"Extracurriculars are easy to pad and hard to verify."--Ranto???

Question

do you mean that you can lie on your extracurriculars and they'll never find out? I need more info?

Answer 1

You should never lie about anything.  But I am pretty sure Ranto means it is easy to embellish, and they can never really find out. For example you may claim you were one of the group leaders in a youth organization - but don't tell them that everyone gets a turn at doing that so it doesn't really mean much.  The chances of them expending the time and energy to actually get the detail is pretty minimal.  But they may just do it - so don't ever ever actually lie - that will get you rejected FOR SURE.

Thanks

Bill

Answer 2

I do not think that you should lie on your application.

I think some people DO LIE about their activities.  However, since colleges can't verify many of them, they don't put as much weight on them as many people think.  Therefore, lying about them shouldn't help you much.

There probably are some things that can be verified.  If you went to the Olympics, they can check that -- and that would certainly be a plus.

Answer 3

you can lie on extracurriculars, but most colleges could really give a ****, to be honest. if you write down that you are in the chess club and the multicultural club and the skateboard club and the indian film club and say they all meet once a week, an admissions officer is going to see right through that. if you claim to be in, say, an internationally recognized youth orchestra, they are going to check on that. guaranteed. if you claim to have been on student council, they will check on that. if you claim to have volunteered 5 hours a week at a shelter, then you had better write your essay about it and in great detail, or they will disregard it and assume you are lying about everything else, which is obviously not good for your chances. my college counselor used to be on the admissions board at Boston College, Boston University, and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and this is what she has told me. so yes, you can lie on your apps about extracurriculars. is there any advantage to lying about extracurriculars? basically, anything you could get away with lying about is not going to help you. nobody that was on the edge of getting into harvard got axed for not being in the barbecue club, and nobody has gotten into harvard because they were the chairman of the irish culture assembly.