<p>I graduated a year early from high school and spent my "extra year" at "school A". I then decided to leave and applied and have been accepted to "school B" as a freshman for Fall '09. I didn't notify B of the fact that I went to A not because I screwed up academically, but because I didn't really know about the "college selection" process and A happened to be the nearest half-decent school. However, the main reason for this is because B offers little to no financial aid to transfer students, which I would be classified as if I listed A on my admissions application.</p>
<p>B has this "academic honesty" policy that states that a student may be subject to expulsion if he/she doesn't list all institutions he/she has attended, and I have been told by somebody who knows that B has expelled students that have been found to have very poor grades in prior institutions that they didn't tell B about. I don't know if this means that B has a mechanism for acquiring records from (what could potentially amount to) all universities in the nation, but it could mean that B would find out about my history at A. I know that FERPA won't be able to help me with this.</p>
<p>So my questions are:
1) Is there a mechanism for colleges to (independently) acquire records of admitted students from other universities?
2) Do you know of any students that have omitted schools that they attended from their application? What happened to them?
3) If the proverbial faeces should hit the gyrating blades, what are the odds that B will still let me attend, considering my circumstances and better-than-decent grades (hopefully at both schools but definitely at A)? Do you think B will let me keep my aid (yes I know I'm an optimist)?
4) What are the risks/benefits to coming clean with B before I attend versus ignoring the matter? If I get reclassified as a transfer student, does that guarantee that I'll lose my aid if I don't make some serious connections with the faculty of B?
5) Will the fact that B actively recruits HS students with my designation (that I only received after most of my second semester at A was over) change any of the above responses?</p>
<p><strong><em>Ignore the above, it’s a CC error</em></strong></p>
<p>Furthermore, in a cunning display of irony from B, my admission status has been changed from freshman to transfer twice. Both times I called the admissions office and both times they changed it back to freshman. They said “you have credits from C and D”, to which I replied “they are all concurrent credits that I received while in HS”–which was the absolute truth. It’s clear that if there was a mechanism for B to (independently) acquire records of admitted students from other universities that then would have been the best time to utilize it.</p>
<p>This makes me all the more curious about question 1: if there is such a mechanism, do schools wait until they’ve sucked your tuition dollars to inform you that they’ve discovered your prior school?</p>
<p>Come clean. It is a policy at every school that you can be rescinded or even have your degree taken away after the fact if you did not tell of all prior college work. It’s not worth having to worry about forever.</p>
<p>The easiest way for them to find out is if got financial aid from the past school. That always shows up. And there is a college clearinghouse that keeps records of all schools attended.</p>
The converse also applies–what if I don’t attend B because of this and wonder for the rest of my life what would have happened had I attended.</p>
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Could you go into detail on this?</p>
<p>EDIT: I didn’t receive federal aid when I attended A, so assuming that’s what you meant, I don’t think I’ll have to worry there. I did however receive state and institutional aid, how accessible are those records?</p>
<p>Every single accredited college and university in the US requires that you submit official transcripts from every single accredited college and university that you have ever attended. If you are admitted and enroll, and it comes to light that your academic records are incomplete, the college or university that you are attending can lose its accreditation. Yes, they do take this seriously.</p>
You have seriously screwed yourself. And your biggest worry right now shouldn’t be what college B will do, it should be Federal fraud charges. </p>
<p>It’s clear from your post that you’re receiving financial aid. The gov’t has rules on aid, both the aid they provide directly and the loans supplied by others that they guarantee; who is eligible, what their lifetime limit is, etc. So I can guarantee that this summer the financial aid office is going to check. There is a company [National</a> Student Clearinghouse](<a href=“http://www.nslc.org/]National”>http://www.nslc.org/) set up to provide exactly this information; they claim to have data on 91% of the US college student body. In fact, processing financial aid is what they call their core service!! And not only will your college check that you’re legally eligible, so will any lenders.
Yeah, you deliberately choose to break the rules but you shouldn’t be held responsible. Be sure to remind yourself of this train of reasoning if you ever find yourself robbed, your car stolen, etc; no doubt the perp was dissatisfied with their circumstances as well and is equally blameless.</p>
Do you have any sources for this? You posted basically the same thing in the above linked thread and didn’t respond to the fact that this is a student-controlled variable.</p>
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<p>I receive neither federal nor private aid. It is all either institutional or state-based (only the former at B).</p>
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Thank you for this; it’s clear that they have past attendance verification and that both A and B participate, but it seems that B would have to search A’s database directly and a sweep of all schools in the nation would be impossible (or perhaps something that they don’t advertise).</p>
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There are only crimes of protest and crimes of passion. Most thefts are the former.</p>
<p>Your attitude towards posters trying to help and willingness to lie to schools says it all. Victim? Anything but. Good luck. And by the way, state aid is government aid, when they do the search you’ll get caught. That school B doesn’t offer aid to transfers will make it all the worse.</p>
<p>Actually, most thefts are crimes of opportunity, therefore, passion, as are most murders. Plus, what are you trying to say with that argument? That what you did was a crime of passion? I’d say it’s more of a crime of protest seeing how you’re protesting the college financial aid system rather than a heat-of-moment-clicked-the-wrong-button.</p>
<p>Seriously, you’re treading in extremely dangerous waters. You will not be wondering for the rest of your life what would happen if you go to a certain college, no matter what the college is. No college make you a shoo in for success. However, wondering whether or not your degree will be taken away is a very real possibility. If you go to a different college, at least you’ll have a degree, and that degree is yours to keep. Plus, state based aids are still government aids and fall under government rules. If you received government aid from A, which sounds like you did since you stated that it was state based, it will be found out. </p>
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It doesn’t matter if it’s a student controlled variable. It’s like if a club let a minor in or a bartender serves a minor a drink their license would be taken away. Doesn’t matter the minor showed them a fake ID or told them that they’re of legal age. The institution is held responsible for everyone that they serve, and they are held responsible to check all records or every student that they admit. Another example, when you walk into a movie theatre and watch a R rated movie, it’s the movie theatre’s responsibility to check your ID. Even if you told them you were 18 and you got let in, they are the ones who will be in trouble if it was found out that you weren’t. Doesn’t matter if it’s a “movie-goer controlled variable”.</p>
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<p>I doubt that they system works like that. If so, then it is almost pointless as the university would have to search every single college for every student for it to work. Such system would not exist if it serves no practical purpose. I would imagine it’s more of a huge database. Think of it more as the system that services like “turnitin” use. You put in a paper in turnitin, it’ll highlight every phrase that is identical to any phrase in its database. You put a name in National Student Clearinghouse, it’ll give you a list of schools that this student has attended. Such services exist to ensure that the very thing that you’re doing doesn’t. I would not bet my future on the possibility that the university won’t find out.
Also, when the university finds out, it won’t only be a matter of rescinding your acceptance. It will go on your record, especially since you’re receiving aid. This will ruin your chance of ever going to any other decent universities. Seriously, it’s not worth it. Come clean now.</p>
A close look at the socioeconomic correlations to these crimes would say otherwise.
It was absolutely a crime of protest, though I’m sure that makes little difference to your ethical system.
Okay, sir.
You’d be surprised.
You’re great at analogies, but if you read my post the way it was written you’ll see that I wanted “sources for this”.</p>
<p>Well thanks for the help, guys. I’ll see if I can talk my way through this with the recruiters, but it seems that I’ll have to at least mention A.</p>
To which the reply was “It was absolutely a crime of protest”. </p>
<p>Excuse me while I pick myself up from falling down laughing!! Crime of my protest my a**. It was a decision solely for your personal benefit A crime of protest is getting arrested for not sitting in the colored section of the bus or lunch counter, for trying to register to vote. Filing forms to get financial aid to which you are not entitled were the true facts disclosed is simple fraud, not protest. I’m kinda sorry you’re not going thru with hiding it; that felony conviction would have been well deserved.</p>
<p>But your ability to rationalize your actions is incredible. I’m sure you have a solid future in front of you on Wall Street, government, or law in which the ability to claim with a straight face what you’re doing is right & moral (and to believe that claim) while you defraud the public to enrich yourself, sell favors, and subvert the law is valuable. It’s too late to get an internship with the governor of Illinois, but opportunities like that will always be around.</p>
<p>If you filed a FAFSA to apply for financial aid for your other school, then when you file for aid at your new school, the new school will see your past aid history. It doesn’t matter if the aid you actually got was federal, state, or institutional - they’ll see your history.</p>
<p>In addition, many schools use the National Student Clearinghouse to verify past academic enrollment. I don’t know if your new school will do this. </p>
<p>But it’s usually the FAFSA that’ll get you.</p>
<p>Is education any less of a right than voting? Was Stowe not “filing forms to get [voting rights] to which [she was] not entitled”, thus committing fraud? If I’m not entitled to an education then come out and say it, but if I am then what I did was no worse than registering to vote. The only difference is the passage of time, but that does not affect the reality of human rights.</p>
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So you think felony charges, which would prohibit me from most any job (which you ironically support me attaining), student aid, and many other gov’t services are deserved for a crime which has not harmed anyone and likely never will? I’d laugh like you did if this mentality wasn’t so dangerous.</p>
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<p>Nobody on this forum is any better; “let the sinless cast the first stone”, etc. Go read the Kohlberg link, you’re clearly stuck in the conventional stage. Ethically, the right to an education is no different from the right to vote. You just fail to accept the former because it has yet to be institutionalized.</p>
<p>“Ethically, the right to an education is no different from the right to vote.”</p>
<p>Which education?
For which trade or profession?
At which institution?
Until which skill level?</p>
<p>Lots of options there. In the US, you are guaranteed a free and appropriate education through grade 12. Everything after that is up to you. A tertiary education is not guaranteed to anyone in the US.</p>
You law fetishists amuse me. Womens’ suffrage wasn’t guaranteed to any woman in the US for quite a long time as well, but I doubt you would have given the same argument were we living in the early 20th century.</p>