How do schools verify Extracirrucular's and Shadowing / Research?

[dolimitless]

I mean seriously, how do schools verify if some of the things you put on your application are true? It almost seems people can put things like:

Tutored at elementary school
Volunteer basketball coach at local high school
200 hours of hosital vounteering at ______ hospital
Shadowed Dr. ____ for 30 hours

Most people at least embellish their apps somewhat probably. There should be an accurate way to verify such things on apps.

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[Appless]

They could call your contact but in reality when schools like gtown get 10k+ applications they cant check them all even if they wanted to. Normally if someone is lieing im sure during an interview it would come out as they will grill you on stuff. And if youre one of those expert con-men who can lie with the best of them well, kudos to you i guess if you make it. You woudltn be the 1st person to get by this. I know someone who basically made up all his volunteer hours but he still got in.

 

[UVAbme2009]

They don't. But why risk it?

People here lie on their volunteering hours all the time. Program directors can't verify anything

 

[phospho]

They usually won't verify it, but if they do, you're screwed... especially if you're already matriculated. It's worth noting that one of the schools I applied to did call my volunteer corrdinator to verify my hours. But they did that only after they accepted me.

It sucks getting rejected. But it sucks even more to get accepted and then having that acceptance taken away because of something so stupid like your EC's. Definitely not worth it.

 

[MDman87]

It's worth noting that one of the schools I applied to did call my volunteer corrdinator to verify my hours

Really? Well, I better make some corrections to my hours. . .









JK

 

[BlueElmo]

Really? Well, I better make some corrections to my hours. . .









JK

.

 

[BlueElmo]

They usually won't verify it, but if they do, you're screwed... especially if you're already matriculated. It's worth noting that one of the schools I applied to did call my volunteer corrdinator to verify my hours. But they did that only after they accepted me.

Really? Oh well. If they do call my coordinator up, I will just simply tell the school the hospital misinformed me. The receptionists at the hospital are always so absent-minded anyways.

 

[njbmd]

I mean seriously, how do schools verify if some of the things you put on your application are true? It almost seems people can put things like:

Tutored at elementary school
Volunteer basketball coach at local high school
200 hours of hosital vounteering at ______ hospital
Shadowed Dr. ____ for 30 hours

Most people at least embellish their apps somewhat probably. There should be an accurate way to verify such things on apps.

The first two things wouldn't be of much use and the staff calls to verify the last two. Even with thousands of applications, we still call to verify the ECs on the applications of students that we expect to interview.

 

[Lukkie]

uhh what school so i know not to apply there

 

[phospho]

Really? Oh well. If they do call my coordinator up, I will just simply tell the school the hospital misinformed me. The receptionists at the hospital are always so absent-minded anyways.

I'm sure each school does it differently, but my coordinator told me they asked him for a "rough number of hours". So I don't think you should worry too much about it if you're not outright making things up.

 

[phospho]

uhh what school so i know not to apply there

the only west coast school I applied to

 

[Excelsius]

They don't. But why risk it?

People here lie on their volunteering hours all the time. Program directors can't verify anything

Well, I think they actually do. The interview is such an opportunity. They can ask you some questions and figure out your level of involvement. Now it may not be a quantitative evaluation, but it doesn't matter. The important thing is quality. This is why you can write down 300 hours and genuinely fail to discuss the topic whereas someone with 30 hours might know everything that went on. So quantity is not as important as quality. You can fake quantity, but you can't fake quality. Of course, any system can be beat depending on how good you are at beating it, but if you were a professional hacker, you wouldn't be on the premed path. Therefore, don't overestimate yourself. A lot of people have a shot at MD. You risk to throw that chance away if you try something unintelligent that wouldn't guarantee you admission in the first place.

 

[DocDrakeRamoray]

Well, I think they actually do. The interview is such an opportunity. They can ask you some questions and figure out your level of involvement. Now it may not be a quantitative evaluation, but it doesn't matter. The important thing is quality. This is why you can write down 300 hours and genuinely fail to discuss the topic whereas someone with 30 hours might know everything that went on. So quantity is not as important as quality. You can fake quantity, but you can't fake quality. Of course, any system can be beat depending on how good you are at beating it, but if you were a professional hacker, you wouldn't be on the premed path. Therefore, don't overestimate yourself. A lot of people have a shot at MD. You risk to throw that chance away if you try something unintelligent that wouldn't guarantee you admission in the first place.

Also, I don't think schools would check on applicants, but I would not be surprised if they check on those accepted students or those waitlisted.