My kids GC was contacted by an AO at Duke to confirm an EC that was at the center of his application. GC confirmed it and apparently spoke about it at length and told my kid the conversation took place. Subsequently, kid was nominated by admissions counselor to be a Robertson semi finalist. Similarly, AO at Notre Dame reached out for a merit award.
So to OPs question. Yes sometimes EC are vetted via GC calls. In particular it would seem to be the case if the ECs are material and impacting admissions decisions.
There is no doubt given kids schools honor code that there would have been consequences had the claims been false. I can’t say specifically how it would have been handled but I am confident in saying that the prep schools reputation for integrity would have been the over riding concern and no student would be allowed to benefit from a falsehood. GC would never lie and their credibility is what allows them to perform their role, I suspect the student would be forced to correct the record.
Depends on the counselor, but I have heard of this (just anecdotal). But it makes sense because I’m sure counselors have a code of professional ethics that they must follow and I would imagine it includes some points about dishonesty and how it should be addressed.
A counselor cannot “force” an applicant to do anything.
However, if the GC discovers that the student has included a huge lie in their (the student’s) application, the GC will most likely notify every colleges to which they (the GC) was requested to send a report.
GCs want their student to be accepted to college, and value their reputation and the reputation of their school. GCs want colleges to value their (the GC’s) recommendations and opinions about students and don’t want the reputation of the school to suffer because kids included major lies on the applications.
Almost any college for which impressive ECs are required also require a LoR by a GC, and therefore, the GC will be looking at the application, and asking the student for a list of ECs on which to base the LoR.
Such lies are meaningless for colleges which either do not require such an LoR or really don’t need some extraordinary ECs.
PS. Scandals such as Varsity Blues required circumventing GCs and paying people not to require th everification of extraordinary ECs.
IMO a GC could withdraw a LoR, but I doubt a GC would tell the schools the reason other than to say some of the information was incorrect on his/her part. The liability would be too great to the GC if the information was wrong. The GC is only responsible for what is in the LoR, not for other information in the application.
If I were advising the GC, I’d tell him/her not to say anything negative, just to withdraw the LoR or, if there is anything incorrect in the report, to correct it. If the report only had the transcript, class size, strength of courses, etc, then there is nothing to correct.
Schools can read between the lines. If a LoR is withdrawn, that should tell them something.
That’s true, but I’m also talking about blatant lying, the type that could blow up in the GC’s face. Claiming to have been active in a club, even though the student just stopped by three times during the year is not enough to trigger some serious talking. However, something like falsely claiming to have been the star soccer player and captain of the team, and had led to team to win regional championships, even though the high school doesn’t even have a soccer team, is a different story.