Should I take advanced writing in college

I once knew a guy that was a pathological liar. We were pretty good friends for awhile and hung out fairly often.

The thing is, his lying was a sort of response mechanism connected to some kind of feelings of social discomfort or inadequacy. He'd be the kind of guy that would do something "nobody expected" him, this one guy, to do in some situations. You all know the type. He's the one people would say they'd never believe he did "that" but, yes, he actually did it.

He didn't lie around me and people he knew weren't going to make him feel uncomfortable for whatever reason. Really bright, smart, guy, but wasn't much of an achiever in college, IIRC.

But, the lies... I'm not talking your average every-day fib. I mean big giant whopper wtf lies. Not "delusional" ones, but just blatant outright holy-crap-wtf lies.

He ended up getting divorced because of them. Not because of any infidelity or abusive sort of lies, but plain old-fashioned whoppers...

"I was once the King of England, but it didn't work out so I gave it up."

^--- This is the kind lie he'd just whip out from out of the blue. Though not exactly this, just statements that blatantly untrue. This is the sort of stuff he'd tell some people. And, he'd mostly tell these sorts of things to attractive women, like his wife... Who was depending on those lies to be true once they were married and she was pregant. They weren't true.

He was fired from several positions because he wrote down what he thought they wanted him to put on his job application...

"I flew an Army Tank for the Peace Corps."

o.0

Again, not exact. But claiming being in the military as part of an elite military team, with subsequent rank, on a job application is... highly illegal, not only just "dishonest." He was never prosecuted.

The last time I spoke with him, he was "working for the government giving lectures at the Pentagon." Yeah, sure, right... OK, good luck with that.

Academic dishonesty and ethics are a huge thing in the health sciences right now. They were when i was still in school before virapocalypse and Donny and all the rest.

If you worked at a federally funded research facility, you got to sit at your desk and complete (with e-documentation) several hours worth of interactive video exam modules dealing with scientific integrity, falsifying data, conflict of interest, laboratory stewardship/loss prevention, and a host of EOE/diversity training. EVERY YEAR. If you didn't, you would be automatically locked out of your workstation and your stipend paycheque withheld.

This way, if you did something shady or just plain boneheaded and got caught out, the institution, ergo the government, could wash their hands of you entirely. That said most institutes don't want to take an L to the tune of several thousands or even millions worth of scheduled spectrometer time, antibodies and reagents, clinical participant adverse event reporting, etc. They don't want liars, incompetents, and phonies to begin with.

Professional programs take a special interest in weeding out potential candidates who don't pass the sniff test. They have all sorts of new psychometric and analytics tools to find even the subtle cheaters and embellishers.

This does not mean a well-meaning young lad can't be led astray somewhere down the line by enticements from pharma, politicians, or publication-thirsty department heads. But it does mean that if you start out the application and interview process with an established personality and character quirk, they're much more likely to pick up on it than they would have say, 25 years ago.

Creative writing and entitled acrobatics of the truth belong in fiction and on stage, not in the allied health professions.