<p>I've heard that lying is EXTREMELY bad and schools will possibly not accept you for lies on the application essay. I've also heard that tons of people lie to make their essay's seem interesting and stand out.</p>
<p>So.. to lie or not to lie?</p>
<p>Personally, I already know what I'm writing my essay's on because i've had an interesting enough of a life. It just makes me mad my friend is going to bs her essay and say she lost a friend in a car accident.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>I strongly advise to NOT lie.
I know how you feel about your friend. I’ve witnessed a lot of uncaught cheating when I was in high school, and even heard of kids BRAGGING about how they plan to lie in their apps. </p>
<p>Don’t bring yourself down to their level. Concentrate only on your goals. If in the extreme case you and your friend apply to the same college and you get denied while she gets accepted, then that’s the time to take action. Otherwise, I’d ignore her and just concentrate on your own life.</p>
<p>They technically really wouldn’t know whether or not you lied in your essay about a life event. But that just defeats the purpose of the essay. They’re not looking for the saddest story, but an essay that describes who YOU are. Focus on yourself rather than dwelling on others.</p>
<p>And to the person above me, what kind if action would you take? How could you prove that that didn’t happen at some point in someone’s life. I mean yes, it’s wrong to lie about something like that, but I think something like that would be ridiculous to do. That’s just me.</p>
<p>Oh i have a story too: my hs teacher once proofread a student’s essay about his father’s death. Kid got into usc. Then he met the kid’s father at usc graduation.</p>
<p>Essays tend to sound more genuine when they are actually real, but I think it’s ok to say a couple of not-factual small things when it contributes to the story you’re telling. For example, I was talking about my first impression of northwestern and mentioned in the intro that my favorite color is purple (it’s not). Little things like that, or a moment at school that happened to a friend but you say it was you, or how your dad always used to tell you this but not really… Imho stuff like that is fine.</p>
<p>Lastly, one of the ‘how to write an application essay’ books I read said that it’s pretty unoriginal to write about stereotypical life-changing things like mission trips, divorce, the big game, moving to a diff school, etc. They suggested ‘a field trip that you thought would be boring but you actually really enjoyed it’ as a topic; take that as you will.</p>
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<p>If you have to ask…</p>
<p>There have been so many questions similar to this on College Confidential and I usually do not respond but the fact that this issue even has to be brought up disappoints me. Faking EC? Lying on Essays? Fudging the details? Hiring professionals to write the essay for you? Truth is, even if a story might sound fake, the colleges can’t do anything about it. You’ll get probably get away with it too. So lie if you want, but my moral compass tells me not to.</p>
<p>you can exaggerate a lot (which will probably fulfill whatever purpose u were thinking about from lying) but not lie</p>
<p>Do NOT lie! Not only can you get caught and be black listed, but you also have to live with your self. So if you don’t get caught you have to live on knowing that you are living based on a lie</p>
<p>No worries, guys. I wasn’t planning on lying. I was just curious. :)</p>
<p>Don’t lie. Lying is wrong! But saying you did 115 hours of cummunity service when you only did 110 isn’t any kind of big deal in my opinion…</p>