Making up things in common app activities and awards

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

In this case, the people who were supposed to do the verifying (in this case, the coaches) were corrupt. That is certainly going to happen again and there is practically no way to prevent it.

🚨 exactly right.

AO: Coach this looks fishy, is this kid really a superstar?

Coach (counting pile of hundreds): For sure, man! This kid is the number one Water Poloist in the state, we need them now.

AO: Okay then, admit. I don’t want to be the guy to screw the team over.

Coaches were the weak link because they aren’t paid that much (unless football), and they have a lot of personal leeway in deciding who is talented at these sports with few fans and few players.

Everyone can tell who is good at Basketball. There are HIGH SCHOOL teams that are famous.

Water Polo? Sailing? Crew? Dressage? Who knows. Someone with domain knowledge needs to weigh in, and that’s Couch Corrupto and nobody else.

This is why national science prize winners and Eagle Scout/Gold Award are so appealing to schools: someone exterior to the school that is a trusted source did some vetting. You can easily check if they actually won the award with one email or phone call.

If you’re concerned about fakery, encourage your kid to do verifiable stuff and invite the school to check up on it or provide hard evidence.

What if you’re concerned about the fakery going on by classmates?
Especially those classmates competing against you for spots / applying to the same schools as you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

In this case, the people who were supposed to do the verifying (in this case, the coaches) were corrupt. That is certainly going to happen again and there is practically no way to prevent it.

have you ever heard of an AO verifying .. anything? literally anything?

Google, “how do admissions officers verify extracurriculars” you will find a lot of articles indicating they rely on letters of recommendation along with the college counselors recommendation. Otherwise, nothing is verified unless something seems off.

They’re frankly isn’t enough time. With only 5 to 15 minutes per application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

In this case, the people who were supposed to do the verifying (in this case, the coaches) were corrupt. That is certainly going to happen again and there is practically no way to prevent it.

have you ever heard of an AO verifying .. anything? literally anything?

Google, “how do admissions officers verify extracurriculars” you will find a lot of articles indicating they rely on letters of recommendation along with the college counselors recommendation. Otherwise, nothing is verified unless something seems off.

They’re frankly isn’t enough time. With only 5 to 15 minutes per application.

I know that some selective colleges do a review of the accepted pile--check social media profiles for red flags, do some random check verification. So something amiss could kick you out of the accepted pile.

[Anonymous]

They verify what they want to verify - the money. They have gotten the government involved in this .. just to apply! Allow the IRS to upload your data to APPLY. I'm sure they're wondering how they can get banks to verify your assets. And then come over and tell me even more. WHEN did you buy that Toyota?

They don't verify anything else. They dont even try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

They verify the parental finances and assets, that part they have down to a science.

But I’m ready to volunteer to do the resume audit on every parent here who is AGHAST that kids may do a little embellishing on their applications.

Surely YOU never exaggerate or leave things out of YOUR job applications. That would be dishonest!

I'm okay with embellishing. But these NFPs that are basically throw up and then dismantled 6 months later for the sake of college apps alone is a big problem with college admissions today. I wish a college would do an internal review, a year after they admit kids, to go back and check all those founder stories ... the blogs and podcasts and NFPs .. how many are still active. 80%? 50%? okay. but is it 3%? then , let's get honest about this whole thing

And what? Kick the kid out if the NFP isn't still up and running? What about the kids who played French Horn in high school and listed that as an EC, but stopped playing in college, do they get kicked out too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

They verify the parental finances and assets, that part they have down to a science.

But I’m ready to volunteer to do the resume audit on every parent here who is AGHAST that kids may do a little embellishing on their applications.

Surely YOU never exaggerate or leave things out of YOUR job applications. That would be dishonest!

I'm okay with embellishing. But these NFPs that are basically throw up and then dismantled 6 months later for the sake of college apps alone is a big problem with college admissions today. I wish a college would do an internal review, a year after they admit kids, to go back and check all those founder stories ... the blogs and podcasts and NFPs .. how many are still active. 80%? 50%? okay. but is it 3%? then , let's get honest about this whole thing

And what? Kick the kid out if the NFP isn't still up and running? What about the kids who played French Horn in high school and listed that as an EC, but stopped playing in college, do they get kicked out too?

A kid who played French horn for 6 months does not put that on their app.

So your snark has back you into a good example. A kid who does a passion project podcast for 6 months and quits the week apps are submitted should get the same leg up a kid who plays the French Horn for 6 months - none at all.

And no, I dont want anyone kicked out. I want the AO team who are all 26 year olds now to really think for a minute if the "story" on the app is truthful. If those passionate passions are all dropped and kids are switching into CS in November, take a look at your system and retool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

They verify the parental finances and assets, that part they have down to a science.

But I’m ready to volunteer to do the resume audit on every parent here who is AGHAST that kids may do a little embellishing on their applications.

Surely YOU never exaggerate or leave things out of YOUR job applications. That would be dishonest!

I'm okay with embellishing. But these NFPs that are basically throw up and then dismantled 6 months later for the sake of college apps alone is a big problem with college admissions today. I wish a college would do an internal review, a year after they admit kids, to go back and check all those founder stories ... the blogs and podcasts and NFPs .. how many are still active. 80%? 50%? okay. but is it 3%? then , let's get honest about this whole thing

And what? Kick the kid out if the NFP isn't still up and running? What about the kids who played French Horn in high school and listed that as an EC, but stopped playing in college, do they get kicked out too?

+1
Teens start things and stop things. Getting a decent podcast together takes some effort and builds some skills even if it's short-lived and done for college admissions purposes. If they actually did it, it's an activity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

They verify the parental finances and assets, that part they have down to a science.

But I’m ready to volunteer to do the resume audit on every parent here who is AGHAST that kids may do a little embellishing on their applications.

Surely YOU never exaggerate or leave things out of YOUR job applications. That would be dishonest!

I'm okay with embellishing. But these NFPs that are basically throw up and then dismantled 6 months later for the sake of college apps alone is a big problem with college admissions today. I wish a college would do an internal review, a year after they admit kids, to go back and check all those founder stories ... the blogs and podcasts and NFPs .. how many are still active. 80%? 50%? okay. but is it 3%? then , let's get honest about this whole thing

And what? Kick the kid out if the NFP isn't still up and running? What about the kids who played French Horn in high school and listed that as an EC, but stopped playing in college, do they get kicked out too?

A kid who played French horn for 6 months does not put that on their app.

So your snark has back you into a good example. A kid who does a passion project podcast for 6 months and quits the week apps are submitted should get the same leg up a kid who plays the French Horn for 6 months - none at all.

And no, I dont want anyone kicked out. I want the AO team who are all 26 year olds now to really think for a minute if the "story" on the app is truthful. If those passionate passions are all dropped and kids are switching into CS in November, take a look at your system and retool

💯
MaYbe they should make it harder to change your app designated major…bet they’d suss ppl out then

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

In this case, the people who were supposed to do the verifying (in this case, the coaches) were corrupt. That is certainly going to happen again and there is practically no way to prevent it.

🚨 exactly right.

AO: Coach this looks fishy, is this kid really a superstar?

Coach (counting pile of hundreds): For sure, man! This kid is the number one Water Poloist in the state, we need them now.

AO: Okay then, admit. I don’t want to be the guy to screw the team over.

Coaches were the weak link because they aren’t paid that much (unless football), and they have a lot of personal leeway in deciding who is talented at these sports with few fans and few players.

Everyone can tell who is good at Basketball. There are HIGH SCHOOL teams that are famous.

Water Polo? Sailing? Crew? Dressage? Who knows. Someone with domain knowledge needs to weigh in, and that’s Couch Corrupto and nobody else.

This is why national science prize winners and Eagle Scout/Gold Award are so appealing to schools: someone exterior to the school that is a trusted source did some vetting. You can easily check if they actually won the award with one email or phone call.

If you’re concerned about fakery, encourage your kid to do verifiable stuff and invite the school to check up on it or provide hard evidence.

How are ECs shielded from "privilege" criticisms, though? If we toss test scores because we buy the argument that they reflect only "privilege", why should anything in that line of thinking make it into the stew?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

They verify the parental finances and assets, that part they have down to a science.

But I’m ready to volunteer to do the resume audit on every parent here who is AGHAST that kids may do a little embellishing on their applications.

Surely YOU never exaggerate or leave things out of YOUR job applications. That would be dishonest!

I'm okay with embellishing. But these NFPs that are basically throw up and then dismantled 6 months later for the sake of college apps alone is a big problem with college admissions today. I wish a college would do an internal review, a year after they admit kids, to go back and check all those founder stories ... the blogs and podcasts and NFPs .. how many are still active. 80%? 50%? okay. but is it 3%? then , let's get honest about this whole thing

How prevalent is this really? And if it's done 6 mos before college apps go in, how much is that really going to weigh the admissions balance? I think you're getting into hypotheticals here. If someone puts together an organization, makes a podcast, writes a blog etc. it involves work, skill and creativity--even if it's primarily done for college apps. I don't think any AO is particularly fooled by a 6 month passion project conveniently tied to the admissions cycle, but it counts as a 6 month activity that took some initiative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

They verify the parental finances and assets, that part they have down to a science.

But I’m ready to volunteer to do the resume audit on every parent here who is AGHAST that kids may do a little embellishing on their applications.

Surely YOU never exaggerate or leave things out of YOUR job applications. That would be dishonest!

I'm okay with embellishing. But these NFPs that are basically throw up and then dismantled 6 months later for the sake of college apps alone is a big problem with college admissions today. I wish a college would do an internal review, a year after they admit kids, to go back and check all those founder stories ... the blogs and podcasts and NFPs .. how many are still active. 80%? 50%? okay. but is it 3%? then , let's get honest about this whole thing

And what? Kick the kid out if the NFP isn't still up and running? What about the kids who played French Horn in high school and listed that as an EC, but stopped playing in college, do they get kicked out too?

A kid who played French horn for 6 months does not put that on their app.

So your snark has back you into a good example. A kid who does a passion project podcast for 6 months and quits the week apps are submitted should get the same leg up a kid who plays the French Horn for 6 months - none at all.

And no, I dont want anyone kicked out. I want the AO team who are all 26 year olds now to really think for a minute if the "story" on the app is truthful. If those passionate passions are all dropped and kids are switching into CS in November, take a look at your system and retool

💯
MaYbe they should make it harder to change your app designated major…bet they’d suss ppl out then

That’s exactly what Cornell does.

You can apply to the easier admit/much cheaper Land Grant/State Statutory arm of the University but once you get in that’s what you are doing unless truly extraordinary circumstances arrive, you better discover a passion for Hotel Management because you are never transferring to Arts & Sciences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

They verify the parental finances and assets, that part they have down to a science.

But I’m ready to volunteer to do the resume audit on every parent here who is AGHAST that kids may do a little embellishing on their applications.

Surely YOU never exaggerate or leave things out of YOUR job applications. That would be dishonest!

I'm okay with embellishing. But these NFPs that are basically throw up and then dismantled 6 months later for the sake of college apps alone is a big problem with college admissions today. I wish a college would do an internal review, a year after they admit kids, to go back and check all those founder stories ... the blogs and podcasts and NFPs .. how many are still active. 80%? 50%? okay. but is it 3%? then , let's get honest about this whole thing

And what? Kick the kid out if the NFP isn't still up and running? What about the kids who played French Horn in high school and listed that as an EC, but stopped playing in college, do they get kicked out too?

A kid who played French horn for 6 months does not put that on their app.

So your snark has back you into a good example. A kid who does a passion project podcast for 6 months and quits the week apps are submitted should get the same leg up a kid who plays the French Horn for 6 months - none at all.

And no, I dont want anyone kicked out. I want the AO team who are all 26 year olds now to really think for a minute if the "story" on the app is truthful. If those passionate passions are all dropped and kids are switching into CS in November, take a look at your system and retool

You can put any six-month activity you want on the app. It is not inherently illegitimate or fake just because it is a newly discovered interest.

I wasn't snarking. What do you seriously expect a college to do if they find out the kid is no longer doing his HS passion, whatever it was? Once they're in, they might get kicked out for a flagrant lie, but not for exaggerating the significance of an EC.

I have a little more faith than you in the kids - I think most kids are not going to outright make things up - and in the AOs - I think they detect most ECs that don't "smell right" even if some things get past them.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:the thing about this that makes me mad is when college AOs say, "We have people call our school to complain than X kid got in when Y kid did not. But the thing is, they don't know why they were admitted, they didn't see their application or read their essay. We know what we're doing. We dont make mistakes." (The Dartmouth dean says this a lot).

I'd never call a school to rat a kid out, but .. no, Dartmouth, you don't know a kid better than his/her classmates do. Some of these kids have known each other for 12 years .. and you spent 12 minutes reading their app. There are certainly things on the application that their classmates don't know, of course. But they also know that little Larla was not the lead author on that journal, did not start a NFP, didn't play varsity tennis, and did not organize the clothing drive that was the essay topic. There was no clothing drive.

THat's the part that bugs me.

Colleges are not new at this - they know how to verify certain information, and with whom, and they know when a parent starts a non-profit in their home country, and they absolutely know when a parent is jealous of the kid down the street, who was accepted, while their kid was not. Don't dig the hole deeper for your kid, parents.

Colleges didn't even verify kids played the sports they were recruited for - something I could google from my office in seconds.

If you are recruited to play a sport, you are recruited by the college coach, and he or she certainly knows whether or not you play the sport.

Exactly. The issue with the Varsity Blues scandal is that there were a few coaches who were on the take. And they paid the price for it.

I mean, a couple paid the price. The thing we learned for Varsity Blues is colleges are hackable. Nobody verifies shit.

They verify the parental finances and assets, that part they have down to a science.

But I’m ready to volunteer to do the resume audit on every parent here who is AGHAST that kids may do a little embellishing on their applications.

Surely YOU never exaggerate or leave things out of YOUR job applications. That would be dishonest!

I'm okay with embellishing. But these NFPs that are basically throw up and then dismantled 6 months later for the sake of college apps alone is a big problem with college admissions today. I wish a college would do an internal review, a year after they admit kids, to go back and check all those founder stories ... the blogs and podcasts and NFPs .. how many are still active. 80%? 50%? okay. but is it 3%? then , let's get honest about this whole thing

How prevalent is this really? And if it's done 6 mos before college apps go in, how much is that really going to weigh the admissions balance? I think you're getting into hypotheticals here. If someone puts together an organization, makes a podcast, writes a blog etc. it involves work, skill and creativity--even if it's primarily done for college apps. I don't think any AO is particularly fooled by a 6 month passion project conveniently tied to the admissions cycle, but it counts as a 6 month activity that took some initiative.

There’s maybe enough kids who do this in the entire country to fill a small room. but they beat PP’s kid into Princeton so it’s a national crisis.

“How can I fake extraordinary achievements without lying” is definitely the flagship issue of DCUM.

Malala didn’t have to fake it, she actually won a Nobel Prize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS, senior, told us several people in his class have made up titles and awards on their common app; examples below. I’m pissed. He said it’s super common sadly.

- varsity tennis (co-captain); in reality just a member

- Model UN; delegate award

- environmental club; vice president

- food drive; organizer

It’s crazy right? I mean it’s not huge or the end of the world but….

Alot of clubs come up with multiple titles so everyone can have a title for their applications...and now everyone can start a club and be the founder.

[Anonymous]

You guys need to read who gets in and why - kids who do this are not in the dozens