# Can I lie about my work experience on a graduate school application?



## Imbored21 (Jun 18, 2012)

Hi. Since you have to send them your resume can I just make stuff up?? Will they actually check???


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## Bonfiya (Jan 19, 2015)

Most places will check.


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## thetown (Aug 16, 2014)

don't do it. if they find out then that's like an automatic rejection.


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## meandernorth (Nov 12, 2014)

Many places check. Even if you slip through, they could find out later and revoke your student status. It's a small world. The internet makes it smaller. Sooner or later the truth is often discovered.


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## zookeeper (Jun 3, 2009)

Can you? Yes.

Should you be surprised when they toss you out? No.


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## cybernaut (Jul 30, 2010)

Don't do it. I got accepted into 5 graduate schools (along with rejections from 2) without any work experience in my field. To make up for that, I made a section on my resume that was dedicated to my research projects that I had done while in undergrad (research related my graduate school field, of course). This involved listing the title of the project with a brief one or two line description of the project. I probably had about 6 or 7 of them. Research experience in your field matters a lot too.

In my field, half of the applicants who I competed against had some military, abroad, or government experience. They were also older (26+). The take home message is that work experience isn't the only thing that matters for getting into a graduate school (especially for a masters). But, it can help if things such as your undergrad GPA is low.


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## Just Lurking (Feb 8, 2007)

Lie? No.
Embellish? Carefully.


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## FunkyFedoras (Aug 30, 2013)

OneLove21 said:


> Don't do it. I got accepted into 5 graduate schools (along with rejections from 2) without any work experience in my field. To make up for that, I made a section on my resume that was dedicated to my research projects that I had done while in undergrad (research related my graduate school field, of course). This involved listing the title of the project with a brief one or two line description of the project. I probably had about 6 or 7 of them. Research experience in your field matters a lot too.
> 
> In my field, half of the applicants who I competed against had some military, abroad, or government experience. They were also older (26+). The take home message is that work experience isn't the only thing that matters for getting into a graduate school (especially for a masters). But, it can help if things such as your undergrad GPA is low.


But isn't 6-7 research projects basically like work experience though? o.o


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