Ghost Nonprofits and the Manufacturing of Virtue

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRS_targeting_controversy