DC’s friend lied on their college app

[Anonymous]

I'm a URM who attended HYSM and I'm friends with classmates who went on to become admissions officers. I also sat on admissions committees at my T14 law school. Merely checking those boxes isn't usually enough to get the applicant admitted. Their essays, ECs, zip code, LORs, parent info (including college) and so on will all be carefully examined at an Ivy. Unless the kid also faked things in those other components of their application package, they'd need to be able to get admitted as if they were not a URM.

Sure, people like that crazy young woman at Penn who was almost a Rhodes Scholar will slip through the cracks now and then. But that's much more likely to happen at a place like Penn State where a computer is doing all the decision making than at Penn, where a whole team is reading and scoring every bit of info they've collected. This is especially true for Native Americans. There are few enough Native American students nationally each year who meet the criteria for admission to an Ivy or Stanford or MIT that these schools are fighting over them. Some random dude applying from DC with zilch in his package to indicate that he's legit is not who they're looking for.

[Anonymous]

I used to work at the financial aid office of my college and I saw all the requirements for scholarships awarded based on race or nationality and they were quite strict. It would not be unusual for them to say something like a student had to be at least 1/4th Native American and list which tribe and which relative.

Also, FWIW, a friend of mine lived with a guy for a decade. She was a good friend, and I knew the boyfriend very well and saw him often, and met some of his family members. One day he mentioned his grandma was Native American. You'd never have known from looking at him - just looked like a regular white guy. He didn't even have high cheekbones or anything.

[Anonymous]

"That might be true of the general population, but I'm not so sure it's true when you look at the "Latino" populations at Ivy League schools."

Sorry, but that's not what I've seen and I'm one of them.

[Anonymous]

Bitter and jealous is not a good look on you, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Claiming you’re Native American should be tied to membership of a sovereign indigenous nation or tribe, not 2% of your DNA.

This! It is what got Warren in trouble in Indian Country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can OP please come back and share more details? Is this kid the child of someone who is Latino? Does one parent have a Spanish surname?

No, parents are not latino, grandparents are not latino and no does not have a Spanish name.

You know the maiden names of the grandmothers or great grandmothers? Is that how you are determining their ethnic heritage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a URM who attended HYSM and I'm friends with classmates who went on to become admissions officers. I also sat on admissions committees at my T14 law school. Merely checking those boxes isn't usually enough to get the applicant admitted. Their essays, ECs, zip code, LORs, parent info (including college) and so on will all be carefully examined at an Ivy. Unless the kid also faked things in those other components of their application package, they'd need to be able to get admitted as if they were not a URM.

Sure, people like that crazy young woman at Penn who was almost a Rhodes Scholar will slip through the cracks now and then. But that's much more likely to happen at a place like Penn State where a computer is doing all the decision making than at Penn, where a whole team is reading and scoring every bit of info they've collected. This is especially true for Native Americans. There are few enough Native American students nationally each year who meet the criteria for admission to an Ivy or Stanford or MIT that these schools are fighting over them. Some random dude applying from DC with zilch in his package to indicate that he's legit is not who they're looking for.

Without being too specific, local experience says otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly this happens every year. Some unqualified student checks a box under dubious circumstances and gets into a school they have no business attending. It's frustrating but a good sign that life isn't always fair and that this process has very little integrity to it. Better to carry yourself with dignity and only worry about yourself. Eventually your child will be better off. It's the school's loss.

Thank you! Finally someone with integrity who can see how wrong this is

Yeah. You two exude integrity…

Listen, I’m diverse as are my children. And AA is a complete sham and clusterf$ck; I look forward to it being struck down. But you UMC suburban adults who obsess over college admissions are the absolute worst.

Said the person who posts an ad hominem attack on an anonymous forum.

[Anonymous]

It's my understanding that to identify as Native American on college apps you need to provide a tribal number as proof. When my kids applied a few years ago that was required. I have a friend whose family is Native American and went through the process of research and obtaining a tribal number. I didn't think you could simply say you're Native American without that. I think you can identify that way for other categories, but not Native American. I don't know why anyone would do it - it reeks of pathetic insecurity. College admissions is a crapshoot - no everyone will get in everywhere. If you can't get in on your own merits you don't deserve to be there. It's no different than the parents paying for their kid to get into schools.

OP - something tells me that you're falling for the mean-spirited school gossip that sadly happens around college admission time. It's pathetic and loaded with dog whistles. You have absolutely no way to know everything about this kid, his achievements, and family history. Shame on you.

[Anonymous]

Could be he is adopted and is aware of their genetic family background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:About their race. Put down Native American and mexican. Got into an Ivy. Apparently DC has known for a while. I am not shocked as i know many kids probably lie but this just shows how rigged the system itself is. The entire school was surprised that this kid got in ED and now we know. Wow! I am guessing thats how colleges achieve their diversity goal.. admitting fake native Americans and hispanics.

The frustrating thing about these situations is the colleges could very easily write a disclaimer or something that would effectively discourage 99% of any of this nonsense.

Just a footnote that reads something like we will randomly sample students to verify information like race, and if we find out you lied we will report you to your school, your counselors, etc. and all your college applications will be crushed. Make it punitive enough and enough of a risk that people just don't do it...even if in fact they don't actually randomly sample people.

[Anonymous]

amazing how many people are tearing their hair out over a story that has at least a 50/50 chance of being total BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Claiming you’re Native American should be tied to membership of a sovereign indigenous nation or tribe, not 2% of your DNA.

There are tribes, especially small tribes with lucrative casinos, where membership is political and easily lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly this happens every year. Some unqualified student checks a box under dubious circumstances and gets into a school they have no business attending. It's frustrating but a good sign that life isn't always fair and that this process has very little integrity to it. Better to carry yourself with dignity and only worry about yourself. Eventually your child will be better off. It's the school's loss.

If true, the college counselor should be on this.

So college counselor gets the admission rescinded and then school finds itself in court trying to defend it's categorization of a student as a certain race and not another. I'm sure board would love that (I'm assuming private, because no public school counselor would every touch that)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a URM who attended HYSM and I'm friends with classmates who went on to become admissions officers. I also sat on admissions committees at my T14 law school. Merely checking those boxes isn't usually enough to get the applicant admitted. Their essays, ECs, zip code, LORs, parent info (including college) and so on will all be carefully examined at an Ivy. Unless the kid also faked things in those other components of their application package, they'd need to be able to get admitted as if they were not a URM.

Sure, people like that crazy young woman at Penn who was almost a Rhodes Scholar will slip through the cracks now and then. But that's much more likely to happen at a place like Penn State where a computer is doing all the decision making than at Penn, where a whole team is reading and scoring every bit of info they've collected. This is especially true for Native Americans. There are few enough Native American students nationally each year who meet the criteria for admission to an Ivy or Stanford or MIT that these schools are fighting over them. Some random dude applying from DC with zilch in his package to indicate that he's legit is not who they're looking for.

Unless segregated housing returned in a huge way combined with horrific stereotyping, you can't tell if someone is hispanic based on those criteria. Would living in Langley mean that someone was not in fact African America, does playing Lacrosse mean not hispanic? If the parent went to Harvard is the kid not Native American?