I have read the posts on lying on college applications and I have interesting, true story of two individuals that lied on an app for coca cola and ended up becoming coca cola finalists.
Person A was pretty lazy, but he was incredibly devious during sophomore and junior year. First, he joined clubs that were not frequently attended and nominated himself for various leadership positions (which he won). Then he started a Red Cross club that was supposed to be based on community service. After all the members gave up money for red cross t-shirts, the club was disbanded and it has been rumored that he pocketed the money ($15 dollars a shirt for 60 members - do the math). He was accepted to Northwestern ED with <1500 SAT and no URM, legacy or athlete status. After all the dust cleared he was eventually nominated to semi finalist status of coca cola and then finalist status. He will be going on the trip in April.
Person B was recently named a coca cola finalist with even more ridiculous stats. Person B also created a club that had ONE meeting the whole year. He was also VP of Person’s A club. To be fair, Person B did have good ec’s and volunteer service. However, this is the kicker - Person B applied to Penn ED. He realized that his stats weren’t good enough to get him into Penn (<1400 SAT,<700 SAT II, no advantageous status) so he created fake transcripts and fake counselor recommendations. Person B’s transcripts did not reveal his deception – his recs were his downfall. Essentially, Person B’s recs all said that he was the second coming of Jesus Christ and that he had done everything save cure cancer. This must have raised eyebrows at Penn so they called my school and Person B’s scheme crumbled to the ground. He was sent to an alternative learning school for six weeks as a result. When he came back he was named a finalist of Coca cola and had also won several scholarships (most likely with his ‘doctored’ transcripts). If anyone here is going on the coca cola trip in April you might meet him. (You probably won’t know who though).
I personally don’t believe in lying in applications because in my case it isn’t necessary (>1550 SAT, URM). However, I do think that the resilience and perseverance in avoiding a problem that these two individuals exhibited will take them far in their respective fields medicine and business. Moral of the story: Don’t fly to close to the sun and always keep your options open.
<p>I have to ask the same question as thethoughtprocess: how can one produce fake transcripts? My transcript has my school's seal on it and a bunch of other marks that are there to prove its authenticity (similar to the water marks on dollar bills). That, and the special way that it's formatted, makes it impossible to counterfeit. How could anyone make a fake transcript? And how could someone prevent the real transcript from being sent (unless your school doesn't know that you're applying to college)?</p>
<p>I saw mine from umich it had:
Microprinting
water mark
color changing ink
gradiant printed bankground (think bank check)
stamped seal
and a specially designed tamper-proof envelope</p>
<p>^^^kind of a funny story
guy had a 2.00 from a community college, but forged a transcript and got into yale where he earned a 3.85+</p>
<p>As for the seals ect - if they're just printed on you'd be surprised -- 10 minutes at kinkos would go further than you think (from a former employee who has seen all sorts of stuff being forged in there). Ultrahigh res scanning and color laser printing can reproduce stationary almost perfectly.</p>
<p>For many scholarships, not sure about coca cola, they ask for copies....some ask for ones sent write from the school. Photo copy white out...why has no one approached the school and said, did you send in the transcripts for so and so? Just an note would do. Aren't the counselors and the red cross people mad? I would said a letter to the coca cola people...</p>
<p>To thethoughtprocess and ForeverZero - We go to a slightly below average public school so all one would need to do to make a trascript is obtain a seal and the letter head for the envelope. Counselors do not keep track of what colleges other people apply to even though very few people apply to colleges that require transcripts(<35 out of a graduating class of 650)</p>