<p>And… I do have a heart. I have a conscience. And I care about others. But college admissions is a game that students play to win. I don’t think that some of my other stats are good enough to get in some of my reach schools, so I’m trying to use my essay to make up for it.</p>
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<p>The risk is that you lose your integrity. That doesn’t mean much to you right now, I know. But your character is what will largely determine your future. Do what you know is right (and you do know what is right) – it always turns out better in the end.</p>
<p>If your character isn’t important to you, consider this practical implication: If you are the sort of person who will lie on a college app, you will also lie on college papers, in job interviews, to friends and your future spouse – any time you think the stakes are high enough to sacrifice your integrity. It becomes a way of life. And then you have to remember all those lies. </p>
<p>You may very well get away with it, this time. That doesn’t make it the smart thing to do.</p>
<p>“If you are not completely making things up, like being president of a club, I see little problem with hyperboles. If you go from saying you were the vice president of a club to saying that there was a period where you had to run a meeting and saw a whole new outlook on the way things worked, etc, I don’t see anything wrong.”</p>
<p>Why should anyone have to resort to hyperbole? Surely since the OP is a club officer there has been some time in which s/he has had to demonstrate some kind of leadership, if not for that club then probably in some other situation. It’s virtually impossible to become a high school senior applying to college without having had to demonstrate leadership – whether at home, church or school or with friends. </p>
<p>Demonstrating leadership doesn’t mean bringing together a team to cure cancer. It can be something as small as changing the mind of a friend or a group that was about to do something that could have gotten them into trouble. It also can be as small as being an effective mentor to a younger sibling.</p>
<p>“The activity that I’m writing about in my essay I am actually Vice President of, and technically I’m a founder of it too. So I thought… why not just capitalize on this opporunity and kind of twist it so that it sounds like it really changed my life and stuff.”</p>
<p>I don’t understand how you can help found a club (assuming that you really did that) and can be VP of it without its having an impact on you and on the organization.</p>
<p>I was VP of an organization when I was in high school. It was my first time holding a major club office, and it definitely did have an impact on me because it gave me the confidence to see that I could handle a major leadership position. I also did suggest some activities and projects that the club took on. These weren’t earth shaking things, but when the club backed my ideas, it demonstrated to me that I could have ideas that other people valued.</p>
<p>" And I care about others. But college admissions is a game that students play to win. I don’t think that some of my other stats are good enough to get in some of my reach schools, so I’m trying to use my essay to make up for it."</p>
<p>Most colleges use ECs at most as factors for merit scholarship consideration. They don’t use them as admission factors.</p>
<p>The few colleges that factor ECs into admission are places like HPYS. For your ECs to really count at such schools and for one’s EC to stand out in the admissions pool, they’d have to be so remarkable that a lie could easily be disproven. For instance such schools get plenty of applications from class and school presidents. </p>
<p>They get far fewer applications from students who are officers in national organizations like NHS. Anyone lying about such a thing would easily be found out.</p>
<p>Also, when it comes to playing the college game to win, one win by actually doing things that make one stand out in admissions. One doesn’t win by lying. There are plenty of students who have remarkable ECs and don’t have to lie. When it comes to top colleges, their admissions officers frequently are graduates of those colleges and as students in high school and college and as professional adults remain people who do a lot of service and hold leadership positions. Consequently, they often can tell when someone is lying including on essays.</p>
<p>OMGGGGG, chill people. Please dont try to lecture me on morals and ethics. They are very much intact and I have no worries about them. Lie on college papers? Dude the risks are way too high for me to do that. and FYI i’ve pretty much never lied on any HS papers. My integrity is at stake? HAHAHAHA pleaseeeeee I have the same level of integrity as everyone else in the world.</p>
<p>OK everyone. so i guess they can’t really find out. especially cuz what i’m doing isnt extremne lying.</p>
<p>The fact that you are asking about this tells me that you do indeed have a conscience. Many kids wouldn’t have given it a second thought. So I congratulate you on that.</p>
<p>I think what you don’t understand is that integrity isn’t something you turn on and off. Anyone can do the right thing when it’s easy. How do we behave when doing the right thing is difficult, especially if no one is ever going to find out? The answer to that question tells you what kind of person you really are.</p>
<p>You are articulate, intelligent, and persuasive in your writing. I have no doubt that you could write a great paper that wouldn’t involve deception. Do it. :)</p>
<p>“Character is what we do when we think no one is looking.”</p>
<p>“The path I’m going down is a destructive one? Please, let me tell you a little something about life. I know you’re older than me, but just… lemme tell u a little something.
In life, you pretty much have to lie. I mean, you can’t get through life without lying. A lot of times, its simply for the best. Everyone does it.”</p>
<p>Actually, only people who lie a lot think that everybody lies.</p>
<p>Neither of my sons lied on their college EC list or on their resumes. As a parent, my problem was convincing them that it was OK to put down ECs that they felt that they could have spent more time with or have been better at.</p>
<p>For instance, older S had a rock band, but didn’t put it on his EC list because he didn’t think it was important. He also didn’t think it was important to list that he had won an honorable mention editorial cartoon award from our local newspaper. He didn’t mention that he was editor of his school newspaper because his name wasn’t on the masthead (because no one’s name was on the masthead due to the teacher’s incompetence). </p>
<p>I’m still trying to convince younger S that it’s OK to call his summer part time work an “internship.” He edited and created films, and created a public service announcement, posters, and flyers. I have heard the person whom he worked for publicly say he was one of the two “interns” for her organization. S, however, somehow doesn’t seem to think it qualifies as an internship because he didn’t apply for an “internship.” She initially just asked him to do a small freelance work project that – due to S’s work ethic and skills-- grew into S’s doing exactly what the student intern was doing. </p>
<p>Anyway, I do know that when it comes to schools like Harvard, the admissions officers are Harvard grads and the interviewers are alum. Harvard has one of the most active student bodies in the country, and the students are active deeply in ECs because they are wired that way. Just take a look at the variety of student-run extracurriculars at Harvard. If students had been accepted because they had been lying about their EC involvement, there wouldn’t be so many ECs at Harvard. In general, college students don’t need deep involvement in ECs to get into graduate or professional schools. Grades and scores are what matters for graduate/professional schools.</p>
<p>The OP has provided enough information in his various posts on CC that if any college admissions officers at the colleges he’s applying to see this thread, they’ll probably be able to identify him and --due to a variety of his posts including some on other threads – wouldn’t want to admit him.</p>
<p>His various posts including the ones on this thread reflect such a lack of knowledge about how the world works that I doubt that he could credibly lie about his involvement in his club.</p>
<p>Dude, just write about your real passion. I guarantee it’ll be a much better essay because essays that are truly passionate drip with emotion. You can’t manufacture that. Nuff said.</p>
<p>from what I see the OP isn’t lying. he’s been the VP and done everything that he was supposed to. Isn’t it ok for him to add some emotion to his essays? Sometimes the activities people do just don’t change them that much, so what should he write about?</p>
<p>If it’s not suspicious they will never know.</p>
<p>But honestly, there’s no reason to take the chance. Besides, you can write a much stronger, more passionate essay on a topic that you have personally experienced.</p>
<p>As you can see, he’s not talking about adding emotion. He’s talking about lying about his activities in the club. I don’t see why he won’t just write an essay about something truthful. I also bet that in the time he has spent concocting a lie, he could have thought about something meaningful he has done or he could have created something meaningful. It really isn’t that hard.</p>
<p>“I am writing an essay about my involvement in a school club of mine. I have a leadership position in it. But I haven’t actually been as involved in it as I claim in my essay.”</p>
<p>cyberchondriac: This is what the OP said:</p>
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<p>Putting quotes around the word doesn’t change the fact that the OP intends deception.</p>
<p>Oh well if he’s going to lie about the things he did in the club :(</p>
<p>But I meant if you went to the homeless shelter (for example) and you felt it changed your life. But … it was “kinda changed the way I think about it” feeling, is it ok to make it sound much more meaningful in your essay? Because sometimes I feel that it’s kinda hard for everyone to have so much emotion in all they do.</p>
<p>Perhaps my definition is broader than yours. The OP intends to deceive. He freely admits it. No matter how he parses it, that is lying.</p>
<p>It’s not clear what prompt the OP is writing about. However, surely there’s some way to respond to the prompt without saying he had an emotion that he didn’t have.</p>
<p>And in addition to that deception – which will be a lie – he’s also planning to lie about the depth of his activity in the EC. I’m wondering whether he’s really involved in the club at all. How can one be a VP of a club and not have any emotional reaction to one’s work there, and not have accomplished something meaningful in the club unless one is involved in name only: a person who gets an office and then never shows up.</p>
<p>Frankly, I’m surprised that the OP isnt getting attacked more. We are all here because we are trying to get into selective colleges. I find the fact that you are looking for consolation shocking. I am disgusted that you think its OK to try and take a coveted acceptance away from someone who actually deserves it</p>
<p>Well, for us parents anyway, I don’t think we see “attack” as the best way to help the OP see that what he’s suggesting is wrong. I think we’re trying the educational approach.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your suggestions.</p>
<p>Thanks to Northstarmom too even though she criticized me a lot. I’ve actually found something that I could write about, that does not involve deception. </p>
<p>But like I said, for the activity that I was going to write about, I did participate in it a lot. But what I was trying to say was that it wasn’t special enought o write a ‘life-changing’ college essay on. No worries though… new topic!</p>
<p>and i apologize for appearing insensitive and inconsiderate in my earlier posts. i was having a bad day… hope u guys can understand!</p>
<p>This reminds me of someone in my high school who focused his “Why Northwestern” and “Why UChicago” essays on visits to the two campuses. Of course, he never visited either campus (lack of monetary resources), but he was accepted at both schools and is now attending Northwestern. Hm.</p>