Student Lying on Resume and Possible Coverup by School Officials

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi, I'm usually not a frequent poster on these forums, but I have a serious concern that I feel is important to discuss with you guys.</p>

<p>Recently, a student from my school was discovered by his classmates to have lied about some leadership positions (presidents of a few clubs) on his college application. I guess this kid probably bragged about the achievement, which eventually led to the entire senior class finding out. So here's when the wheels got set into motion. The president of one of those clubs confronted this kid, who by the way is in the top 1% of our class and was an Intel STS Semifinalist for our school, and told him that if he continued to lie on his application then he would report his actions to his colleges. This kid, we'll call him "Dave" (not his real name), is notorious at our school for signing up for numerous clubs and ingratiating himself with the adult sponsors in hopes of obtaining a top leadership position. So Dave completely ignored this person and then smugly replied "Colleges will never check this stuff."</p>

<p>Now the president of that club, we'll call him "Kevin" (again not his real name), is furious at Dave and got together with a bunch of his friends. Collaborating with his group of friends (this is where I come in), Kevin managed to write a poignantly worded email describing Dave's self-aggrandizing behavior and complete disregard for the hard work of others. This email was then sent to the admissions offices of all of Dave's colleges (8+ in total) sometime in the window of mid to late-February.</p>

<p>Let's fast-forward a month to March. Last week, two of Dave's colleges (Dartmouth and WashU) call our school's administrators, counselors, and club sponsors for information either confirming or denying the legitimacy of Dave's leadership positions. Everyone in the school knows that Dave lied on his application, and no one believes he's telling the truth since he has been accused by even his teachers of cheating on tests. His credibility is at an all time low, but somehow he manages to "convince" (I use the word loosely) his teachers and the counselor that he "accidentally typed co-president by mistake" on his Common Application.</p>

<p>This is the most rage-inducing part. As you might know, when a college like Dartmouth contacts your school's administrators asking if a student is lying on his application, it's usually not good for your school's public image. So instead of reprimanding the perpetrator, our school's officials decide to side with Dave, his brown-nosing attitude toward his superiors earning him the approval of the staff and faculty. The school proceeds to conduct a full out witch-hunt to find the people who reported Dave to the colleges. </p>

<p>So Kevin and I get called to the office. The principal, assistant principal, and head counselor are all there to discuss the matter and presumably trying to threaten us out of contacting any more colleges. The three of them are visibly upset and question why we would go out of our way to "sabotage" (their words not mine) a student's future. We tried to explain that we were only trying to tell the truth because a top university's reputation is dependent on the moral integrity of their students (see Harvard cheating scandal), but they simply refused to accept the fact that one of their students was lying on his application. </p>

<p>But our school's administrators so desperately want one of their kids to receive an acceptance to a top college that they would cover for an outright liar just to protect our school's public image. By the way-- in the school's history we have never sent any kids to HARPYS... and I think it's gonna stay that way unless our administrators seriously revise their close-minded attitudes about what's okay to embellish in your application versus just making up officer positions. A perfectly honest and qualified applicant is being cheated out of a chance to get into a good college when behavior like this is condoned. Not only did they lie to admissions colleges that called, the school's administrators also tried to blackmail both of us by claiming they had evidence that we improperly obtained and disseminated Dave's resume. COUNTERARGUMENT: Wake up! It's not unauthorized access if the perpetrator waves his resume around. </p>

<p>After school, the principal and head counselor decide to have a talk with Kevin's parents. His parents argue in vain that their son did the morally right thing to contact Dartmouth and Dave's other colleges, but the school officials kept on insisting that we "drop this issue completely." Kevin's parents then threatened to contact the school district's Board of Education and notify them of the incident, but our principal claimed that he had "already contacted" them and wanted to settle the matter before everything unraveled. If you ask me, I've seen less corruption in the Rwandan government than I saw today in our school's principal, administrators, and guidance counselors. At the schools I've been to, the perpetrator is the one who gets punished not the victims!</p>

<p>I think our school knows that it's in deep trouble if these accusations about Dave are true, and now they're just trying to assess the possible consequences we may have caused. I mean, if you're going to lie on your application, you run the risk of getting caught and rejected by these colleges. It's better to just be honest on your application especially if you're spending upwards to $1000 just applying to all these colleges.</p>

<p>If any of you are curious as to which colleges Dave (I am not comfortable using his real name) is applying to here is the list. We have already contacted most of them, and the list is simply posted for your curiosity.
Dartmouth, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, WashU, Rice, UChicago, Vanderbilt, couple of in state schools</p>

<p>My question to you guys is what do you think is the proper course of action I should take regarding this issue? I am also applying to some of these competitive schools and was wondering if this incident would greatly affect me and my classmates' chances of getting in. Any feedback is appreciated!</p>

<p>TL;DR Student lies on his application. School officials refuse to admit since he is the Star student and continue to defend the perpetrator.</p>

2

<p>Juicy…</p>

<p>I think you did the right thing. I think it’s absolute bull that Dave can get away with inflating his resume just to get into college. In terms of notifying schools, you have done all that you can do and what the administration says (no matter how frustrating it is) is out of your control.</p>

<p>If Dave is lucky enough to get into one of these elite universities, I don’t think his lying/cheating attitude will get him very far, so you and Kevin may get to see him fall flat on his face in two years which would be satisfying (however horrible that is).</p>

<p>In terms of moving forward, just be completely honest with the administration. I would still contact the school district/school board. If they shut you down too, I think you should find the local newspaper/news channel and report the story (using fake names for these characters), then you might get an appropriate response. Warning: this might be taking it a little far.</p>

<p>Personally, I’m not the type of person who cares about hurting people’s feelings in order to get the truth out. Both Dave and the Admins committed horrible deeds and I think people ought to recognize that.</p>

<p>Take what I say with a grain of salt, as I am 17 and may have made an awful suggestion…</p>

3

<p>Frankly, whoever contacted the schools did ALL of you a disservice. No matter what you do , now, every application from your school is now suspect and you will all be dinged, if this story is even true.</p>

<p>In other words, even if the idiot, Dave, did this, you would have been better off just keeping your eyes on your own life and your own applications. if your school backed up Dave, then it’s not good news. If your school did not back up Dave, then that’s not good news for you either.</p>

<p>There is no way that informing these schools can possibly help any person associated with the high school. Sorry to say.</p>

4

<p>This is awesome. I felt like I was reading an action-packed novel.</p>

5

<p>Why didn’t the college counselors catch this issue when they were reviewing his Common Application before it was submitted?</p>

6

<p>No, you didn’t report him because you thought what he was doing was morally wrong (although you might tell yourself that is the case), you did it because you don’t like him or some other arbitrary reason.</p>

7

<p>I’m sure it was annoying listening to Dave and knowing he lied. But, my advice would have been to stay in your lane and focus on your apps, etc. It all catches up to people like Dave, no need to concern yourself. I’m sure it’s also frustrating that your school is supporting Dave. They have their own agenda. You can only control what you can control. Let that be your focus. Good luck!</p>

8

<p>First of all, why did you guys even butt into Dave’s business? This seems like you guys were just jealous and angry that he can get away with his lying. But even if Dave lied, he will get caught eventually or very less likely never get caught. Let him be and live under fear. Now, you guys probably did more harm for you , your classmates and possibly future applicants in your school when applying to these universities. I believe it’s normal for school administrators to really support a top student in the school (atleast it is at my school). If Dave did get into his college of choice before you guys even “sabotaged” his future, he will most likely be admitted because of his grades, SATs, essays and recommendations and other major awards/ ECs (that he really did earn or do). Doing a bunch of leadership positions is not that significant. It might give him a slight push and that’s it if it was important to him. Otherwise, it’s nothing since anyone can do it.
And I’m pretty sure he’s not the first or the last to lie on his application either.</p>

9

<p>I call ■■■■■</p>

10

<p>Very ■■■■■-like post, but I’ll venture some comments anyways.</p>

<p>I’ve read in several college application-focussed books about this specific kind of situation, the anonymous note to the admissions office, flagging a discrepancy in an accepted student’s application information. Often these anonymous charges are in fact investigated. And a new determination may affect subject student’s acceptance.</p>

<p>Welcome to world where “image-management” can be more important than “fact-proving” action, even in high school. Yes, adminstrators could side with Dave, both because they like him and think that he’s unfairly portrayed, perhaps because charges are exaggerated, and certainly because they want to protect their school’s reputation amongst noted admission offices. Those contacted admin reps will probably remember your high school for this specific episode for several years, and yes, it will likely affect how all future applicants from your school are viewed and/or scrutinized by those schools.</p>

<p>I’d tell your parents about this situation, and your involvement, pronto, so that they can advocate for you if necessary. I’ll note that in our “power-parent” community, some parents have resorted to litigation (or demanding police charges) when there’s a dispute amongst student where a tort may result. Dave’s parents may call your parents, and may claim you’ve libeled him. It’s a learning experience for you, no matter how it’s resolved.</p>

<p>And having read that book about the Harvard student who faked his application and resume, and vastly exaggerated and lied about his personal achievements, I suspect that Dave would never have been found out without your intervention, which is why I suspect that his parents (a likely strong influence) will soon contact yours.</p>

11

<p>Honestly, just do you. If you worry about everyone who does wrong things in the world, you’re going to do a lot of worrying.</p>

12

<p>I don’t think you understand the Rwandan government situation…but moving on.
In my opinion, the primary reason why you helped rat out Dave was because you’re applying to some of the same schools and you think ratting out Dave might help. You actually probably had an opposite effect. You can tell yourself it was because you’re so moral and upright, but I doubt it.</p>

13

<p>OP here. Thank you for all of your suggestions regarding this issue. </p>

<p>I understand why you guys think that some of my actions against Dave might be construed to be out of jealousy. But I guess you have to be at my school to see firsthand how manipulative Dave really is. But that isn’t the point here.</p>

<p>Just as an update, my school has made it fairly CLEAR that it wants to settle the matter without contacting the school board, county superintendent, media, etc. So this is what Kevin and I are thinking. We believe that our school’s administrators actually know that what they did to protect Dave was inherently wrong, and that they could face more severe repercussions if the details leaked out to the board of education, and the board had to conduct a full-scale investigation.</p>

<p>There is a significant detail that I left out in my first post about the school officials’ attempt to blackmail the both of us. The principal showed me a screenshot that was somehow taken from my gmail address. The head counselor also managed to obtain a printout of the letter that we had sent to a college, and at the top right corner of the sheet my email address was printed in clear, black ink, indicating that the letter was printed directly from my gmail. Now, I would like to make it clear that I frequently change my passwords to ensure that no one has unauthorized access to my personal email, but when I asked my principal how they managed to obtain that screenshot, he quickly changed the subject of our conversation and questioned how I obtained a copy of Dave’s resume. So right then I had the suspicion that my school or an individual involved with the school hacked into my personal email to find whatever dirt they could use to blackmail me with. </p>

<p>How did they do this you might ask? Well, in my school we have an open wifi system, and students can bring their personal electronic devices, and it’s somehow supposed to “facilitate learning”. But since Internet access is school-hosted, our school’s network administrators can see all the data that goes in and comes out. Now I really hope that this isn’t true, but I feel that our school’s administrators, frightened that their lies would be exposed to top colleges, collaborated with our school’s IT worker, who probably was very willing to cooperate, to get my personal email login information. Then it dawned on me why our principal was so eager to ask my parents to “drop everything” and not let the events “unravel.” I feel that if my and Kevin’s parents decided to pursue further legal action, there would be a much bigger scandal at hand than school administrators’ trying to protect an untruthful student but on the scale of a federal crime committed by our school’s administrators.</p>

<p>Again, I sincerely hope that my accusation about the school is untrue, but there can be no other explanation how the school obtained information directly from my personal email. I have checked with Kevin, his friends, and any other “techy” kids in my school who might be involved in this Dave issue, but no one has been able to explain the mystery behind how the school was able to get a screenshot of my Sent Emails. And when I met with the administrators and expressed my concern if they already had knowledge that someone had unauthorized access to my personal email, this is what the principal more or less said tauntingly to my face.</p>

<p>“How does it feel to have YOUR privacy violated?”</p>

<p>I was absolutely furious and reminded them that hacking is a federal crime, and the two administrators and the head counselor simply shrugged it off. When I threatened to involve my parents and the school board, the principal said I could go back to class, presumably so the three adults could discuss the issue they got themselves into. Now it was after the school day ended that Kevin and my parents arrived to talk to our principal.</p>

<p>But what I can’t believe is that the school would go through the trouble of violating a student’s personal privacy and use blackmail to silence the truth just because the school’s reputation was at stake. I am disappointed that my school would try to coerce students and even their parents to stay out of this issue so that the administration can “cover” everything up.</p>

<p>This could possibly be the biggest scandal in our school district’s history, and I intend to notify everyone, including the school superintendent, news sources, and the state’s Board of Education to make sure that this does not go unpunished. Covering up a student’s lies is one thing, but getting unauthorized access to a student’s personal email address to blackmail him/her is absolutely unacceptable.</p>

14

<p>Okay well I agree what the school is doing is very selfish and wrong. However, this drama wouldn’t have started if you guys just let Dave go. Since you guys started this mess, it will end like this. But you also said that Dave is really manipulative? How? Is he that bad that he needs to get reported? Explain.</p>

15

<p>If this whole thing is so important to you and Kevin, and it appears from all the time and trouble you have taken with it, that is is, I suggest you take off the year, take a gap year, both of you, and see this thing through. It takes courage and sacrifice to stay the course as a whistle blower or to correct a wrong, as you have seen. It’s not as though you get patted on the back and rewarded. If there is something rotton going on at your high school and you want it cleaned up, getting the press, letting the school board know, bringing it out into the open is important, and it will take time and concerted effort for you to do this. If you leave this as it is, the most likely conclusion is that it will all be sweeped under a carpet. </p>

<p>I don’t like to see things like this happen either and in my youth took the trouble to clean up some messes, but it was a lot of work, and it cost me. In cases like this, it may cost you more to leave it half hanging.</p>

16

<p>

We’ve either got a ■■■■■ or a paranoid fantasist here. In ether case, there’s no point in feeding it by continuing this thread. Can we just let it go?</p>

17

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<p>Uh… whose high school counselors see their common apps before they are submitted? Certainly not ours (and my kids go to a fairly good independent private school – we definitely have a lot more college counseling resources than the average high school). But the app itself is under the student’s control. I bet if a student ASKED the counselor to look and gave them a copy they would review it, but it is not routine at our kids’ school.</p>

18

<p>^ My kid public HS requires students to disclose the common app ID/Passwd. I doubt they read it but I am sure kids must have second thought before exaggerating their accomplishment. (Now that I talked about it, is it a violation of common app.org? Well, I’ll look into it)</p>

19

<p>Something does not make sense. Gmail redirects to an https URL (i.e. encrypted), so cracking your password by sniffing over the wireless involves some difficulty. If there was any cracking involved at all, the most likely route is through cracking your computer, followed by guessing or dictionary-attacking your weak password.</p>

<p>If this really is true, the life lesson to learn is that whistle blowing is quite risky if you are not in a position of power relative to the corruption. What one person may see as corruption may not actually be corruption; false whistle blowing causes a lot of trouble for nothing. But when there is true corruption, the usual reaction by the corrupt is to accuse the whistle blower of false whistle blowing, so that it becomes basically a political power struggle.</p>

20

<p>Might be a ■■■■■, but it was still fun to read something besides the post of a 4.0-2300, kid worrying about getting into Stanford.</p>