This Application Seems Fishy. What Should a School Counselor Do?

Students are supposed to put their best foot forward when applying to college. But sometimes they step over — way over — the line of truth.

When an applicant embellishes his record, though, a high-school counselor might not even know. For all the hats they wear, counselors can’t possibly be admissions detectives, investigating each word of every application, can they?

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The question prompted a lively discussion on Saturday at the American School Counselor Association’s annual conference. During a session inspired by the recent Operation Varsity Blues scandal, counselors described their ethical obligation to ensure the accuracy of information that students transmit to colleges.

Though many said they take those obligations seriously, some agreed they can do only so much to weed out a lie a student puts in her application. Like that she really, really loves rowing, or led a community volunteer project. “One of my students can make up stuff, put it in the Common Application essay, and send it on to colleges,” one counselor said. “I would never even see it.”

Still, when counselors do see something that strikes them as fishy, they are probably going to act. At many high schools, students compile lists of their achievements known as “brag sheets.” Counselors often refer to those lists, along with an applicant’s school record, when writing letters of recommendation. It’s one example of how the application process is built, in part, on trust.

During the session, the audience was asked to text an answer to this question: “A college application contains suspicious information. So what do you do?”

Take steps to verify it, more than two-thirds of respondents said. Confront the student, many others responded. A handful said they would let it slide.

One catch is that most counselors have huge caseloads and little time to spare. How far could they go to confirm the truth of a particular detail?

Carolyn B. Stone, a former school counselor who helped lead the session, praised members of the audience who said they would try to ensure the truthfulness of a student’s claim that rang false. “But,” she said, “do we as school counselors have to back up at some point and let the student exercise integrity and honesty? How many of you can chase down all these little rabbits and make sure that Olivia Jade was really a sculler?”

Sure, the courses and grades on an applicant’s transcripts are verifiable facts. But personal essays and lists of extracurricular pursuits? Those tend to require the adults in the admissions process to take students at their word.

“We have to rely on the student’s self-report,” said Stone, a professor of school counseling at the University of North Florida. “Do we as a profession want to stop doing that?”

“No!” several people in the audience replied.

Still, schools can take steps to dissuade students from lying. Some counselors said they had added strong language to handouts about applying to college. Tell the truth, those warnings say, or it could come back to haunt you. One can now point to Georgetown University, which recently expelled two students for knowingly fudging their credentials, including a young man who had falsely claimed to be a tennis player.

“It’s important for parents and students to know upfront what this could look like,” said Crystal E. Newby, senior associate director of education and training at the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “That means helping them understand that any information on an application has consequences. A student’s application may be rescinded, or they may be expelled if found out later.”

One counselor said she required students to list a contact person for each activity on their brag sheet. “If they just put it on the brag sheet, and I don’t already know about it,” she said, “I can’t really say anything about it in the letter of recommendation anyway, unless I get a little bit more information.”

That could sway applicants who are tempted to lie, Stone said: “It might put another layer of ‘Ooh, do I really want to put this down? Would that person really back me up?’”

One counselor, with the relatively small caseload of 120 seniors, said she interviews each student one-on-one, writing down the answers to her questions about their nonacademic pursuits. But such interactions are a luxury not found in most schools.

One former counselor said that when writing letters, he always emphasized what he knew firsthand or could see for himself was true. If a student wanted to include other information that he knew nothing about, he would add a disclaimer: “The student also reports that …”

A counselor can preach the importance of honesty. An applicant must choose whether or not to listen.

Eric Hoover writes about the challenges of getting to, and through, college. Follow him on Twitter @erichoov, or email him, at eric.hoover@chronicle.com.