<p>I come to you with a rather serious query today.</p>
<p>I have discovered that the son of a friend of mine skillfully forged a high school transcript of his and sent it in to a few colleges this previous fall. I discovered this when he mistakenly emailed me a copy of the original, while applying for a summer internship at my machining workshop. </p>
<p>I have notified him that I am aware of his dishonesty and he has revealed to me how he was able to forge it.</p>
<p>This has become a major moral dilemma for me, because on one hand, he did something very dishonest but on the other, his father and I are very good friends dating back decades.</p>
<p>My question is this:</p>
<li>Will the colleges he sent the transcript to find out? Do they screen for fake transcripts? Are admissions officers vigilant when it comes to this type of thing?</li>
</ol>
<p>I am under the impression that the transcript looked 100% legitimate.</p>
<li><p>If he is caught, will legal action be taken against him by the colleges or his high school. If so, I am inclined to tell the colleges now and work it out with them so no charges are filed. Would this constitute a crime? I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that the crime of forgery is limited to passing “legal documents” such as checks off as legitimate.</p></li>
<li><p>Have any of you faced similar issues with forgery? Is this common in the all-too-competitive college admissions world? With a daughter of my own entering high school next year, this is very disconcerting.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Any information you have or advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Usually colleges only accept transcripts mailed directly from the high school.</p>
<p>I don't know an answer to any of your legal questions. I think I would talk to the kid (or to his father, if he is your good friend, and you find him approachable?), and tell them that you feel very uncomfortable in this situation. I think the best thing for the kid would be to withdraw all applications for which he used the fake transcript, take a gap year, and start over next fall with a different set of schools, and his real transcript.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure that if the issue is ever uncovered, he will loose whatever degrees he earns...</p>
<p>Wow, I don't envy your position.
Did this young man send you both the original and adulterated versions?</p>
<p>I am thinking that the colleges already have the original which was sent by the school with the mid-year report. I do not think they will pursue legal action but will likely not admit him. I wonder if all his applications had the altered version sent to them.</p>
<p>I would advise the young man to come clean, to his parents and to the colleges. I would give him a time frame and let him know I would be speaking to his parent at the end of that time period. In my opinion, I would expect that my very good friend would help my son see the value of integrity.</p>
<p>I think colleges usually request a final transcript direct from the school. This will probably bring the students dishonesty to light and lose him any acceptances.</p>
<p>Wow - I agree - notify the principal and let the school handle it. I also think that since you are good friends with this kids father you inform the father of what you know, how you know it and what you are going to do.</p>
<p>One question - our high school imprints a raised seal on all transcripts. They are then sent in a sealed envelope to prevent tampering. Any transcripts that are not in a sealed envelope are not considered "official".
Seems like it would be pretty difficult to forge this? Perhaps I am naive?</p>
<p>BTW - worst case scenario - prepare to lose a friend. sorry.</p>
<p>Our high school transcripts have a seal on them (a raised seal). When students get copies of their transcripts, there is NO seal. </p>
<p>I agree with the idea of forwarding this information to the high school and letting them deal with it. The reality is that the final transcript will need to be sent directly from the high school.</p>
<p>Have to agree, what colleges accept transcripts from the students themselves? Perhaps he raised his GPA on a resume--I imagine people try to do that. Surely colleges work more closely with the HS college counseling staff than to accept a student sent transcript. Perhaps you could ask the principal of the boy's HS if they even allow students to do this type of thing w/o revealing the name of the boy.</p>
<p>Here are some more troubling details that should clear up some of the confusion here.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The young man is extremely intelligent and cunning. He actually got a 23xx on his SAT, but slacked off in high school. Thus, he applied to a few top 20 schools. Will those schools be more vigilant with the transcripts?</p></li>
<li><p>He forged the transcript 100% accurately, including creating the raised, embossed watermark, which he fabricated himself. He also created fake seals and fake stickers for the transcript and an envelope which looked exactly like the one the school would mail out. </p></li>
<li><p>The only thing that was different was that the school mails its envelopes with an automated postal system called neopost, which prints an orange coded stamp over the envelope. He informs me that the stamp he used was a regular one. He thinks (and I agree) that this is the only way that they would spot his dishonesty.</p></li>
<li><p>swimcatsmom- Do colleges request official transcripts from the school after admission is offered? Do they send that request directly to the school? If this is the case, he may be found out. I think he was unaware of this. If the college contacts the high school, he will be found out.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Is it common for colleges to contact high schools after admission is offered to screen against falsified documents? Do they do that for every student, or only for cases in which they suspect forgery. </p>
<p>Barring their suspicion over the regular stamp instead of the automated one, there would be no reason for them to suspect anything. His falsified grades are consistent with his SAT score, so it isn't like he represented a 4.5 with a low SAT score. </p>
<p>My main question is whether or not the colleges will find out on their own, specifically by requesting a transcript DIRECTLY from the school that he will be unable to intercept and falsify. It seems to me that is the only way he will be caught on his own.</p>
<p>I do not want to involve the principle at this time, because she is known to be extremely vindictive and harsh. I am afraid she will go to the police or take extremely rash and drastic action against this young man. However, I may speak to his high school counselor and see if he can cancel the applications he falsified.</p>
<p>Again, thank you for all your help on this matter. </p>
<p>Any advice straight from the mouth of an admissions counselor or someone who knows one would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>In response to Notre Dame AL, he did not send it himself, he sent it with an official envelope from the post office which the mail from the school is routed through.</p>
<p>This young man is extremely cunning and seems to have thought through the entire operation.</p>
<p>he committed a crime against the high school.</p>
<p>This is the reason you MUST report him to the HS, otherwise how is he going to learn that fraud is unacceptable and carries with it serious consequences? For you to do nothing, will teach him that he can get away with deceitful behavior, which I doubt is the lesson you wish him to learn at this point. He intentionaly created this mess, and he is going to have to pay the price for his actions.</p>
<p>I don't believe the colleges ask the school to send the transcripts. It is incumbent upon the enrolling student to assure the final transcript is sent to the college. The high schools are aware of this and ask the students to let the guidance office know where they plan to enroll. When the year is complete, they send the final transcripts to the appropriate schools.</p>
<p>He will be found out, unless he enrolls in a school which did not receive his forgery.
You should encourage him to take ownership of his deed.</p>
<p>every college that my kids went to requested official transcripts after graduation. He would have to forge them again.</p>
<p>I am confused though - I have never seen my kids "official" transcripts. I would not know what the embossed seal looks like etc....
How do you know it is an exact copy?</p>
<p>Also, our high school sends the whole package with the transcript - recommendations, guidance counselor statement etc. Would the HS not have done this?</p>
<p>I say report him. It doesn't sound like he is remorseful. Getting a 23XX on SAT's does not make one a good person. No college will want him.</p>
<p>So essentially what you are saying is that the school will not request the final transcript directly from the school? But that the school will mail it automatically?</p>
<p>I highly suspect that what he will do is tell his counselor he is enrolling somewhere else and then send another doctored transcript to the school he really is enrolling in...</p>
<p>menloparkmom, </p>
<p>I agree with you, but I do not want him to have his life ruined over this. Is there anyone in here with any legal advice? Can he be charged with forgery for this? In previous cases, have colleges pressed charges?</p>
<p>Also, does anyone have any thoughts on the postage dilemma? Since he didn't use the automated post, his transcript probably looked slightly different from the few others the school received. Do you think someone would pick that up or would it slip under the radar? How vigilant are admissions officers?</p>
<p>What I'm really trying to get at is if he is going to be caught by the university, I want to notify the appropriate parties before that happens. Also, I am wondering if the universities will press charges against him in court or just reject his application? </p>
<p>If the latter is the case, I am inclined to speak with his counselor now. If the universities will likely press charges, I want to go direcly to them and make sure that they do not.</p>
<p>I recieved a private message from a forum-goer saying that she heard of the same thing happening for transfer admission.</p>
<p>She said that for transfer admission, the college does not request the transcript again from the school after it is sent, but the college does request the transcript from the university at which the student is currently enrolled.</p>
<p>Anyone know if this is accurate?</p>
<p>This makes me think that the college may request a transcript from the high school directly after admission.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am thinking that the colleges already have the original which was sent by the school with the mid-year report. I do not think they will pursue legal action but will likely not admit him.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree with mominva on this one. In addition, I personally sign and seal all of my students transcripts. I also place them in an envelope taped with the school's stamp and a stamp that says "Official Transcript - Unofficial if Seal is Broken.</p>
<p>Is this student the only person from the school who is applying? Remember the same regional person will read all materials sent from your school. They will contact the counselor if they find that something is "off" with his paperwork.</p>
<p>What your son's friend is also forgetting is that the school must send a final transcript as proof that he has graduated. In NYC, the school year extends 2 days after the last day of school for Principals, Guidance and AP's and this is ususally when we close out all of the paperwork for graduating students.</p>
<p>Is he willing to compound his dishonesty my sending a second fake transcript with final grades?</p>