<p>A friend of mine is applying to UW Seattle. However, he isn't being completely honest with his extra curricular activities that he put on his applications. He lied about tutoring students and joining certain community service based clubs. Will or can he get caught for this? He even used some of it in his admissions essays. This would suck if he gets accepted to UW but I get rejected because the school looks a lot at your ECs</p>
<p>I think we often tell kids on CC to mind their own business. Other kids cheat in the admissions race and we tell kids not to say anything because it will look like sour grapes or we tell them they can’t know the whole story, etc.</p>
<p>But I have been thinking about this and I actually think we are doing the world, the cheater and the honest kid a disservice. Looks at the cheating and corruption all around us at the top levels or industry and government. WHEN do we start holding people accountable for their actions?</p>
<p>So, I am going to change my previous advice to kids and say, tell your guidance counselor as a first step and see what he/she says. </p>
<p>I don’t know exactly how to go about this, I don’t know how an admissions representative would feel about being informed about EC lying (because it’s probably done a lot) and for some schools ECs don’t matter.</p>
<p>But honesty should.</p>
<p>Unfortunetly a lot of people lie and one place they do it quite often is in college admissions. </p>
<p>My best advice is try not to care and just worry about yourself. People are going to do what they are go to do and you can’t stop them. </p>
<p>He might get caught if they verify. Another thing is his application has to make sense. If he says he tutored kids and his grades were not the greatest, it might raise a red flag.</p>
<p>I couldnt even apply via common application because I had NO activities to even speak of, ironically. Didnt wanna lie though, had morals</p>
<p>He could have been lying to you in saying what he was doing. Unless you specifically saw him shoot over an app with the lies in it, you really can’t say</p>
<p>A few years ago, there was a big brougha when a parent could not stand it anymore and accused some students of out and out lying on some things. Well, it turned out incorrect. Lots of egg on a lot of faces. </p>
<p>If you want to tell your GC, about this, go on ahead. Perhaps, s/he’ll look in to it. The truth of the matter is that unless ECs are at the national level, it doesn’t matter at the most selective schools, and often not a bit at the others. </p>
<p>Anyone who did not apply to college due to no ECs, is under a mistaken impression. You don’t need awards, ECs to apply or even get accepted to any number of schools. Most, in fact.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about it. I think unless you have a truly amazing EC like published author or symphony musician, it really doesn’t matter. Until the universities start to demand proof like they do with grades and course load and board scores then I suspect most EC’s are a minor role in the application process.</p>
<p>^Of course it matters. Do you think that everyone who got into UW Seattle was an author or musician?</p>
<p>In fact, I’m sure that only a very select number of people (<15%) that got into top 20 universities had truly amazing ECs. Most probably did tons of normal community service hours, played in a school band, played varsity sports, etc.</p>
<p>Tom: My opinion - no verification then very small importance. As you posted (thank you) since most EC’s are unremarkable then IT REALLY DOESN’T MATTER!</p>
<p>A think a great example would be if I volunteered for 50 hours, but put down 100. Does it really make a difference? Maybe, but most likely not. </p>
<p>I have to agree with some of the other posters. Unless you saw his application he could tell you whatever he wanted.</p>
<p>When it comes to an applicant’s extracurricular activities, in the past I have offered the opinion that if a lie isn’t worth checking up on, it isn’t worth telling. A corollary to that, I suppose, is that if a competitor’s lie isn’t ambitious enough for the college or university to discover it on its own, then it isn’t worth your worry.</p>
<p>Dead wrong–don’t misunderstand me–but not worth your worry.</p>
<p>It generally doesn’t matter, BUT if you are caught lying it can, and you never know when a wicked old like is going to come back to life after you think it is buried in some old college apps and bite you on the backside. You write that you did 100 hours of track and the ad com interviewing the captain of your track team mentions your name and the captain gives a totally puzzled look. Might bug the adcom enough to check it out. The funniest ways people get caught. This whole college/high school world is a lot smaller than you would think.</p>
<p>It makes so little difference that it isn’t checked out, but if it ever is and doesn’t check out, the consequences can be monumental.</p>
<p>Let it go.</p>
<p>I’m going to have to agree. You don’t know for sure, and any lie that’s minor enough to pass is minor enough not to matter. If ad coms don’t catch it, it probably won’t help them.</p>