So on my app i put down that I did 3 years of a sport when i actually did 2 because i didnt make the team for the 3rd year. I’m decent at the sport but this year it got really competitive at try outs and well i got kicked off because their were a lot of people trying out and coach only wanted the best. Will colleges check? i was also planning on getting a job would that look good if i start the part time job in january?
Don’t lie. Admissions people may or may not find out, but do you really want to start this new part of your life having lied?? As for a new job started later, don’t say that you have the job until you actually have the job. If you’re still applying to schools after you’ve started the new job, sure, put it down, but again - DON’T LIE about the job, how long you’ve been there, how many hours you’ve worked, etc etc.
It’s just really bad form and won’t bode well for future academic honesty if you start off your college career with lies. Plus, maybe they will find out. If you interview, do you really want to be put in a position to have to lie to people’s faces about all this stuff? Admissions people will see right through that and you’ll be a straight “no way” to them.
When you submit an application, you verify that all the information contained therein is accurate and truthful. If colleges find out that you have lied, they can:
- reject you
- rescind your acceptance, if you've already been accepted
- kick you out, if you've already enrolled
- take back your degree, if you've already graduated
- make you pay back financial aid
So even if you make it through the admissions process with a lie on your record, it can have consequences years later. Who wants that hanging over their head?
Don’t lie again. You owe it to yourself to do this right.
That is absolutely positively not worth lying about. Will you get caught? Odds are you wont, but one never knows for sure what an admissions officer might choose to check, who they might bump into etc… Unless you are a recruited athlete (which I’m guessing you are not if you did not make the team) colleges won’t care one little bit if you do a sport for 2 or three years. Why lose sleep worrying if you will get caught in such a meaningless lie? Tell the truth.
If you were on the team for a 3rd year when you filled out the app, and then got kicked off later, then it wasn’t a lie. If that is the case, don’t sweat it. Your application is a snapshot in time. Admissions officers don’t expect you to foretell the future, nor should you (hence the advice to not list that part-time job unless/until you have it).
If, on the other hand, you put 3 years on your app when you didn’t even know if you had made the team for a 3rd year, that is something to be worried about. You probably won’t get caught, but if you do then the consequences mentioned by @bodangles become possible.
Chalk it up as a lesson learned, and learn it well The negative consequences of dishonesty don’t stop at your college application. Many students end up damaging their college career through plagiarism, cheating, or other academic dishonesty. Better to learn this lesson now, than later.
I agree that if you started out on the team, but were dropped, then it is not a lie that you were on the team.
If you weren’t picked at all, that is, you never played a game for your high school, don’t list it. People quit sports for many many reasons. You certainly wouldn’t list “I tried out but failed”. You just list the two years you did play.
I doesn’t sound like there is a good reason to lie about being on the team for a 3rd year. The lie is more likely to break you than the make you, don’t do it.
About the job - it is your senior year and you want to start the job in January? Why bother if it is for the application? You can’t list in December 2016 that you worked from January 2017 to present!
Get a job ASAP and you would be much better off. You can list it on your application and it will count for something.
Agreeing with the other posters: the cost:benefit trade-off isn’t worth it. There is no way that whether or not you are on the team a third year will be the reason you do or don’t get in.
However, it might be good essay material…
Since you would never have been a recruited athlete, the extra year on your application is unlikely to benefit you significantly. The college(s) probably won’t find out, but the consequences for you if they were to follow up on it and discover that you knowingly made a false claim are not worth the risk. I recommend you pay more attention to your spelling, grammar, and syntax than to falsely inflating your resume.
If I understand you correctly, you completed the app indicating that you would be on the team for the 3rd year, you tried out and got cut. You went out for the team but just didn’t make it. Since the application was completed before the cut then in my opinion it is not a lie. You answered to the best of your ability that you would have been on the team.
Only would be a lie if you got cut and then submitted your application and said you were on the team. Submitting the application first and then getting cut is not a lie.
Thanks for responding everyone!
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Nothing left to say. Closing thread.