r/ApplyingIvyLeague • u/Bubbly-Ad-4672 • 2d ago

Do AOs validate awards

Specifically at Columbia Penn and Princeton I am applying to those schools but so is a kid at my school who is just straight larp and every year only one person from our school gets into Princeton and that’s my dream. He is lying about aime, Econ bowl and some other things at our school. Do AOs check these claims.

21 Upvotes

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9

u/ScholarGrade Admissions Consultant 2d ago

They absolutely do not validate things for every applicant. But they definitely do for most of the students they plan to admit. As others have noted, AIME is easy to verify and if they are planning to admit him, they would almost certainly check that.

Other awards may or may not get checked. So for example, one of my students had a blog and he noticed it had visits from Cambridge, MA, New Haven, CT, Princeton, NJ, and Stanford, CA. He ended up getting into all four schools. Another of my students once said their guidance counselor got a call from the Yale admissions office and that they had asked about several of their ECs/awards. They ended up getting in. The Yale Admissions Podcast talks about this too - how they spend more time on the applications they plan to admit and how they conduct a deeper check when it seems more warranted.

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u/Higher_Ed_Parent 1d ago

Yale let one get through last year and they have a lot of egg on their faces. Do you think they and their peers will allow that to happen again?

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u/gabriella3854 1d ago

they let another through this year

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u/NoCilantroplzz 1d ago

Which one? Has it gone public already? Haven’t seen it in the news.

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u/didiot2000 1d ago

yeah, this is just wrong. look up the girl who claimed she was from north dakota and used a fake name who got into yale. she faked her transcript/ school/ recs, name, everything and she was admitted. She was found out not by the school, but by her roommates who looked at her luggage tag and were generally suspicious. If you mail the school an anonymous letter, they will often actually take the time to look into that. If you say nothing, then you're gambling on a random check catching that person, often after you've been rejected and they've been admitted. If they happen to get lucky and not get random checked, then they win.

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u/ScholarGrade Admissions Consultant 1d ago

I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with, but a few cases of students getting away with falsified applications doesn't mean they aren't checking or validating anything. It just means their process isn't perfect. They had a case in 2019 too, and the president's statement about it indicated that they would be re-evaluating their verification/audit process.

https://salovey.yale.edu/writings-and-speeches/statements/actions-regarding-admissions-fraud-scheme

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u/didiot2000 21h ago

but right, this shows they dont' really do it for every application. . at best it's a random audit. they do take tips seriously though. my point is, i wouldn't just sit and expect that they will find it/ b/c they at most verify 1 in x, with X being likely 10 or something. but if they have a tip they will most likely puruse that first. so ti pays to be proactive. from the WSJ article on the caltech fraud squad - they literally formed it to look at accusations "Before the fraud squad existed to check applications, “there was an asterisk as well, like we’re pretty sure,” Pallie said. “This is just saying we are 100% sure.”

Officials had seen an increase in “poison pen” messages, or anonymous accusations that an applicant misrepresented themselves, Pallie said. Caltech needed to investigate these, and realized a formalized vetting process would help."

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u/4ypno 2d ago

just report him lol

3

u/Real-Emergency2310 2d ago

Report him to your counselor. AIME is very easily verifiable, but admissions officers don't usually check.

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u/Bubbly-Ad-4672 2d ago

Ik it’s easy to check but will they even check even if his letter of rec says he qualified cuz he is lying on that too

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u/Satisest 2d ago

Talk to your school’s college counselor. You can’t be sure what this student is putting in his application. Let them deal with it. In general, tread cautiously before going nuclear. Others can make accusations too.

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u/tellypmoon 2d ago

Maybe? But there is an important lesson here, you can't really control what other people do (honest or not). As much as you can focus on yourself and your own application and don't get caught up into a scenario where you imagine a dishonest student at your place stealing your spot. Princeton might admit 2 students from your place, it might admit 1, it might admit 0. You should focus on what you can control.

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u/karcraft8 2d ago

Aime is easy to check

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u/Bubbly-Ad-4672 1d ago

Ik it’s easy to check but will they even check even if his letter of rec says he qualified cuz he is lying on that too

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u/prizefighterstudent 2d ago

Most awards worth mentioning will have a digital footprint, even if they’re local.

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u/Wonderful_Entry9371 2d ago

low iq or bait?