clubs to pad your resume , not out of true interest .
It’s not exaggerating if you are literally lying about the date you found your clubs. Don’t do it - if colleges find out that probably means auto-reject. I’m not sure the extent to which they fact-check, but they do sometimes do it (usually they outsource to a fact-checking company), but even if they don’t fact-check per se, often these things are not that hard to find out, e.g. teacher/counsellor recommendations might mention the truth.
As an interviewer, I fact check applicant’s assertions. I also ask test questions to check the honesty of the applicant. Interviewers are pretty good at reading body language. Applicant’s body language telegraphs lies frequently. Oddly enough when I report the applicant lied and explain what the lie was, .I have found that they are not accepted. Coincidence? Who knows why an applicant is rejected.
@amanivy - Is it bad that the idea that my interviewers are asking me “test questions”(?) and reading my body language in order to report suspected lies freaks me out?
Body language is far from an exact art, and when I’m going to an interview I’m already nervous enough! What if you got it wrong and the applicant was just nervous? Would highly selective universities reject first over fact checking if they’re particularly busy?
It is not appropriate to lie (including exaggerate) on your college application.
No further than the actual truth.
Have you bribed the GC? Spend some time seeing if you can find your moral compass.
Just be genuine. It doesn’t hurt.
Yeah you could probably get away with an awful lot of exaggeration. Colleges have no way of knowing whether you really volunteered for all those hours, whether you really were the treasurer of two clubs, or weather you actually run a successful blog: they have to take your word for it. You’d also have to ensure that your counselor also believes, for the most part, that you did these things.
Now, this is still a bad idea and I’m not saying you should actually do it.