How do colleges know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

You think they have time for that?

[Anonymous]

Letters of recommendation can be very revealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Letters of recommendation can be very revealing.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

You think they have time for that?

I don’t think they need to for most because information from the HS (recs, etc) would corroborate a lot, and the admissions folks have probably already heard of most competitions or awards kids might have. But yeah, if some kid applied claiming great accolades in something they’d never even heard of? I think they’d look it up.

[Anonymous]

Colleges have admission counselors foreach region, so if a lot of students from your school apply, they will be familiar with the rigor of your schools. They will also have at least a vague sense for how difficult a level of musical accomplishment is.

[Anonymous]

Almost nobody is as smart, thorough, or conscientious as you think they are. That goes quadruple for admissions workers.

Did you see any of the sheep at Columbia who were asked a question by a reporter? Somebody let them in. The set of Ivy admissions workers is completely inside the set of people who think the southern border has been closed for the past 3 years.

[Anonymous]

The ability to fake credentials is why we have an industry of highly paid college consultants. This is what they specialize in. There is an article somewhere online where the consultant describes the dad being a bank president and the kid has done nothing so the mother takes photos off the kids phone, edits them, has them framed and hangs them up in the lobby of the bank and voila, the kid is now a budding photographer who has exhibited his work in a major metropolitan area. Our local bank has a community room which is sometimes used as a concert hall. “This talented student recently gave a piano recital, including compositions of his own,” blah, blah, blah

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

You think they have time for that?

Yes. If they are going to admit someone, they make time.

[Anonymous]

lol. Schools now routinely get 100k applicants and the first read is by an alum who gets minimum wage. Admissions personnel may never even see your application. But my neighbor who went to William and Mary and has been a SAHM for twenty years and gets minimum wage is out there researching which youth orchestras in Ohio are scams. Dream on!

[Anonymous]

Not necessarily. So then they look at school profile, rigor of classes, and standardized test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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…

No, they can't. As long as you do not make up stuff that is extremely well known. If you make up stuff that is not googlable then you are fine. You can lie in your essays, get your essays written by someone else, make up your non-academic accomplishments etc.

The only thing that you should not lie about is your GPA, courses you take, SAT scores etc. because these get verified by the school or college board.

Now, let's talk about phony violin competitions. You will basically need to hold a "phony violin completion". Have a bunch of your non-violin playing friends participate in a completion you create, participate in it, create a website and YouTube videos about the completion, win the competition and then write about it. You can certainly do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they actually care? Perhaps all they want is your money?

Top colleges care.

LOL please move into reality.

[Anonymous]

They know 60% of colleges. Even then, they don’t know if you got the easy chemistry teacher or the hard one. This is why GPAs are problematic is an under discussed way.

They don’t know 40%. Or more. Most high schools send under 5 apps to top 10 colleges - in total. So either you get lucky and your story breaks through or it doesn’t. Depends on the reader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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…

No, they can't. As long as you do not make up stuff that is extremely well known. If you make up stuff that is not googlable then you are fine. You can lie in your essays, get your essays written by someone else, make up your non-academic accomplishments etc.

The only thing that you should not lie about is your GPA, courses you take, SAT scores etc. because these get verified by the school or college board.

Now, let's talk about phony violin competitions. You will basically need to hold a "phony violin completion". Have a bunch of your non-violin playing friends participate in a completion you create, participate in it, create a website and YouTube videos about the completion, win the competition and then write about it. You can certainly do that.

Your conspiracy theories are unsubstantiated.

You are claiming that you can spot a "phony violin completion", and those that see thousands of applicants year after year cannot and are easily fooled.

That is a preposterous claim. It will not work. At best, it will do no harm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol. Schools now routinely get 100k applicants and the first read is by an alum who gets minimum wage. Admissions personnel may never even see your application. But my neighbor who went to William and Mary and has been a SAHM for twenty years and gets minimum wage is out there researching which youth orchestras in Ohio are scams. Dream on!

You've obviously ever met an admissions officer and discussed this with them. At a minimum, read one of the dozens of books written by admissions officers about the process and then you can come back here an comment in a more informed way.