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.
did you get in?
Anonymous wrote: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 wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
She was never told she was first in the class nor was she told first in the class gives the speech. Such an odd story. Who told her top five were up for speech giving?
My high school was like PP: the valedictorian (and it was called valedictorian!) was chosen by the faculty from the five students with the highest GPAs who had attended 4 years at the school. They weren’t always the actual top of the class and ranks aren’t actually published so no one actually knew whether a given valedictorian was #1 or #5 in their year.
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.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
She was never told she was first in the class nor was she told first in the class gives the speech. Such an odd story. Who told her top five were up for speech giving?
Anonymous wrote:I think this is fabricated by the guy (Tineo college prep consulting) to get TikTok clicks….
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
Anonymous wrote:
"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.
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.
Anonymous wrote: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.