<p>So my D made a bonehead decision two weeks ago. While on an overnight school trip she got together with 10 or so of her friends and they went through half a bottle of vodka. That was enough to get busted and suspended from school for 5 days for violating the school's alcohol policy. With decisions 2 weeks away and the Common App asking for disciplinary events on the final transcript, we are freaking out, and the school has been of little use (one counselor for 600+ kids, who has pretty much told us we are on our own). Some obvious questions are:</p>
<p>1) How do very selective schools view events such as this, and what are the chances of it having a drastic effect on the upcoming decisions? This is the first offense for our D, and she has been a good student: NHS, NM commended, top 10% of class, etc. </p>
<p>2) Should we notify the schools now or wait for 3-4 weeks. The advantage of waiting is that D will be able to say in her letter of explanation "this is what I did, this is what I have learned from it, and this is what I am doing to ensure it does not happen again". If she contacts colleges now, all she will be able to say is "this is what I did, I made a bad decision, etc". The obvious disadvantage of postponing is that some colleges may decide that she was hiding the event until the last possible minute, and take more drastic action.</p>
<p>Any insights or advice based on specific examples would be greatly appreciated. Speculation does little to help us, we can play the guessing game just was well as the next family :-(</p>
<p>1) For schoos like this, it might be enough to get an admissions rescinded. I've heard of people getting their admissions rescinded after getting caught drinking (a few HYP examples as well).</p>
<p>It will probably be enough to get her admission rescinded. My suggestion would be to speak to her guidance counselor at hs. The school may have a policy that they need to report this to all colleges that your dtr applied to. The GC may have a suggestion. This really was a bonehead move on your dtrs part. I hope she learned from this and doesn't continue this in college.</p>
<p>I would very carefully parse the agreement that was signed on the college application. If by signing the applicant agreed to immediately inform schools of a suspension, then waiting could be seen as dishonest and interpreted as an additional infraction.</p>
As I said in the original post, moral judgments are best done in the context of a family environment, and opinions unsubstantiated by specific examples of similar instances contribute nothing to the discussion. Some members have contacted me via PM with specific examples, for which I am very thankful. Statements like the one above are not very helpful.</p>
<p>Ugh... you're completely right; that was about as useful as a waterproof sponge. While I have a thousand excuses on hand there is really no defense for my unsolicited aggression, so all I can do is humbly apologise and hope that the PMs you mentioned were of more assistance than my tour de force in immaturity.</p>
<p>I can't think of anything to say to help you, but I wish you and your D the best of luck. It's unfortunate how one poor judgment can change someone's life, and I really hope you guys can get past this. Best wishes.</p>
<p>I don't have any personal experience or knowledge of admissions policies to back this up, but it seems to me that a college (given that it isn't like, Brigham-Young or Grove City or Geneva or some such place) would be more forgiving towards an alcohol-related offense than, say, plagiarism/dishonesty or violence. Considering the amount of drinking that takes place on the vast majority of college campuses, I don't think it would be reasonable for a university to rescind an acceptance because someone got caught doing something that, while illegal, is relatively commonplace. </p>
<p>I don't really know the answer to your second question regarding when to notify the colleges.</p>
<p>I think as long as your daughter lets the school know that she's sorry for what she did and it won't happen again, then you'll be okay. I know a kid who got arrested for drinking underage at a party, and then the next year,when he was a freshmen in college, he was caught with a DUI. Also, in that case, then I think waiting would be the best option.</p>