User blog comment:Varzan Deodinm Beldinm/Volume 2: Will the Fan Feedback Pay Off?/@comment-17099359-20140702091025/@comment-3146930-20140703022425

But think about that for a second. He was accepted to Beacon despite having no Aura skills, no real combat ability, based on his weapon no Dust skills, probably no way to prove his tactical ability, and if he did have a hidden ability hidden to him as well, he wouldn't have included it on his transcript because he wouldn't have known about it.

If he hadn't faked his papers, they people checking them would have laughed and thought it was a joke. We learn all this before the reveal and the two things you mentioned only appear after Beacon had accepted him already. Just to get that chance to prove himself meant he would have needed to have some unfair advantage to get Beacon to notice him in the first place (in this case, fake paper).