<p>One poster (in their only post on CC) claims to have been admitted from a waitlist. The school says they haven't yet gone to the waitlist. I feel sorry for the hopefuls who offered congratulations, especially since they now seem to feel they have more of a chance because "someone" was admitted that way.</p>
<p>We have an acquaintance who has repeatedly told us about his condo in Vermont, his condo in Florida, his Bentley (can you believe it??), and the renovation he's doing on an antique house on a six-acre piece of property. I assume it's all true (or am I naive??) but I don't know why it matters so much to him that I think he has a lot of money.</p>
<p>My company used to do a standard background check for new employees. We now verify (or attempt to verify) every single thing on the resume. If you write, "magna cum laude" you better have graduated magna. If your resume states that your senior essay won the Cardinal Cushing prize-- you can bet we'll verify that. If your resume states that you graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1998 and we verify that- no problem. But if you write (as so many hapless losers do) that you were enrolled at CMU from 1994-1998 and graduated with a BA, woe to you if we learn that you were enrolled at CMU from 1992-1998 but your actual degree wasn't granted until 2001 when you finished up those remaining credits from all the semesters you were part-time or only taking one course (or only passed one course).</p>
<p>I take comfort in all the liars I hear about here on CC and IRL. You can all take comfort that some day, somehow, they will be caught. We have terminated senior people on the spot for lying on their resumes; we have withdrawn offers to people who have claimed to have been places they haven't been or claimed that they were in Europe on a Fulbright when in fact Mommy and Daddy were paying for them to hang out in Davos or Gstaad. Don't claim to have won the Chopin prize in 2002; I guarantee you the list is online and easily verifiable. Don't write that you're a CPA if in fact you've only taken part 1. Or only passed part 1. Every state has a very efficient employee whose job it is to take calls from people like me to verify bar admissions, CPA exam results, even manicurist/hair licenses.</p>
<p>People lie all the time about everything, even things that don't matter. I am amazed by the number of people who claim phony master's degrees, especially when they are in a field that doesn't require a masters. Eventually they get caught. The aftermath isn't pretty. The phone call withdrawing a job offer or the visit (with a security guard, a member of our company's legal team, and an HR rep) to terminate based on falsifying information is actually quite traumatic for everyone involved.</p>
<p>A few weeks back when the acceptances to HYPSM came out, my kid's classmate told her that the older brother of the classmate got an "academic" scholarship to HYPSM. I knew that the actual school only gives need based aid, and I told this to my kid. However, I also said that in order to get into HYPSM, you must be academically stellar; however, they don't give you money unless they feel that you need it. </p>
<p>In my own day at xyz college that was "need blind" in admissions, there was a stigma to having a work study job, since everyone then knew that you were on, as we called it "financial aid." (Which I was.) In the aid package, over the various years, the aid was once or twice listed as a scholarship from the alumni federation of xyz. This came with a dinner over homecoming weekend with the various alumni. My own class sponsors a student with a scholarship. However, all the aid is based on need at this school too.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it is misleading to imply that HYPSM or even xyz gave anyone the scholarship because of special merit. There was merit in being admitted, but the scholarship is because of need. There could be many more academically qualified students who get no scholarship because the school determines that there is no financial need.</p>
<p>Blossum: I'm curious what industry you're in?? I'm glad to hear your company does this, because I've been burned by hiring people who, after three months, absolutely couldn't do the job they were hired to do and, only in hindsight, did we realize we should have checked. I'm never hiring anyone ever again without verifying all of their background.</p>
<p>One of my friends in Pennsylvania might have lied... He facebooked me in March saying that he applied early to a bunch of schools including UPenn and got in at all, but was choosing to go to UPitt. Two of them were ED, one being UPenn. I KNOW he's not the type to break an ED admission, so I think he likely made it up, hoping that I wouldn't know since I'm Canadian.</p>
<p>Also, why choose UPitt over UPenn?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I've seen particular screen names announce, "I got in to [college]" but then vanish right after saying so (or, in one case, post only on the college-specific forum of a much less desired college).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I have one minor point to make about this statement.</p>
<p>I'm one of those kids who disappeared after being admitted to my first-choice. (Harvey Mudd) I have not lied about anything I posted. I think most kids tend to vanish after being the college process is over for them. I mean, let's face it: a forum dedicated to the college admissions process probably does not hold much interest for people once they stop thinking about college. So it is with my case too. (well actually I read the Parents section quite often when I'm procrastinating, it's always very interesting, but I usually never post)</p>
<p>I'm sure some kids lie about their stats. So it goes for most things, even when hidden under anonymity. However, I don't believe you can base such a theory on the fact that many kids disappear once applications are finished with.</p>
<p>I've seen a CC poster lie about a college acceptance. I was his alumni interviewer. My college lets interviewers know whether their
interviewees were admitted, denied, or waitlisted. The interviewee's email address and CC name are the same. He posted his location as the state we both live in and his "chances" posts with extracurriculars erased any doubt that this was the same person I interviewed. Not only did he falsely report being accepted at the school, he is a longtime poster who still likes to note that he turned down Yale.</p>
<p>In order to verify his resume, My son's second employer asked for a copy of his college transcript before they extended their offer even though he had 3 years of investment banking work experience.</p>
<p>My friend is going pre-law, so I guess he doesn't want to spend the cash? I dunno, he claims it's because he doesn't like the Ivy league attitude, he imagines the stereotypical prep school kids with rich parents that own yachts, etc.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't believe you can base such a theory on the fact that many kids disappear once applications are finished with.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree with this statement. That someone disappears from CC may only mean that they received the admission results they want and are now busy at college. But the one particular case I have in mind is nonverifiable in his stellar claimed admission results in other ways.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Not only did he falsely report being accepted at the school, he is a longtime poster who still likes to note that he turned down Yale.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yeah, "turned down," cute. In another case I mentioned in the thread-opening post, a guy claimed he got inadequate financial aid from what is possibly the most generous college on earth. Yeah, sure.</p>
<p>Anything is possible...not probable, but possible. I do know people who turned down some of those colleges due to financial reasons; however, they had equally good choices (top ten or fifteen respectively) that were all or nearly paid for. </p>
<p>I do hope not too many people give false information, though. It really skews the information for people that really need it.</p>
<p>My cousin's son got "early acceptance" to Princeton in his Junior year. I don't know. My kids have never been in a position to be able to consider applying to the Ivies, so who am I to know these things?
His older sister was also "accepted early" to Duke. Turns out it was Duke summer school. She didn't last the summer. She now attends U. of Miami.
Anyway, she says that as long as you have the money, you can go to any school you want to, including HYPS...We've never had that much money where we could consider that option as well. :)</p>
<p>Reading this thread is interesting. While I would hope that the vast majority on here are telling the truth, and all the stats are very revealing, I would never use another person's info posted here as any kind of gauge for my children's chances. Too many variables.</p>
<p>I don't know about here on CC but at our high school there is a young man who is graduating this spring who has been telling outrageous lies about his college admissions. Parents are both Ivy legacies and very prominent in the community. He keeps telling everyone that he is deciding between several high reach schools where other kids from the high school are accepted and they say he is not on the facebook or admitted students website. There is a sense that he is making things up. No one is making fun of him or sneering. People feel just terrible for him.</p>
<p>This is an interesting thread. I think this situation is a little un usual. Typcially, when someone misleads/lies I tell my kids they are only hurtign themselves. In this case when people misrepresent acceptences, financial aid as merit scholarships or athletic scholarhips, or being an athletic recruit they are also adding "bad information" into an already ambiguous situation. For the kids and the families working through college admissions is tough enough to get a handle on things without having to filter what info they get is real and which is false ... and this false information can lead to false assumptions and some missteps by those who believe the false info ... in many ways misrepresenting things about college admissions is particularly hurtful to others.</p>
<p>Very Happy; I work for a global financial services company. We have gradually tightened up our background checking policies-- first after 9/11 we needed to be stricter in making sure that people who needed to fly for work had valid passports (or weren't on a no-fly list); then we realized that all sorts of fraudulent information kept getting perpetuated, since previous employers hadn't bothered to check college degrees, bar admissions, etc.</p>
<p>So we now try to check every factual element of the resume. We had always had strict policies in place for people who had access to large amounts of money-- but an Assistant General Counsel who claims to be a member of the NY Bar but in fact flunked it three times can cause just as much damage as someone who is moving money to their own personal account in the Cayman Islands.</p>
<p>I could write a book. The people who attend a two day seminar on marketing at U Penn who claim to be Wharton MBA's; the people who overstayed a tourist visa two years ago and have fake Green cards; the legions of folks who graduated "cum laude" or "distinction" and don't realize that the registrar of their alma mater are happy to do the due diligence to either confirm or deny all academic honors-- if only to maintain the integrity of the grads who earned their honors.</p>
<p>And don't get me started on Phi Beta Kappa!</p>
<p>OMG what a great idea for a thread. Funny, but after being on this board for years now (yes I know I may have a problem - LOL) it just never occured to me that someone would make things up on an anonymous board. Of course they must, but I guess I've always thought there is would be no reason someone would make something up to make themselves look better unless someone else knew who the person was and therefore could continue to be impressed with the lie. There sure seems to be lots of truth stretching going on in D's HS, especially about test scores and "scholarships." Sad, really sad.</p>