<p>With the recent events regarding the nefarious Adam Wheeler, I cannot help to think that there are many, many more of his kind deceiving admission officers. </p>
<p>It makes me wonder though: how do top universities like Harvard and Yale "verify" the information on a student's application, and how many applicants do you think actually commit to fraud?</p>
<p>iJoker is back.</p>
<p>Fatum, I am exulted that you have dedicated an entire post to announce my return: yes, the Joker is back, and this time, Batman won’t be here to stop me.</p>
<p>My understanding is that significant awards (e.g., USAMO) are verified and any suspicious claims are investigated as well. Most misrepresentations probably go undiscovered, however.</p>
<p>As for how many people lie on their applications, I don’t have a good guess. But it’s safe to say that the majority of those who lie don’t do it on same magnitude as Mr. Wheeler.</p>
<p>Honestly, a person who lies for the top colleges probably won’t get in anyways, even with the misguided information. Your recommendations should for the most part summarize the things you’ve been doing in high school. If there’s a discrepancy, then it raises warning flags and the applicant won’t be admitted. No need to really “verify”.</p>
<p>That being said, most Ivy-caliber students won’t make up stuff on their application because there’s really no need to.</p>
<p>Aren’t you the guy that said you “accidently” reported your ethnicity as African American and got into Stanford sCEA?</p>
<p>^ Haha, I wonder how his interview went.</p>
<p>EC:“Aren’t you supposed to be black?”</p>
<p>Ice:“I did a Michael Jackson”</p>
<p>Colleges can probably verify stuff that’s been published, like National Merit and other awards. Sometimes, they’ll just think that something seems suspicious and take it to be a lie. At a Penn information session, they said that one admissions officer doubted that an applicant was really doing all of the activities she said she was, so he counted up the number of hours per week she was living. Her application indicated that she was doing about 200 hours/week of activities, not even including school and sleep and other day-to-day activities.</p>
<p>Honestly, admissions counselors can tell when an application seems a little “off”. The person claims to be a member of all of these activities, but there is no consistency between the activities. Or maybe these activities are never metioned again, whether in recommendations or in essays and such. Or maybe the applicant is a really bad liar and says that they led all of these events put doesn’t have any solid, credible evidence to show for it.</p>
<p>I’m proud to say that all of the information on my applications were 100% true. Besides, I didn’t want to take the risk of lying or exaggerating and getting called out on it.</p>
<p>
■■■■■!!! That would be so funny!!!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Are you suggesting that, if a recommender doesn’t mention every activity that a student claims to be involved with, the school will presume that the applicant is lying and, in turn, not admit him or her? </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What do you mean? Given the ultra-competitive nature of admissions at these schools, there probably is a significant need for many of the applicants to falsify information if they want to have a decent shot.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t think suspicions translate to the assumption of fraudulence; they merely prompt investigation. Having 200 hours per week of activities isn’t suspicious; it’s impossible.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This probably describes the majority of Ivy League applicants to a large extent.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s completely conceivable that the majority of many applicants’ activities could go unreferenced outside of the activities section. There is only one essay that explicitly prompts about EC’s and it asks for mention of only one, and many recommenders are exposed to only a slice of an applicant’s involvements. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What exactly do you mean by “evidence”?</p>
<p>
Not if you’re an awesome multitasker.</p>
<p>^ Yes, that’s true (in theory). Any applicant whose multitasking results in implausibly high time commitments would be wise, however, to divide the time spent on each activity by the total number of activities that he or she tended to do simultaneously. (I did this for my application because I often do my homework while I play piano.)</p>
<p>Ok, it’s not exactly my business, but you listed homework as an extracurricular? I get studying while playing (we’re talking about revision here right? Because playing piano and doing written homework is, to the best of my knowledge and imagination’s limits, impossible), but I don’t see the need to axe your piano hours in half for that purpose.</p>
<p>By the way, though 200 hours is possible in theory, I fail to see how it’s possible in reality because you’d need to be doing at least 3 activities at the same time to get to that goal, after removing sleep hours, and even more after removing school and studying. Unless you’ve got a time dilator at hand…</p>
<p>Nevermind…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No. Sorry if I gave that impression.</p>
<p><a href=“we’re%20talking%20about%20revision%20here%20right?%20Because%20playing%20piano%20and%20doing%20written%20homework%20is,%20to%20the%20best%20of%20my%20knowledge%20and%20imagination’s%20limits,%20impossible”>quote</a>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I can do pretty much all types of assignments there unless they require a computer. I’ll play with one hand whenever I need to write something.</p>
<p>Why hasn’t ijoker responded to any of these posts? Perhaps for the same reasons he was conspicuously absent on all the other posts he created?</p>
<p>
Am I correct in assuming, then, that you divided your piano hours in two? And if yes, that you did it so as not to give the impression that you played piano at the expense of working/studying?
Also, I was thinking of guitar when I said playing music and doing written homework was impossible (totally forgot about piano). Can’t really play guitar with one hand so I can only revise while doing it ;)</p>
<p><a href=“I%20did%20this%20for%20my%20application%20because%20I%20often%20do%20my%20homework%20while%20I%20play%20piano.”>quote</a>
[/quote]
Love it. I like to read and knit, myself.</p>
<p>While we’re in the process of listing multitasking hobbies, I like to come up with designs for futuristic weapons by sketching them while listening to course explanation in class, but I didn’t put that on my application for… multiple reasons.
And silverturtle, out of curiosity, how long have you been playing the piano? A friend of mine is simply brilliant at it (has been playing for ages, comes up with his own songs, can get notes upon first listen…) and I love playing duets with him. Piano’s underappreciated.</p>
<p>i run (on an elliptical trainer) while watching movies and study at the same time.</p>