As college admissions officers gear up for the first application season since learning of a broad cheating scandal, many are looking at how much effort they should put into catching liars—and concluding they aren’t making big changes.

Admissions officers say they look for red flags such as an applicant who submits superb test scores but subpar grades, or an applicant from a wealthy ZIP Code who claims to have grown up with financial challenges. But with a mandate to review applications quickly—some elite schools spend just a few minutes on an application due to the high volume of material—they say they may not notice if four people all say they were MVP of a regional team, or overstate their placement in a debate tournament. Schools also tend not to confirm the race or ethnicity someone claims on paper.

“Our process is as good as the information that we do receive,” says Stefanie Niles, vice president for enrollment and communications at Ohio Wesleyan University and president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “There’s been a lot of trust.”

In the wake of the nationwide admissions-cheating scandal, which so far has resulted in charges against 51 individuals and 23 guilty pleas, many selective schools have rolled out additional checks on claims of athletic ability. For example, they are requiring an administrator to review a coach’s list of prospects before sending the names to the admissions office.

Inquiries made to 40 colleges and universities, the top tier of The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education ranking, found that while many say they train admissions officers to spot inconsistencies, almost none have a formal audit process in which they select a random sample of applications to independently verify.


Dartmouth College relies on official high school transcripts and test-score reports rather than self-reported information. “The rest of a student’s file is reviewed on an honor-code assumption that a student’s work is a student’s work,” spokeswoman Diana Lawrence said. “It is not our policy to suspect every student of falsifying records.”

The Common Application Requires Students to Sign This Statement “I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including this application and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented, and that these documents will become the property of the institution to which I am applying and will not be returned to me. I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree should the information I have certified be false.”

Admissions officers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland occasionally contact high schools to verify that recommendations submitted via nonschool email addresses are legitimate. About once a year, they find the teacher didn’t actually write the letter, says Rick Bischoff, vice president for enrollment management.

“The reality is, there are a whole lot of areas to be worried about,” Mr. Bischoff says. He ticks them off: Students not writing their own essays, fudging titles and awards, and making up extracurricular activities.

William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind behind the admissions cheating scheme, exploited the lack of audits for years, advising clients to lie about extracurricular involvement, traumatic personal histories or even falsely self-identify as an underrepresented minority.


The University of California system has used a vendor since 2003 to verify awards, community service and club participation on some applications selected at random. This summer, it unveiled plans to install another series of checks on its admissions process, including confirming claims of special talent by recruited athletes.

The vendor, which the university system declined to name, generally refers about 1,000 applications to campus staff for further review. Going forward, a UC spokeswoman said, the system aims to double that number. That will bring the audit rate to approximately 1% based on the roughly 220,000 applications it received last year.

High schools could also play a role in policing. Students at Notre Dame High School in Belmont, Calif., must provide lists of their extracurricular activities to counselors, who then write recommendation letters to submit as part of college applications. The school has since 2017 verified the volunteer and internship activities required of students for graduation.

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After reviewing its processes in the aftermath of the admissions scandal, the school will require a more thorough verification of non-Notre Dame work and volunteering, a spokesman said. When a student lists club athletic teams, the school will also now ask coaches for a signed letter stating the sport, length of time, skill level and tournaments or games the student participated in, he said.


Federal prosecutors say one former Notre Dame student who was a client of Mr. Singer’s applied to Georgetown University in 2015 as a recruited tennis player, despite not playing the sport competitively. Her parents have both pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.

Brown University created a committee to review its policies and processes, and expects to issue its findings or a report in the fall.

Spokeswoman Cass Cliatt said verification processes are already in place, such as relying on official high school transcripts and test-score reports from the College Board. She said the hope is that families are at least honest with those outlets. “You have to trust people at some point.”

Related Video High-end college consultant Allen Koh was shocked to learn his colleague and competitor Rick Singer pleaded guilty to crimes including conspiracy and racketeering. WSJ sat down with Koh for insight into the multimillion-dollar college-consulting industry and what is driving parents to such desperate measures.

Write to Melissa Korn at melissa.korn@wsj.com