The process of application can be incredibly daunting for most students although colleges try to make this process as easy and timely as possible, they are incredibly thorough in their verification process of every submitted application. So How Do Colleges Know You Are Not Lying.
The urge to lie to make your application look better might occur to you however, I would strongly advise against this as the admission team is made up of people who are trained to spot inconsistency or made-up facts and lies in your application, it is much better to try and convince them by making sure your application is perfect.
Steps Used in Confirming Your Details
- Skilled Review– Most university admissions teams have people who have been through this process a thousand times, they are trained to easily spot inconsistency, and although exaggerations are quite common, they can discern when that’s the case or the student is being deliberately deceptive.
- Internet Search– if you claim to have raised $50,000 for charity or to have discovered a new element a quick google search is enough to verify if you’re being truthful or not, and although some form of exaggeration might be okay, you must be careful not to overdo it.
- School administrators/Counsellors– your application can make calls to verify your claims of holding certain positions in your school if it seems your records do not seem true.
- Resume– for postgraduate students, the application officer is going to go through your resume and dates to make sure your details are not fabricated.
- Interview- Finally, one of the ways some schools verify your details is by interviewing the applicant, you would be asked questions based on the details of your application and you have to convince them you can back up your claims. You might ask for examples of what you learned during an internship or specific lessons you learned as a member of a team.
The consequences of lying on your application can fall into two categories :
Pre admissions decision – if the student deceit is found by the admissions while verifying your application, the student can face a wide array of consequences ranging from rejection by the school to being blacklisted and admission rescinded to the application officer taking it a step further and reporting the student to other schools’ admission officer and this will make it close to impossible for such a student to get admissions from any other school.
After the admissions decision – if you have lied on your school application and you’ve been given admission, you might think you’ve gotten away with it however don’t be so sure as your lies can still be discovered at any time. Verifications are ongoing until the student officially graduates and even then, your degree can be rescinded, the risk of being expelled after studying for so many years or even having a certificate collected back should seriously discourage any student who might even be planning to lie on their application.
How To Perform Well in the Application Process?
You might be thinking about how to navigate the application process since you do not believe your qualifications are sufficient and lying on your application is completely out of the question. Here are some tips you might find useful in getting you the spot in your desired school and which are better than lying
Include all volunteering and club activities – you might think that 1 month you spent interning or volunteering has nothing to do with your application however you couldn’t be more wrong, even though this job might not have any direct correlation with the specific course you have chosen to apply for, you should still add in any form of work you’ve done as this speaks more about the soft skills that would be useful in every field. Skills such as teamwork are garnered in the workplace and application officers look fondly on this.
Write a killer Statement of Purpose (SOP) – your statement of purpose or personal statement is your chance to convince the admissions team about your passion for the course, you should take your time in researching how to write a proper SOP, there are various articles online you can read that can give you an insight to doing this.
Include soft skills on your resume – Although it might not seem like it, soft skills are extremely important in the admissions process, you must include this in your resume, especially for graduate school. Skills such as active listening, critical thinking, and communication could potentially positively influence the decision on your application status.
Get good recommendations – another way to boost your application is to get a great letter of recommendation, you should try and get these from teachers or employers and not parents or close friends as they cannot be qualified to give objective opinions about you. The letter of recommendation should focus on your skills and accomplishments and should generally be positive. Most schools require at least 2 or 3 letters of recommendation so make an effort to form a good connection with your teachers or counselors while in school as you would most likely need them to write a positive review about you.
Show Interest – if you are unsure about your qualifications and grades being enough for your desired course or school, you can take extra steps to stand out amongst other candidates. These may include going on campus tours and attending webinars, you can also get in touch with the professors of the department you’re interested in just to get an edge over other applicants. You can also apply early in order to tip the scales in your favor before the competition gets super tough.
CONCLUSION
Although these tips might not be a sure-fire way of getting you into your desired school or course, they definitely could help in securing the spot you want. It will also help you to not include a lie in the form. Rest assured the admissions team takes their time to verify every application and make sure no applicant is being deliberately deceptive, and if found such an application can be made to face a wide range of consequences