<p>I studied in a foreign high school and I'm a non-US citizen. My high school is very poor technologically - the teachers do not know how to use computers properly, the Guidance Counselor doesn't give recommendations properly, etc. The administration is very week.</p>
<p>I'm the only student from my school to apply to the U.S. from its advent, 1990. Most students study in national public universities or other countries (which require hard copies of transcripts).</p>
<p>In October, when I applied for my Early Decision application to my college, guidance counselors were not familiar with the online common app system of sending recommendations and transcripts. The don't know anything about the educational system in the U.S. They even don't own e-mail accounts! So they refused to submit the materials online.</p>
<p>Worried about what to do, I made e-mail accounts through Gmail using their names and registered to the common app myself! I made all the recommendations myself from internet samples (as they would have made if they knew how to use the internet) and made a transcript (giving all TRUE grades I have...My school is a very easy school...no I never had a 'B' in high school with all A's). My school is a British patterned education system (A-Level) and I even scanned by GCSE and Advanced Level certificates. Next, I scanned the Principal's stamp and signature ands pasted on it. My school has no definite system of giving transcripts. The design varies continuously. I even made the school profile!!! :@</p>
<p>Luckily, I got accepted ED to this college and decided to attend. I even sent my Mid Year Grades myself in January upon request through e-mail.</p>
<p>Now, my question is, will I get caught in doing this. I had to this because I had no alternative. The Principal and Guidance counselors and all teachers are computer illiterates and don't even own a computer :@ Now, I can't even be guilty of what I've done. Will my acceptance be affected? Or will I get expelled from the school when I reach there?</p>
<p>Please suggest me as this is a serious condition.</p>
<p>Wow. What are the chances of showing hardcopies all of this to your school officials and having them ratify your “documents”? Beyond that, this is all so dicey I don’t feel comfortable commenting.</p>
<p>Yes…it is surely possible for me to show the transcripts I’ve made…and I’m pretty sure that they will agree…because they have nothing to do…dunno about the recommendations though. Our school is so poor that it doesnt have a SAT/ACT school code and doesn’t want to guide students on college apps I absolutely had nothing to do…if I wanted to be a good person and not make these myself…I would have forgone myself attending college which I’m sure no one would wish for.</p>
<p>I think this is your private issue of conscience and you shoud not offer personally identifiable information – about your self or your college – on this forum.</p>
<p>Yes, you could get caught and expelled since all of your materials were faked.</p>
<p>What you should have done would have been to contact the college, told them about your situation, and asked for an alternative way to provide the information.</p>
<p>How would I get expelled? I mean the colleges won’t see the transcripts/recommendations anymore after I start doing classes…right? And I don’t need them anymore in my life…graduate school or jobs aren’t going to see this.</p>
<p>But I really feel guilty for what I’ve done…I shouldn’t have done this :/</p>
<p>The college still could find out what you did. The world is much smaller than one would think. It’s possible, for instance, for college officials to meet or get a query from a student or teacher at your school. This could happen if another student from your school decides to follow in your footsteps, and contacts the college to ask how to submit the required paperwork.</p>
<p>It’s patently false that you had “no other alternative.” Surely you don’t think you’re the first international student to have challenges of this nature? You had a perfectly logical alternative and that was to contact the university and explain your circumstances. I feel 100% positive they would have been happy to provide you with alternate ways to submit your application.</p>
<p>You say you reported your grades accurately, and you provided recommendations “as they would have.” How do you know what they would have actually written about you? I am amazed that you have forged recommendations and your principal’s signature when there were other ways to submit this information had you simply taken the trouble to ask the university.</p>
<p>I guess you better just cross your fingers…</p>
<p>I think you made a mistake in your approach but you do have one positive and that is that the data is not fake. So…get official seals on original documents of your grade transcript and your test scores. Your ED school is going to ask for YOUR FINAL transcript and YOUR FINAL scores on IGCSE and A levels. These can’t be fakes (they can and sometimes do check) and they will probably require they not be faxed. The system works because schools assume that students don’t lie and forge documents. They give you the benefit of the doubt during applications but generally require that students provide official documents in April/May. If you really didn’t doctor your grades or scores you are unlikely to be discovered. However, if you do anything like this in college or professional life in the US you will eventually be caught…we had an employee who eventually was discovered to have forged his college records…lost his job, lost his pension, lost everything and this is 15 YEARS after he left college. If you plagiarise, copy, cheat or lie in college you will face expulsion. You are beginning one of your most important years as an adult as a cheater and blamed your school for making you a cheater (sorry, only you can make yourself dishonest) …make it your last dishonest mistake.</p>
<p>The data wasn’t fake, but the letters of recommendation were forgeries, and that could get his admission rescinded or could even get his degree rescinded if the college learns about those forgeries after he has graduated.</p>
<p>Are you saying this official transcript must be hard copy sent directly from the school? Which means that the GC will be involved? Won’t she find it odd that she hadn’t been asked for ANY input from the school beforehand? </p>
<p>The OP seems to think the GC and administration are completely clueless. He better hope he is right…all it would take would be for the GC to call the University to clarify anything at all about sending out the transcript and it will become apparent quite quickly that something doesn’t add up about this particular application. Which would be a shame since it appears that he is legitimately qualified from an academic perspective, although he has displayed poor judgment in handling this situation.</p>
<p>You better hope you don’t get caught, forging recommendations is definitely a major ethical no-no and could cause them to rescind your admisison easily. Why did you not just apply in hard copy? Most colleges, even ones that use the common app, have a hard copy application and accept hard copy recommendations and transcripts specifically because of students who don’t have ready access to internet in their homes or schools. It seems like that would have been a much better option than lying. </p>
<p>But anyway it’s done now, so you better just hope you don’t get caught at it. Posting it to a public internet forum that is regularly checked by admissions staff from various schools is not a great way to start.</p>
<p>The internet is not the only way to submit your application materials. Your teachers could very well have written out your applications and sent them by post to the college. </p>
<p>What you have done is WRONG and there’s a very good chance that you might be caught. For example, if you’ve framed your recommendations based on samples from the net, you’ve already left a trail of blood leading from the crime scene to you.</p>
<p>And even if your deeds are forgivable, there is a huge huge problem in your attitude. Your teachers may not know how to use the internet, but that doesn’t give you the right to demean them in any way.</p>
<p>Wow this is so bogus. The explanation for forgery here makes zero sense. You could easily have contacted the school and learned how to apply without technology. There is a thing called paper and pen and regular mail. And your highschool and its counsellors obviously must use that method for all their other students. </p>
<p>The transcript doesn’t matter-- it’s always contingent upon the official one anyway. But faking the source with bogus email accounts, the fabricated letters of recommendation? Are you kidding me? This is outrageously unethical and I will actually be surprised if this does not all come to light. I work in academia…thankfully it’s a very small world.</p>
<p>You can not only loose your admission, you could loose your college diploma in the future if this gets discovered some day…</p>
<p>I guess the only thing you could do now is to come clean to your teachers and your counselor, show them the documents you fabricated and sent in their name, and hope that they will forgive you and agree to stand behind those documents, even though they did not produce them.</p>
<p>You could have easily offered your teachers to do just what you did openly - write recommendations, let them read/edit them, and help them set up email accounts to send them off. Your excuse that you had “no choice” is laughable.</p>
<p>I found the OP’s dilemma quite interesting and thought it was odd the OP never came back to this thread. After running across this same thread title in the International Students forum, I guess I can see why. </p>
<p>The response to his dilemma was received QUITE differently there and I noted it on that thread.</p>
