How do colleges know?
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Anonymous
| Can colleges tell if you actually worked hard throughout high school?? For example, if you get good grades but go to a really easy school? Or if you win a bunch of phony violin competitions or whatever? Just curious… |
Anonymous
| Do they actually care? Perhaps all they want is your money? |
Anonymous
Top colleges care. |
Anonymous
| OP are you an actual parent or the college forum troll who is bored? |
Anonymous
| Admissions staff familiarize themselves with the rigor level of the high schools of their applicants. |
Anonymous
How would one fake playing the violin? |
Anonymous
| At the very least, I would guess they could Google the name of any major award or competition someone claims to have won if they’ve never heard of it. |
Anonymous
This is Op. I am a student, actually. Sorry if I’m not supposed to use this website. |
Anonymous
| The counselor letter/report that accompanies your college application contains lots of rich data, which is how the admissions officers get a sense of rigor, etc. It includes information about stats of student body, highest level of course in different areas, etc. So yes, if you end at Algebra but got all As, the AOs will know that you didn't take Calc, for example, and they will know how your scores stack against your peers as a general group. And, if you stick around here long enough, you will see that they even will sometimes check out those awards, yes, and even your parents' LinkedIn profiles.... Seriously. |
Anonymous
No you're okay. The question was just worded in such a way as to make me doubt it was from a parent. And clearly it wasn't. Sorry. |
Anonymous
Every college admissions reader has read hundreds of applications. They have a good sense of what’s real and what’s fake. They have probably read numerous applications from your school, so they know how hard it is and whether you took the tough courses. |
Anonymous
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They don't really care. Fake credentials still give them something to brag about. Clout is all about putting out an image, not substance. If you don't get busted, you're gold.
Take a lesson. Real life is the same way. |
Anonymous
| Often case where two kids from the same school both have straight As in most rigorous classes, but one works really hard to do that and the other doesn’t have to work much at all. Colleges won’t necessarily know who had to work hard and who didn’t. But the one who didn’t likely has more innate intelligence and that might come through in other areas. But when those two kids go to college, the one who didn’t have to work hard in high school will likely have an easier time. |
Anonymous
| Nope. I worked my ASS off. But I'm smart and have a lot of learning disabilities. So you talk to me and think "Oh, she's really smart, got it!" and then look at my classes and grades and think "What a shame - smart but so lazy." Meanwhile I went to exactly one party in HS, was never out past 11pm unless babysitting, stayed after school a lot for extra help, spent hours on homework, and barely passed most tests. |
Anonymous
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they know from school profile sent by high school, gpa and stats compared to
classmates, level of classes (rigor) taken as compared to classmates, reputation of school as jnown by regional college rep and LOR |