Hello. Just some context, I go to a very competitive school, where basically everyone has “Ivy dreams” (or similar). While most everyone works extremely hard in grades and ECs, there are a few people that contrive their resumes to get into college. In particular, one person (name withheld) blatantly put false information on a LinkedIn resume, including that he has a near perfect cumulative GPA (I know he doesn’t), 100s in classes he did not even take (i.e. 100 in AP Physics 1, 2, Stat, and BC Calc), and awards and recognition he did not win (i.e. being on an internationally qualifying team, where he was never actually on the qualifying team, just on a team that qualified internationally before).
So what happens here? For example, a lot of kids apply to summer programs and internships before HS sends transcripts to colleges. Eventually this will translate into him getting a leg up for college, as the EC programs will blindly prefer his near-perfect (fake) statistics, and therefore bolster his real HS resume.
I don’t know what to do. Thank you, and I would appreciate all replies.
I thought that the more selective programs would check with the schools prospective students attend to confirm their attendance and scores, but if you are concerned, talk to your dean or guidance counselor. I can’t imagine that your HS would want things like that out there because it negatively impacts on the school’s reputation.
I’m sorry to hear that people are doing that. Take comfort in the fact that no college (or sizable competition) would consider a LinkedIn resume as a vetted, valid document.
Can they get away with showing prospective places to intern the LinkedIn resume? Can they get away with winning a $200 law firm essay prize with it? Probably. It sucks, but nobody’s going to call the school to double-check class assignment.
Could a person get away with giving this type of falsified/inflated info to Siemens or Intel competitions? Hell no.
Definitely contact school administration if someone’s doing this for academic gain.
The kid will surely not be dumb enough to provide a linked in account with his college apps. The college will look first at his grades and classes, so they will see his lies on the linked in profile. I wouldn’t worry, he will dig his own hole.
The fraud will be found out if and when he uses false information to apply for a career position. Op, is he providing the LinkedIn resume to anyone or just setting one up as an exercise? I wonder what he has done with the profile. A lot of young people listed fake/future wish jobs on their Facebook profiles.
I know money-related jobs perform background checks and this would not fly on an application.
Thing is, most hs kids cannot fib effectively on a resume (or in an essay,) they don’t know what impresses adults, nor what “doesn’t” make sense. Similar for LinkedIn.
In their apps, most have enough trouble making what they truly did make sense, much less some elaboration. And for admissions, there’s an expectation the GC or LoRs will back up this supposed greatness. Otherwise, adcoms can wonder.
Otoh, if they get an internship in hs, then they do have that experience. I think this is a case where OP needs to mind his own efforts, try to learn what really matters to top tier adcoms, and go for that. Not just the activities, but the level of thinking and challenges taken on, in and out of the hs setting.