Hi, so my friend made up tons of the extracirriculars and completely exaggerated and weeks/hours for his entire activities list
ex. he went to one meeting but pretended like he does it for 20 weeks 2 hours etc etc
Hes one of my closest friends so I really dont want to say anything, but im really annoyed cause we are applying/applied to same schools and I was completely honest
We are both apart of similar clubs but he wrote that he did significantly more hours/weeks than me when he really hasnt, etc, etc
should i just let this go, not let it bother me or should i report it?
I don’t think you should report it, it isn’t your place to. That’s just my personal opinion though, others might not agree. He’ll live with a guilty conscience, and you’ll be proudly honest.
So how did you find out this fact? Was s/he proudly telling you of his fabrications? Or did you obtain this info though unorthodox methods? (Checking his CA without his permission). Either way, I’d wait until the decisions are released and then perhaps take actions - no need to distort a perfectly good relationship even before you are sure of the outcomes.
@viphan he flat out told me as he showed me his common app extracurriculars
Why wait until he possibly gets admitted on false pretense and the issue becomes even bigger? An anonymous tip to an admissions department to get some verification would require him to come up with some documentation, throwing it back in his court. Let the university that might admit him work it out in their own way.
Nope, MYOB, it isn’t your place but you might want to look at the friends you keep. Dishonestly is a deplorable trait and I for one wouldn’t want to be friends with anyone that believes that kind of deception is okay.
If he is able to easily fake it, it’s likely that it wasn’t something that would have a big impact on his admissions chances.
Except for the obvious dishonesty.
Yes, I am thinking that the action that needs to be taken is the re-evaluation of the word “friend.”
I honestly can’t believe he did something like this and some of the things he made up were pretty major (leadership positions) that could have an impact on admissions
@elsa123456 yeah I hear you, but you gotta realize people do all kinds of things you wouldn’t believe they could do. I would say just try not to care about his application and just focus on yours. Injustice always sucks but the world is full of liars and life is never fair. I just think he isn’t friend material.
im done applying to most of my schools so there is nothing left for me to do to improve my app, im just really upset if one of my closest friends who ive least expected to did this and esp tell me when i’m so against cheating/lying i guess other people do too
Elsa, let it go!!
Karma will win in the end.
yeahh i hope so! i feel like i cant/shouldnt rat him out esp also cause we are family friends, i’ll just tell him how i feel about it / make him feel guilty
He’s an adult and he made his choice. If you want to, you can tell him how you feel about it but don’t rat him out.
Honestly I think you should rat him out before he gets in over someone who deserves it
I hope it doesn’t surprise you that there are so many people who “don’t want to get involved”, but the fact is that it takes people who are willing to make a difference for things to improve.
From a global standpoint, you have some knowledge of the situation, so you are already involved, like it or not. If you look at ethics codes at various universities, you will see that having knowledge of cheating and not acting on it is part of the proscribed behavior.
Without trying to put too much gravity on it, a real friend would tell the person that he needs to withdraw the application in question on his own (if possible). You can see how that puts you even more at risk than an anonymous tip, should he ultimately refuse.
im just going to wait and see if he gets in at this point, his gpa and test scores arent in range for the majority of schools he applied to so i doubt this fabricating will have that great of an influence on his admission, and it takes more than just a few extra activities to get into top school, so im just going to let it go, i think i was just unnecessarily upset before cause after reading some old posts i think most people exaggerate extracirriculars even though its not ethical you just have to live with it, but anyway thanks guys for the responses!
I don’t know. Is there any way (besides simply your word) that you could prove his lack of attendance at clubs and such, like attendance rosters or anything? Or would it be your word vs his? Did he say he had been in clubs when he hadn’t at all?
I’m a whistleblower by nature, so I don’t know that you want to take my advice, but someone should check him for what he is doing.
Don’t go the anonymous tip route. That’s sinking to his level. If you want to tell someone, go to your GC who should be able to talk to his GC.
Also, I’m sure adcoms are well aware that claims of EC’s run the spectrum from slight exaggeration (e.g., # of hours) to outright fabrication. That’s why there are so many other parts to the application: grades, class rank, test scores, LOR’s, the report from your GC, essays, awards. And they know that leadership positions can be mere popularity contests and aren’t necessarily meaningful.
My D was very involved in speech and debate and she knew lots of kids who listed the debate team as an EC when they only ever went to one tournament and a couple meetings. At least D was able to list specific awards she’d won, including ones that recognized her level of participation (cumulative points based awards you can only get if you compete frequently). Did the OP’s friend claim any fraudulent awards, I wonder?