How do colleges verify activities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Generally the first step is they call the school counselor to see what they know.

Universities aren't calling thousands of school counselors to verify activities.

Only the ones on cusp. Maybe a hundred. Most lies don’t even matter because it has no weight on your application.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Yale is checking by calling college counselors. UCLA is asking for random applicants to upload pdfs of W2 or paystubs to verify jobs. They are doing a lot more verifying this year

How can school counselor know your volunteer out of school?

They would know if they met with the student. If it's a big public school, bring it up in the counselor meeting and in the parent brag sheet. DC is at a public and did just this - he knew what the teachers would focus on in the LOR, so for any extra things that were important, he made sure to let the counselor know. He was accepted SCEA - of course, we don't know what exactly helped his application, but do your best with every part. Good luck!

Same here, everything can be found by a quick google search. I don't know if AOs spend time googling each kid. I think some applications are just compelling, and they're familiar with the big awards, and some things just make sense in the big picture.

I also don't know why kids would lie. That seems like such a pessimistic view of this whole process. Also, anything off would probably immediately raise red flags.

Kids lie or exaggerate all the time on their college apps, but I think it’s morally wrong and frankly quite dumb. They are not successful because they can’t compete with the kids having genuine, verifiable accomplishments.

I get that kids can lie (I have three), but how do you know that kids are lying/exaggerating all the time on their college apps?

Some things are obvious, like founding a company making millions in revenue but no company website, no public records or ownership. Or being a fire fighter volunteer when age requirements are 18+. If you have kids, you know it’s really easy to find inconsistencies when they lie, it’s not that different for college apps.

If major impact is claimed, but no way to verify, it’s a red flag.

If minor impact, like club president, then it doesn’t matter anyways.

Yes, but this doesn’t mean kids are lying “all the time” on their college apps. I don’t know why posters make such extreme statements.

[Anonymous]

Op, what is the activity?
That might be more helpful to answer your question.

[Anonymous]

DD volunteers at Ronald McDonald house. Applied ED to Swarthmore. Someone from Swarthmore called RMH to check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD volunteers at Ronald McDonald house. Applied ED to Swarthmore. Someone from Swarthmore called RMH to check.

RMH answered and said "would you like fries with that shake?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Generally the first step is they call the school counselor to see what they know.

What school has the bandwidth to call high school counselors to inquire about some random extracurricular in a laundry list of activities as they review applications from thousands upon thousands of applicants?

[Anonymous]

The colleges that verify activities typically only do that for students who will be matriculating in the fall. They are not verifying activities for every applicant or even every accepted applicant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD volunteers at Ronald McDonald house. Applied ED to Swarthmore. Someone from Swarthmore called RMH to check.

RMH answered and said "would you like fries with that shake?"

You’re disgusting. Educate yourself

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD volunteers at Ronald McDonald house. Applied ED to Swarthmore. Someone from Swarthmore called RMH to check.

RMH answered and said "would you like fries with that shake?"

You’re disgusting. Educate yourself

Lighten up, Francis. Wipe that Grimace off your face. Or Mayor McCheese might come and lock you up. You are clearly a few fries short of a happy meal.

RMH is an incredible organization. I have actually volunteered there, including shortly after I started college at the one affiliated with my university. I wish more kids (and adults) truly volunteered there and did so out of a true sense of kindness rather than to check a box for their applications, which unfortunately is often the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interviews, some ask in Common App for links to verify, some AOs do online checks/confer with counselors…Seasoned AOs can see through apps that seem off

I’m the teacher and some of the clubs I’ve sponsored over the past 25 years have been pretty involved. The counselors don’t have any contact with us and I think you are really over estimating how well they know these kids. I have no idea who’s putting down they were the president or founder of the XYZ Club or who organized this or that community event. No one has ever asked me to verify a thing for a college application. Not a counselor or anyone from admissions. All of this is completely on the honor system.

I tell my own kids to join things for enjoyment only. None of this matters for college admission. I hear how the students exaggerate on applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes! For Harvard in the Common App, they ask for web links - if there are any - to verify the awards listed in the application. You can probably do the same for ECs in the Additional Info section.

Conversely, may schools are clear about not including any hyperlinks in your app, because they’re absolutely not going to click on them. Huge security risk, so they aren’t even clickable in the downloaded package that the application readers receive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Generally the first step is they call the school counselor to see what they know.

What school has the bandwidth to call high school counselors to inquire about some random extracurricular in a laundry list of activities as they review applications from thousands upon thousands of applicants?

The AOs just email to verify, and, trust me, the high schools respond fast because their reputations are on the line!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD volunteers at Ronald McDonald house. Applied ED to Swarthmore. Someone from Swarthmore called RMH to check.

RMH answered and said "would you like fries with that shake?"

Another Swarthmore 2030 parent here - kid was accepted ED this cycle and Swat called her main extracurricular in early December to verify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Generally the first step is they call the school counselor to see what they know.

What school has the bandwidth to call high school counselors to inquire about some random extracurricular in a laundry list of activities as they review applications from thousands upon thousands of applicants?

The AOs just email to verify, and, trust me, the high schools respond fast because their reputations are on the line!

They aren't calling about every applicant, they're likely calling about the ones they're admitting to ensure they're not admitting liars. So it's only a small fraction of the applicants. And they're only asking about the major activities - for my kid for example (Swarthmore) it was a major activity she's dedicated hundreds of hours to and it's possibly what got her in to the school, so they called the organization to confirm hours and level of activity. Took five minutes. No different really than an interview which is also a time-suck for the colleges.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Volunteering without impact will not have any weight in your application. Don’t worry about it.

He definitely has impact.

Then unless he's Batman, there will be another adult outside of this who could attest to this, and he could also document the impact. Should the activity get questioned, there would be evidence of it.

Well yes, obviously there are adults who know he does this. But there's no place on the app, as far as i can tell, to put a reference.

Many schools accept additional non-teacher recommendations. If the activity is that meaningful, that's likely a good idea beyond verification.

If the activity that that meaningful, get an article in the local newspaper.

Many places no longer have meaningful local newspapers. It's not like the Washington Post is going to write about a high school student's community service project, no matter how impactful.

I am the app who suggested the local newspaper. I am also the parent of a student who was on television for meaningful community service. We were lucky to get that recognition as we are not connected. Rather than suggest getting your kid on tv, I suggested a local newspaper. But ok get your kid on tv if you don’t have a local newspaper? I dunno. Use you imagination!