<p>There's an article in today's Chicago Trib about sabotaging college apps to gain an advantage. Sad.</p>
<p>Students</a> add sabotage to college-entry arsenal -- chicagotribune.com</p>
<p>"
The letters, mailed to college admissions offices, typically arrive without a signature. They say rival applicants cheated on exams or got suspended for underage drinking. Sometimes, they include an unflattering newspaper clipping or a sly suggestion to check out pictures on a student's Facebook page.</p>
<p>At Northwestern University, one letter was written in crayon.</p>
<p>"I guess they thought we couldn't trace it if it were in crayon," said Christopher Watson, Northwestern's dean of undergraduate admission. "The grammar was too good to be a little kid. . . . We see everything. Nothing shocks us anymore.""</p>
<p>I was about to post this link, as well. Crazy, huh? Did we not have another thread on this somewhere?
I was a little taken aback by the response from the University of Notre Dame: that they will investigate even if the info is anonymous and give the candidate a chance to respond. Since when is it okay to have people answer to anonymous accusations?</p>
<p>That bothered me, too. It feels like they are saying "we don't like this, but it works." Kind of a mixed message.</p>
<p>It's good to see that some admissions officers do throw out the anonymous letters. If a letter is truthful, the least someone can do is sign it (even if it is inappropriate for them to send it in the first place). Sadly, there have probably been some disappointed applicants over the years - who were tainted by unjust accusations.</p>
<p>Whoa. I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. As I think about it, I can see some of my daughters' cutthroat, competitive classmates and/or their parents doing this. Bad, bad karma, especially if they are outright lies. Yuck. </p>
<p>True confessions: My daughter was rejected by schools to which some of her hateful, cheating, lazy and/or proudly sexist classmates were accepted. I was momentarily tempted to share some of the inside stories with those admissions officers, as well as what I thought about their decision-making skills, but those were passing notions which I quickly rejected!</p>
<p>You all might be interested in this thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/565006-parents-who-rat-out-competitor-applicants.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/565006-parents-who-rat-out-competitor-applicants.html</a></p>
<p>At my D's small private school one of the top students went around asking other students where they applied. He ended up applying to over 20 schools. He deliberately applied at schools he had no interest in attending just to make certain his application would be chosen over fellow applicants from his class.</p>
<p>It was amazing to me that someone could be so vindictive - especially since the application process was so time consuming.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, my fleeting urges to "share" with the admissions officers came AFTER admissions decisions were made!!</p>
<p>It was amazing to me that someone could be so vindictive - especially since the application process was so time consuming.</p>
<p>expensive too. that is really sad. People who feel good about their accomplishments don't do things like that.</p>
<p>If circumstances were extreme, for example unreported felony convictions, I might feel compelled to report the violation with a signed letter. But I agree with dbwes (post #3).</p>
<p>So OK, your son is out with a friend on a Friday night. The friend has an open can of beer. The two of them are walking and they cut across the HS athletic grounds to get to wherever they're going. They get stopped by security personnel, and both are suspended for possession of alcohol on school grounds. (Yes, this is a true story.) </p>
<p>Would it appropriate for a classmate to "drop a dime" on your S for his suspension?</p>
<p>No. The classmate is probably not truly concerned that your son's presence at the future college would be detrimental. He/she would be reporting it for self-serving reasons. </p>
<p>What if after repeated offenses a HS student was suspended for sexual harrassment/assault? Would it be ok to "drop a dime" on him? He may be a potential threat to students at subsequent schools? Perhaps these things are reported to colleges by the HS without anyone else needing to be an informant.</p>
<p>Re #12: not in my opinion. For one thing, it's a victimless "crime." </p>
<p>I can see making a case for "dropping a dime" on someone if their act seriously hurt someone else and you felt that an injustice was being perpetuated.</p>
<p>For example, let us imagine that two kids are attending a private school. One of them is wealthy and well-connected, the other is a poor scholarship student. The wealthy well-connected student copies a paper from the poor student, and they both submit it. Both are hauled up before the powers that be for plagiarism. The school expels the innocent poor student and allows the cheater to remain, quite possibly influenced by the fact that his family recently donated the new athletic building. Let's say that this happened in February, after college apps were submitted, and you know for a fact that this was what happened--maybe the perp boasted about it to you--and moreover that both students applied to the same dream school. </p>
<p>Would you be justified in sending a signed letter to the school describing these events? I'm inclined to think you would be. But you would have to be VERY sure of your facts.</p>
<p>I think the question is, "is it ever appropriate to 'volunteer' negative information about someone else?" If an adcom asks about a classmate, you can answer honestly; but even for conduct beyond the fairly hamrless example above (post 12), should a student "drop a dime" on a classmate? </p>
<p>In the post #12 example, the offender should answere the common app question honestly and explain the circumstance of his suspension. And I think his failure to do so might be seen by sanctimonious classmates as an invitation to set the recored straight. But two wrongs . . . .</p>
<p>Also, in the case above the student was actually suspended. In some cases, students report purported misconduct that has not been the subject of any official school discipline.</p>
<p>This kind of behavior is not new nor does it happened only in H.S. A few years ago an eight grader got kicked out of school for stealing the school stationery to sent unflattering letters to a well know boarding school about his classmates who were applying at the school.</p>
<p>FYI, The Today Show just contacted me about this topic. I replied that I thought a segment about it would be sensationalizing the process, which might be the goal.</p>
<p>I shudder to think about what that sort of exposure would do to the amount of anonymous mail we get.</p>
<p>This is the only forum where the topic has coming up recently, so I guess that means we have a number of readers in the media.</p>
<p>Dean J,
The Chicago Tribune carried an article on this topic on Monday.</p>
<p>It also relates to how some colleges admit to checking out applicants' social networking pages (facebook/myspace). It is not sabotage, but another way colleges gain information on applicants that the applicants do not oftentimes knowingly supply, or wish them to have. This has also been in the news.</p>
<p>While this is clearly sad, is there really any idea of how prevalent it is? That is most school get some of this, but is the percentage that high or is it a relatively few crazy folks. Also, it would be interesting to know where and from whom these come, if you could get that data. Do some schools see more, if they are mailed area of the country, or any similarity among types of kids targeted? For example, if PSU approx 60,000 apps per year got 20 such things it is a small percentage (does not justify the behavior) and may not be a real issue (there are that many off balanced folks out there -- mother who stole daughter id to be come a cheerleader in last weeks news).</p>