I don't doubt that exaggerating public service activity on college applications happens, A LOT. I'm less inclined to believe that high school students, even those with pushy, wealthy, supportive parents, are forming vanity NGOs for their children. It requires a lot of time for legit non-profit organizations to get 501(c)(3) status, like, years.<p>Also, it would help a lot to have even one source as evidence that this happens. A media report would be sufficient; no need to link to providers!<p>The chart of Harvard bachelor's degree grad career choices was good. So many go into finance... sigh. But just because only 3% work for non-profits, NGOs, or other service organizations full-time after graduation doesn't mean that they don't continue to participate after work or on weekends.<p>You're probably right in a more general sense: Someone who misrepresents themselves on a college application and gets away with it will probably be more likely to do some of those other things after graduation, e.g. falsify ESG reporting.<p>College admissions isn't an insoluble problem that requires disruption. Social justice projects are a lot to ask. I know it is a thing now, which doesn't seem reasonable (even if I'm skeptical of ghost NGOs).
Make sure you get the name vanilla enough when setting these up.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRS_targeting_controversy" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRS_targeting_controversy</a>