<p>Hello, I recently got suspended for 1 day from my school because my tutor proof read a Spanish paper of mine. I know this sounds ridiculous, but my school suspended me because my tutor circled my incorrect verbs for me to correct. She didn't tell me what to write. She didn't write it for me. She just circled the incorrect verbs.</p>
<p>So now, even after all of my efforts to be a good student, after all of my ECs, and everything else, this is going to be on my transcript.</p>
<p>My question is this, how much will this affect my chances of getting into the colleges I want?</p>
<p>Will they just look at the fact that I got suspended and just throw away my application?</p>
<p>My main school I want to go to is Lehigh.</p>
<p>I have over 5 different job experiences, over 19 honors programs outside of school, in 4 out of 5 honors courses, have a GPA of 3.9, my ACTs are around 30-31, I have over 150 hours of community service, not on financial aid, I have an alumni who graduated #1 in his class, and so on. I also have 5 recommendations from teachers of different schools (since I am in many honors programs outside of school). I am also on 2 varsity sports, and have been on them for the past 3 years. And I even became the world champion at Dance Dance Revolution.</p>
<p>Please tell me if this will destroy my chances of getting into the college that I love.</p>
<p>When you explain it, you need to show that you appreciate the need for your school to come down hard on what you did. The admissions people went to high school too, and I doubt any of them can swear they went through four years of high school wihout having a parent or tutor make improvements to some school assignment. Mailing in the assignment so the admissions office can see exactly what you did is a good idea, but have it come through that you understand that every assignment you turn in with your name on it should be your work only.</p>
<p>Is there a few lines where you could explain the reason for suspension? If so, then just write a short blurb. Don't make a big deal of it - less is more. If your were caught cheating, then I would spend more time with the explaination. No need to go to the extend of mailing your assignment to the adcom, it's an over kill. To be sure, speak with your college counselor. Since you are at a private school, he/she should be very helpful. Your school may not even included in the transcript. I've heard worse things from my daughter's friends, and everyone go into colleges.</p>
<p>"The admissions people went to high school too, and I doubt any of them can swear they went through four years of high school wihout having a parent or tutor make improvements to some school assignment."</p>
<p>Lots of people don't have tutors or parents review their assignments. I never had my parents or a tutor review my assignments.</p>
<p>I agree with the OP's school. If the tutor had read the paper and then given the OP instructions in grammar that the OP clearly was having problems with, that would have been fine as long as the tutor didn't point out errors in the OP's homework. I do think, however, that showing the OP errors on the OP's paper was providing help that was beyond what many schools would feel is ethical.</p>
<p>I think, however, that most colleges would not reject you due to a suspension for the reason that you described. If, however, your dream school is a place like HPYS, then your suspension probably will reduce your chances of admission.</p>
<p>There is a place on the common app where you are asked about any disciplinary issue you have faced. This same question is on the school report from you counselor. Answer honestly and give a brief explanation of what happened and what you learned from the experience.</p>
<p>In my opinion, this will not have any effect on your chances of admissions to anywhere. I know kids with much more serious disciplinary problems that have gotten into colleges including HPYS</p>
<p>My son was suspended twice in two months - really because his teacher didn't like him so I understand schools can be very unfair - I was told that the suspensions "would not appear on his permanent record". You might want to see exactly what the colleges are going to see on your transcript.</p>
<p>While the suspension may not be noted on the transcript, the common application school report directly asks the school about suspensions/expulsions, so they may note the suspension on that form</p>
<p>The best thing you can do is honestly report the suspension. It will be worse for you if you don't and then the colleges find out</p>
<p>(Hope this doesn't appear twice; I had trouble posting.)
Wish I knew the answer to your question about admissions, but I don't. I do know that a friend's child was suspended from a private school for a much more serious offense, and she got into a top liberal arts college. I think the guidance counselor wrote a brief explanation, which suited that situation; I'm not sure if the student did. In your case, I think it would be good for you to write something brief yourself. For example, if you had forgotten the rule or didn't understand its application in your tutoring scenario, just say so.</p>
<p>I want to add a longer-term perspective on the tutor's circling of wrong words. Although this kind of help isn't accepted at your school, which is the most important thing for you right now, it really is perfectly acceptable in many other schools and workplaces. In fact, at my kids' school students are required to get peer editing, parent proofreading, or both on many assignments. I think the teachers want the students to learn that one of the best ways to make drafts better is to ask for feedback. </p>
<p>In many graduate school programs, students join dissertation writing groups so they can pass their drafts back and forth and get comments and advice. This is encouraged by faculty. When I wrote articles for publication, I would never have sent off a submission without getting it read and commented on by several colleagues. The feedback usually dealt with spelling, grammar, clarity (or not) of phrasing, clarity of argument, organization, references, and anything else the reader thought needed fixing. As a reviewer of other people's work I provided the same. So you've broken a school rule, but this practice of calling attention to errors would not be problematic in a lot of other places, so I hope you won't feel too bad about it.</p>