Once upon a time, an illustrious student managed to get into Harvard with amazing scores and great grades from one of the best prep schools and one of the best colleges in the country. He lied. 

While this has been widely reported in the media, most of the reports have been very easy on Harvard’s admissions office. One of the experts in the field went so far as to say that, given the thousands of applications schools receive, documents just can’t be verified. 

Whoa Nelly! 

On the one hand, that’s just plain silly. This guy faked transcripts, and I can see, given the right computers, etc., being able to slip that document past someone. However, if a school has at least a couple of nickels to rub together (and who has more nickels than Harvard?), perhaps they could invest in a nice imaging system. Nearly every reputable college in the country (and the applicant was claiming to have attended MIT) uses really fancy transcript paper that shows all kinds of stuff when you scan the document. This makes copying or scanning the document challenging and confirms that it’s a real document. Did the student go so far as to obtain that paper? If not, how the heck did he get it past the office? 

Now let’s give poor, overworked Harvard (cue violins) the benefit of the doubt on the transcripts. They also accepted the applicant’s fraudulent SAT scores. I can’t speak for every institution, but Mason downloads the scores directly from The College Board. We go back and verify any that come in from the high school or the student directly with CB.  

On the other hand, since the student was transferring, maybe the Harvard admissions office wasn’t that worried about his scores, which makes sense. And since they were REALLY GOOD (and whose wouldn’t be, if we were picking them ourselves?), why check further? 

Let’s move on to how this exposes the DIRTY SECRET OF COLLEGE ADMISSIONS -- wait for it:  

College applicants lie.  

The even dirtier secret is that we probably don’t catch most of those liars. Applicants submit all kinds of recommendation letters, lists of extracurriculars, and claims of awards and achievements. For the most part, colleges make no effort to verify the authenticity of these submissions. There are rare exceptions. For example, with the Internet so readily accessible, the applicant claiming to have appeared on “Big Brother” and “America’s Got Talent” is easily referenced. The applicant falsely claiming to have won the East Podunk Service Commitment to Youth Who Are Far Less Lucky Award is unlikely to get caught.  

In fairness, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, these factors are far less important to admissions decisions than academic records. I should also note, for all those tempted by the knowledge of admissions offices lack of verification systems, that the penalty for getting caught is generally steep. Most admissions offices, if they believe that any part of the application has been falsified at all, will deny the applicant. You won’t get a reason, just the denial.  

So we’re not that good at catching you, but we offer a really strong disincentive. How many of you think that works?  

Be seeing you. 

About Andrew Flagel 

A long time ago, when the admissions process was young, colleges and universities realized that the sooner they could get a student to commit to absolutely, positively coming to their schools, the sooner they could:

• Help the student make a smooth academic and social transition into the community of scholars, and
• Begin spending that student’s tuition.

There was a time, or so I’m told, when institutions would try to get students to commit earlier and earlier, sometimes using positive incentives (“commit now, and you’ll get the best housing, the best classes and we’ll give you a puppy”) or even threats (“commit now or we’ll stick you in the worst housing on campus, give you the worst class schedule and we’ll kick this puppy”). This led to the GREAT TREATY OF ADMISSIONS, in which all the colleges and universities agreed to give students until May 1 to make their decisions and not use incentives or threats -- except in cases where they can be sneaky enough to get away with it.

Apart from there not actually being any such treaty*, giving admitted students time to make up their minds about which schools to attend seems like a very reasonable and prudent thing for colleges and universities to do. That all goes out the window, however, for students on the waitlist.

A high school counselor launched a heated online debate recently when she complained about a college admitting one of her students from the waitlist and then requiring an IMMEDIATE commitment. Factions quickly formed on the subject.

Team A (motto: college would be a lot more fun for us if it weren’t for all these pesky students) noted that most colleges and universities require students to respond to waitlist offers with an agreement that, should the applicant be admitted from the waitlist, he or she will celebrate joyously and immediately commit, so the requirement for immediate response shouldn’t be a surprise.

Team B (motto: students rule, colleges drool) argued that even students with the best of intentions have to do some soul searching once admissions offers are received and that teenagers may have trouble making up their minds quickly. Later, more savvy members of team B noted that most waitlisted students go ahead and confirm somewhere else while waiting to hear from any school that waitlisted them and might be waitlisted by more than one school. As a result, a well-meaning student can find him or herself committed to one school when admitted from the waitlist at one (or two or three) others.

From my seat, this is a tough call. On the one hand, if I’m going to make offers to students on our waitlist, I need to know about their commitments as soon as possible so I can decide whether to offer the opportunity to others. On the other hand, it seems terribly unrealistic to encourage students to commit to other institutions by only offering them the waitlist, give them time to accept that decision and even get excited about it, and then give them only hours or days to shift gears when I make my offer.

While we’re on the subject, the growth of waitlists themselves is particularly troubling, with many schools keeping more than a thousand applicants on the hook until well into summer -- more on that soon.

Be seeing you.

*Note: The May 1 deadline, however it was decided, is part of the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s Principals of Good Practice. This bears many similarities to modern treaties, as it is really complicated and, since it’s pretty much unenforceable, relies on the goodwill of the member colleges and universities for compliance.

About Andrew Flagel

I received a slew of questions about the Chronicle of Higher Education’s article on the use of college interviews in the admissions process. The main points of the VERY long article are:

Today, I’m torn between blasting the whole college admissions process and offering advice on college interviews.  Since it’s my column, I’ll do both.

Blasting College Admissions

The whole admissions process is pretty subjective. I’ve found very few offices that have any idea of how to use writing samples, recommendations and extracurricular involvement in a way that correlates to student success.  As the article explains in some excruciating detail, college interviews, as part of the admissions process, tend to be even less useful than other factors. You can trace that to all the research from hiring in the business world that proves how even experienced interviewers aren’t likely to learn much about how a prospective employee will perform.  Fortunately, MOST of the college admissions decisions are made MOSTLY on academic records, so college interviews, essays and the rest count a lot less in the process. 

Advice for the College Admission Interview

Basic Advice: Dress nicely. That means no flip-flops (I don’t care if they’re Manolos -- the admissions officer won’t know that!), and please try not to wear clothing with the logo or name of some OTHER university.  Speak clearly, be nice and play well with others.

Advanced Advice: Get to know the university or college by reading its propaganda (also known as the website and brochures), and be ready to explain all the reasons it’s your FIRST CHOICE with great enthusiasm.  Be specific -- you’ll get extra points for obscure details on faculty and academic programs of interest.  Practice interviewing skills, such as looking interested and laughing at the interviewer’s jokes.

Expert Advice: The schools that really do know how to use college interviews in the admissions process are looking for self-awareness, motivation and leadership.  Hone your public speaking skills as you would if you were auditioning for a guest spot on “Glee.”

Have you had a good (or really lousy) experience at a college interview? Any advice you’d like to share? Tell us in the comments below.

Be seeing you.

About Andrew Flagel

Time for the rest of Trendy Marketing Efforts from Colleges and Universities for 2010-2011 (That Probably Won’t Work).

Videos I

Mason and three other schools led the way by introducing videos into the application process.  Look for other schools to join in, followed by lengthy, silly debates about whether this changes the whole admission process. It doesn’t.

Videos II

Colleges and universities try to make their own versions of “High School Musical” so you’ll notice them.  Yes, Yale managed to create one video that got some media attention, but that was Yale.  Will I-Never-Heard-of University be able to go viral with similarly lame efforts?  “Glee” has nothing to fear.

Blogs

The success of a few college admissions blogs leads many college admissions officers to believe that if only they created their own, suddenly their schools would catapult to the top of the rankings.  You’ll see blogs continue to proliferate -- mostly college admissions officers whining two or three times a year about how many applications they receive and bragging ineffectively about how perfect their schools are.  Warning: These tend to be sickly sweet and should be avoided by anyone with a strong gag reflex.

Sad to say, all of the cool, flashy technology in the world won’t make much a difference in the college admissions process. Schools are not successful because of blogs, including videos in the application process or Twitter.

What Counts in College Admissions

Here is what successful college admissions comes down to:

• The Institution: Students are looking for schools that meet their needs, from location to programs, to faculty, the campus and the student body. When you find a college or university that matches what you want, then you’ll like it.
• The Story: Sharing the above information through e-mail, visiting your schools, postal mailings and websites.  At the core, the most important part of this process is giving prospective students a chance to check out the information about schools to see which are the best fit.

However, this answer is boring.  Most schools still hope they can get around giving you good information by giving you information in some new, creative and cutting-edge way.

So prepare yourselves for brochures, college fairs, phone calls, postcards and text messages along with new blogs, apps, friend requests and videos with virtually no entertainment value whatsoever.  Maybe I’m wrong about what you want to see, in which case I’d love to hear from you. 

In any case, my advice is to ignore all the propaganda and gimmicks and just try to find some great schools -- there are plenty out there, whether they tweet or not.

Be seeing you.

About Andrew Flagel

For those of you nearing the end of your junior year in high school, it may be hard to imagine, but just a year from now you will have more than likely finished the college admissions process and decided what school you’ll attend.

Between now and then, college admissions officers will be reaching out to you -- a lot -- to suggest your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are only possible at <insert school name here>.

I get a lot of calls from other institutions trying to figure out how Mason breaks through all of that noise. These generally take two forms:

1. 1. Tell us what really cool marketing trick/gimmick/fad is working for you, or
2. 2. Please come work for us, as clearly it’s your brilliance and innovation that make the difference.

As you’ll soon see, most college admissions offices haphazardly lurch from trend to trend in the belief there is a technology out there that will move them ahead of the other admissions offices in the race for your attention. In an attempt to prepare you, my next couple of posts will be my list of Trendy Marketing Efforts from Colleges and Universities for 2010-2011 (That Probably Won’t Work).

And the list begins:

Twitter

It seems as if everyone who is anyone has started tweeting, and college admissions officers are jumping on this bandwagon with gusto. Never mind that the data indicates that your parents are more likely to use Twitter than anyone your age, or that if you do use Twitter, you’re more likely following Justin Bieber than any admissions officer. Will you really pick a school, or even look at one, based on a tweet?

Facebook

Of course, Facebook isn’t really new, but in an all-time high for creepiness, college admissions officers will seek to friend you in ever greater numbers. If you maintain good privacy on your site (including policing your friends’ habits of tagging you in unflattering photos) and you want to friend an admissions dean or two, by all means feel free. When they friend you, however, it just seems kinda ewwwww.

Apps

For the parents who periodically read these posts, “apps” means applications. Not applications to college, but applications for technology platforms and products. Watch for some colleges to introduce their own Facebook and iPad/iPhone apps this year in an attempt to be ultra-cool. But will a college app ever compete with FarmVille? Nah.

iPhone Tours

I have had at least three companies bugging me to create a campus tour you can download to your iPhone to use when you visit campus. Really? Really? You fly across the country to visit the campus, and instead of an actual student as a tour guide I should have you follow your phone? Maybe…

Stay tuned -- the second part of my list, with even more obnoxious efforts colleges and universities are investing in to woo you, is still to come.

Be seeing you.

About Andrew Flagel