Student Reveals That Stanford Rescinded College Offer Months After Due To A ‘Lie’ On Her Application

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people embellish hours.
Difference btw 2 and 3 hours a week? If you include travel time…

Travel time is legit. If you have to drive an hour to volunteer, that's 2 hours out of your day when you could have been doing something else. During COVID I remember kids had to travel really far to get time on ice, fields, pools, etc to practice, otherwise they'd have had to quit the sport. The time traveling is a part of the process. Just like kids who mention how far they travel to go to a specific school.

There really should be more guidance on how to answer this though to help get more uniformity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These stupid volunteering should be excluded, it should be based on test scores, grades and things related to the target major e.g. building a business or selling computer programs at the level on a college graduate. Volunteering is stupid and unrelated.

I completely disagree. It is a life experience from which many serious people learn a lot about themselves and the world. It is a valuable part of education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was left distraught after learning that a simple embellishment on her college application had cost her a place at Stanford.

"This high schooler in the state of Washington just had their offer to Stanford rescinded for lying about the hour count on their extracurricular activity section," Brandon explained.

He pointed out that while this may be good news for students on Stanford's waitlist who may now have an opportunity to attend the school due to someone's offer being rescinded, the student who this happened to was left upset by the entire ordeal.

For a few of her different extracurriculars, a lot of the hours that she put down on the application were looked into thoroughly by the university back at the beginning of the year when they were initially reviewing her application. However, the school didn't get an answer from the people they'd contacted back when they first inquired.

"A lot of her extracurriculars looked impressive, so it's not a surprise that Stanford still went ahead and offered her admission," Brandon continued.

"But one of the activities that she had placed on her list was volunteering at a daycare for children with special needs.
For that specific activity, she had to put that she had been working there 12 hours a week for 32 weeks per year. When Stanford contacted the daycare, they learned that the student was only a summer volunteer and did 12 weeks a year for 4 hours at a time. Once Stanford learned about the lie, they immediately revoked her application.

The best way to avoid this kind of situation is to avoid lying or embellishing the truth on an activity section for a college application since there are easy ways for a school to verify that information, and once they verify it, then it becomes a huge mess. In a follow-up video, Brandon shared tips for students who are worried about colleges thinking they're lying about their extracurricular hour count.

https://www.yourtango.com/self/stanford-rescinded-students-acceptance-lied-application

Good.

Stop lying on applications.

Parents: set a good example for your kids.

Or.. don't be specific in your EC section.. "Worked at local food banks - 10 hours a week; Web design work for a local nonprofit - 20 hrs a week during summer". Let Stanford verify that!

The activity section of the Common App requires the following for each activity

- Checkbox for grade level
- Checkbox for Timing of participation (__During school year __During school break __All year)
- Hours spent per week ___
- Weeks spent per year ___

If the story in OP is true (which I doubt), the student should simply have checked "During school break" and then correctly completed hours and weeks.

Looks like they tried to fixed this. I recall it used to jut have hours per week, which was hard to answer for something you don't do weekly. But it is still hard for something that you may do 1 hour one week and 30 in another week, etc. Somehow averaging doesn't feel quite right. I wish they just let you type in the answer without their formatting.

[Anonymous]

Look - this was a straight up lie:

"For that specific activity [childcare for special needs children], she had put that she had been working there 12 hours a week for 32 weeks per year. When Stanford contacted the daycare, they learned that the student was only a summer volunteer and did 12 weeks a year for 4 hours at a time. Once Stanford learned about the lie, they immediately revoked her application."

This is the difference between a Summer job where you don't have other responsibilities and working 10-15 hours a week during school year when you do - they are significantly different skillsets requiring an ability to manage time while still being able to focus on schoolwork. Presumably she has stellar grades - and getting those grades while ALSO working 10-15 hours a week is quite a feat for a high schooler - but she DIDN"T do that - she lied about it. Not only does it show her lack of honesty, is seriously downgrades the quality of her application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this is fabricated by the guy (Tineo college prep consulting) to get TikTok clicks….

1000% click harvesting IMO.

How many DESERVING apps does Stanford receive? My guess is alot. You think someone is calling all the references?
I call bs.

Yes its already gotten picked up so many places....this guy is famous now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was left distraught after learning that a simple embellishment on her college application had cost her a place at Stanford.

"This high schooler in the state of Washington just had their offer to Stanford rescinded for lying about the hour count on their extracurricular activity section," Brandon explained.

He pointed out that while this may be good news for students on Stanford's waitlist who may now have an opportunity to attend the school due to someone's offer being rescinded, the student who this happened to was left upset by the entire ordeal.

For a few of her different extracurriculars, a lot of the hours that she put down on the application were looked into thoroughly by the university back at the beginning of the year when they were initially reviewing her application. However, the school didn't get an answer from the people they'd contacted back when they first inquired.

"A lot of her extracurriculars looked impressive, so it's not a surprise that Stanford still went ahead and offered her admission," Brandon continued.

"But one of the activities that she had placed on her list was volunteering at a daycare for children with special needs.
For that specific activity, she had to put that she had been working there 12 hours a week for 32 weeks per year. When Stanford contacted the daycare, they learned that the student was only a summer volunteer and did 12 weeks a year for 4 hours at a time. Once Stanford learned about the lie, they immediately revoked her application.

The best way to avoid this kind of situation is to avoid lying or embellishing the truth on an activity section for a college application since there are easy ways for a school to verify that information, and once they verify it, then it becomes a huge mess. In a follow-up video, Brandon shared tips for students who are worried about colleges thinking they're lying about their extracurricular hour count.

https://www.yourtango.com/self/stanford-rescinded-students-acceptance-lied-application

Good.

Stop lying on applications.

Parents: set a good example for your kids.

Or.. don't be specific in your EC section.. "Worked at local food banks - 10 hours a week; Web design work for a local nonprofit - 20 hrs a week during summer". Let Stanford verify that!

exactly. this is what my kid did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stunned so many people think this is real

Ppl here are soooo stupid and gullible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people embellish hours.
Difference btw 2 and 3 hours a week? If you include travel time…

Travel time is legit. If you have to drive an hour to volunteer, that's 2 hours out of your day when you could have been doing something else. During COVID I remember kids had to travel really far to get time on ice, fields, pools, etc to practice, otherwise they'd have had to quit the sport. The time traveling is a part of the process. Just like kids who mention how far they travel to go to a specific school.

There really should be more guidance on how to answer this though to help get more uniformity.

Hmmm. We were told not to include travel time, bc everyone has to "travel" to do a variety of activities. It doesn't count as the actual activity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was left distraught after learning that a simple embellishment on her college application had cost her a place at Stanford.

"This high schooler in the state of Washington just had their offer to Stanford rescinded for lying about the hour count on their extracurricular activity section," Brandon explained.

He pointed out that while this may be good news for students on Stanford's waitlist who may now have an opportunity to attend the school due to someone's offer being rescinded, the student who this happened to was left upset by the entire ordeal.

For a few of her different extracurriculars, a lot of the hours that she put down on the application were looked into thoroughly by the university back at the beginning of the year when they were initially reviewing her application. However, the school didn't get an answer from the people they'd contacted back when they first inquired.

"A lot of her extracurriculars looked impressive, so it's not a surprise that Stanford still went ahead and offered her admission," Brandon continued.

"But one of the activities that she had placed on her list was volunteering at a daycare for children with special needs.
For that specific activity, she had to put that she had been working there 12 hours a week for 32 weeks per year. When Stanford contacted the daycare, they learned that the student was only a summer volunteer and did 12 weeks a year for 4 hours at a time. Once Stanford learned about the lie, they immediately revoked her application.

The best way to avoid this kind of situation is to avoid lying or embellishing the truth on an activity section for a college application since there are easy ways for a school to verify that information, and once they verify it, then it becomes a huge mess. In a follow-up video, Brandon shared tips for students who are worried about colleges thinking they're lying about their extracurricular hour count.

https://www.yourtango.com/self/stanford-rescinded-students-acceptance-lied-application

Good.

Stop lying on applications.

Parents: set a good example for your kids.

Or.. don't be specific in your EC section.. "Worked at local food banks - 10 hours a week; Web design work for a local nonprofit - 20 hrs a week during summer". Let Stanford verify that!

“Worked 10 hours a week at local food bank” looks like an embellishment or a lie to the AO screening the app. So you’re right, Stanford doesn’t need to spend time verifying these candidates because they get rejected anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was left distraught after learning that a simple embellishment on her college application had cost her a place at Stanford.

"This high schooler in the state of Washington just had their offer to Stanford rescinded for lying about the hour count on their extracurricular activity section," Brandon explained.

He pointed out that while this may be good news for students on Stanford's waitlist who may now have an opportunity to attend the school due to someone's offer being rescinded, the student who this happened to was left upset by the entire ordeal.

For a few of her different extracurriculars, a lot of the hours that she put down on the application were looked into thoroughly by the university back at the beginning of the year when they were initially reviewing her application. However, the school didn't get an answer from the people they'd contacted back when they first inquired.

"A lot of her extracurriculars looked impressive, so it's not a surprise that Stanford still went ahead and offered her admission," Brandon continued.

"But one of the activities that she had placed on her list was volunteering at a daycare for children with special needs.
For that specific activity, she had to put that she had been working there 12 hours a week for 32 weeks per year. When Stanford contacted the daycare, they learned that the student was only a summer volunteer and did 12 weeks a year for 4 hours at a time. Once Stanford learned about the lie, they immediately revoked her application.

The best way to avoid this kind of situation is to avoid lying or embellishing the truth on an activity section for a college application since there are easy ways for a school to verify that information, and once they verify it, then it becomes a huge mess. In a follow-up video, Brandon shared tips for students who are worried about colleges thinking they're lying about their extracurricular hour count.

https://www.yourtango.com/self/stanford-rescinded-students-acceptance-lied-application

Good.

Stop lying on applications.

Parents: set a good example for your kids.

Or.. don't be specific in your EC section.. "Worked at local food banks - 10 hours a week; Web design work for a local nonprofit - 20 hrs a week during summer". Let Stanford verify that!

“Worked 10 hours a week at local food bank” looks like an embellishment or a lie to the AO screening the app. So you’re right, Stanford doesn’t need to spend time verifying these candidates because they get rejected anyway.

+1 The only way I can see the admissions office wasting time was if it was someone they were getting some pressure to take (influential alumni, big donor) but they suspected fabrication in the application. It seems pretty obvious that if you massively inflate your hours you end up with more time than you have in a week to do all this stuff + go to school and get good grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people embellish hours.
Difference btw 2 and 3 hours a week? If you include travel time…

Not much diff between 2 and 3 hours/week. But 10 and 32, hell yes.

But in reality, why lie? Just tell the truth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Stanford must have some kind of trained anti-fraud investigators on their admissions team. 20 years ago when I applied to Stanford Law I got a call from the head of admissions asking about why I had listed myself as “valedictorian” of my college class when my college didn’t do rankings. I was so panicked. My college had selected me as the graduation speaker from the top 5 GPAs (so I was told) and in my mind, giving the college commencement speech was being “valedictorian,” but I guess that was a misrepresentation. I had them talk to the dean of students at my college to verify that I was the commencement speaker. But that was a very sobering experience and since then I have been excruciatingly honest on all applications.

You guess?

At the time, I thought that “valedictorian” just meant the person who gives the speech (which I did). I didn’t realize it would be seen as a misrepresentation. I didn’t write down “first in the class” or anything like that.

Ummm, sure? You were "smart enough" to seriously apply to Stanford Law, yet not smart enough to know what a valedictorian is?

Not buying that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These stupid volunteering should be excluded, it should be based on test scores, grades and things related to the target major e.g. building a business or selling computer programs at the level on a college graduate. Volunteering is stupid and unrelated.

Riiiight. Because, if you can't get away with lying about it, why include it? Stick to what you can buy, I guess.

Says someone who has bought everything for their kids-- fake ECs, fake disabilities and wonders why their "straight A" kid (who is give 20 hours to complete an exam) scores a 1200 on the SAT.

PP here. Fun to mock the Richie rich entitlement, but that's a lot of vitriol towards legit LD kids. Don't do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Stanford must have some kind of trained anti-fraud investigators on their admissions team. 20 years ago when I applied to Stanford Law I got a call from the head of admissions asking about why I had listed myself as “valedictorian” of my college class when my college didn’t do rankings. I was so panicked. My college had selected me as the graduation speaker from the top 5 GPAs (so I was told) and in my mind, giving the college commencement speech was being “valedictorian,” but I guess that was a misrepresentation. I had them talk to the dean of students at my college to verify that I was the commencement speaker. But that was a very sobering experience and since then I have been excruciatingly honest on all applications.

You guess?

At the time, I thought that “valedictorian” just meant the person who gives the speech (which I did). I didn’t realize it would be seen as a misrepresentation. I didn’t write down “first in the class” or anything like that.

Ummm, sure? You were "smart enough" to seriously apply to Stanford Law, yet not smart enough to know what a valedictorian is?

Not buying that

It’s a strange, reverse psychology justification. The person who finishes first in the class gets to give the speech…hence, if I am invited to give the speech I must be first in the class because that’s who is invited to give the speech.

I like it…you just need to sell it and never deviate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These stupid volunteering should be excluded, it should be based on test scores, grades and things related to the target major e.g. building a business or selling computer programs at the level on a college graduate. Volunteering is stupid and unrelated.

Riiiight. Because, if you can't get away with lying about it, why include it? Stick to what you can buy, I guess.

Says someone who has bought everything for their kids-- fake ECs, fake disabilities and wonders why their "straight A" kid (who is give 20 hours to complete an exam) scores a 1200 on the SAT.

Says someone who is ignorant about LDs. You really need to find another target for your bitterness.