<p>Did you say you were the vice president when you were really the treasurer?</p>
<p>Did you count the time it took to drive there in the "Hours Spent on Activity" question?</p>
<p>Did you round the volunteer hours... to the nearest 100?</p>
<p>If so, then I want to talk to YOU! Basically, I'm working on a class project involving minor deceptions on college applications in the wake of the Adam Wheeler fiasco. This is for a class, so it will not be published and only two pairs of eyes will see your response: Mine and my professor's. Even if you know someone who has used these type of white lies, please send me a private message. I'd really appreciate it.</p>
<p>And, as someone who was going through this process a year ago and religiously checking College Confidential good luck over these next few weeks.</p>
<p>The answer for my children is “absolutely not.” They were extremely honest and deliberately did not exaggerate at all. They may have even under-estimated their volunteer and activity times.</p>
<p>I wrote a post last year about a kid we met while visiting Wash U. Until we met him, it honestly never occurred to me that kids actually lie on their applications! Naive, I know. This kid, a URM roughly from our own out-of-state geographical area, went on and on to us (throughout the day) about all of the lies he told during his on-campus interview (which he had just completed that morning) and his application. He determined that he wanted to go to Wash U, period, and so he had to lie to get in. Nobody was going to check. There was no way to check! And so, he unabashedly boasted to us about all the lies he told to make himself look good! He rattled off a long list of “impressive” extracurriculars and fake officer positions that he supposedly held. He also boasted about his URM status and the advantage it would give him, particularly when paired with his lies! I was DISGUSTED.</p>
<p>He was applying for the current year, whereas my son was applying for the following year. I felt a huge tug to turn that kid in right then and there, he disgusted me so much. But, I minded my own business and did nothing. I would love to know whether or not he got in. I hope not. I still don’t know whether I did the right thing – should I have reported him? Who knows.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your elaborate response. I’d like to PM you with some further questioning, but it apparently you do not allow private messaging. Can you send me a PM in that case?</p>
<p>Haha, I WISH I included the driving time for my volunteering stuff…because driving alone was 3 hours per day, lol. Yeah, I liked my application as it was, didn’t really have a reason to lie. However, I may have incidentally exaggerated the importance of like one of my extracurriculars but that’s as far as anything goes, lol. I say “incidentally” because the way I worded may have seem too extravagant in my eyes.</p>
<p>I seriously dislike liars and cheaters. A friend of mine told me her DS was “too busy” during this college app season so she completed a scholarship application/project for him. And she BRAGGED about it! I am so glad he didnt get it! I told her I did not want to hear about it (as it disgusted me) yet she mentioned it several times. Was waiting to hear if “she” won the scholarship. I trietd to politely tell her it was unethical. She made excuses. Blech. Then she thought her kid was a “slam dunk” for acceptance into a school with a 25% acceptance rate. Barf.</p>
<p>**addendum</p>
<p>I wont provide any additional info about this, so OP, please dont PM me. It makes me ill even to talk about it here.</p>
<p>I never lied on any applications, not for college or otherwise. I’m only posting that here because I hope that people considering doing such will see a much greater proportion of students and graduates that were honest, and realize that it is not the norm, or acceptable, to lie and cheat.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the post I made about a year and a half ago. I didn’t re-read it at all. Just went and found it and am posting it here, for your use. My PM box is currently full, and I’ve got something going on right now – can’t take the time to empty it, but I thought you might be able to use this! :)</p>
<p>Did you say you were the vice president when you were really the treasurer? NO - that’s not a white lie, that’s just a lie. A white lie is avoiding the truth. Like when your grandmother asks, “Have you worn your new sweater yet?” and you haven’t and you don’t like it, you say “That color is so great. It’s so soft.” or “I can’t wait!”</p>
<p>Did you count the time it took to drive there in the “Hours Spent on Activity” question? No</p>
<p>Did you round the volunteer hours… to the nearest 100? No</p>
<p>I only feel bad because for one activity, the time has decreased. I wrote down that I volunteer weekly, which I do usually, but I’ve had to stop, ironically, because of college interviews (all the interviewers want saturday mornings… my activity is only on saturday mornings.)</p>
<p>Haha. Thanks for all the responses, guys, but this is not a survey. Those three questions were just meant to be rhetorical prefaces to my inquiry. No need to answer them directly.</p>
<p>I’d rather get in on my own merit and would thus be completely uncomfortable with exaggerating at all.</p>
<p>I spent a lot of time on the activity time section to make sure that my approximations of hours per week and weeks per year were not exaggerations in any way. When I wasn’t sure, I went for the lower guess.</p>
<p>1)Did you say you were the vice president when you were really the treasurer? NO (thats a blatant lie btw)</p>
<p>2)Did you count the time it took to drive there in the “Hours Spent on Activity” question? Nope, didn’t know people did that…</p>
<p>3)Did you round the volunteer hours… to the nearest 100? Nope. I have a pretty good memory so I remembered most if not all the hours I did for all the volunteering activities and events for the past 2 yrs and wrote them down and counted accurately. I estimated for sports though, but it was pretty accurate in my opinion. (probably with in +/- 10 hrs of reality)</p>
<p>just for the study though, don’t you think this is response bias. I mean the people who lied/exaggerated the truth aren’t going to admit it or go boasting around about it.
-just my two cents</p>
<p>I didn’t lie on anything, I would feel guilty or even dirty if i got in on a basis of lies whereas someone who was honest would have gotten in if it wasnt for me. no thanks</p>
<p>the only thing that may be considered a lie is that i rounded 19.75 hours to 20 hours of community service for these club events i did.</p>
<p>I’m really happy to see how many honest people are responding to this thread! (Although I do share some of the concerns about research bias raised above. But, given some of those “world’s dumbest criminals” books out there, maybe people would brag about their exaggerations.)</p>
<p>I have three kids, all of whom were scrupulously honest on their applications. The closest any of them came to cheating was having an English teacher, parents and a couple of friends read their essays and make suggestions.</p>
<p>Haha. Calm yourself, College Confidential. This project is by no means scientific, but I appreciate your concerns. Thanks for all the responses.</p>