<p>So I have 2 misdemeanors on my record, one for battery and another for a fake ID. I'm currently on probation too. In the USC and other private school apps it asks if you've ever been arrested or convicted. I feel like if i tell them I'll automatically rejected but at the same time if I come clean and explain what happened and how I've learned they might like that. I don't know what I should do. Really need help.</p>
<p>You have to tell them, that much is not optional. However you may have screwed yourself. I’m not sure how you’re going to pull off an essay on how you learned from battery and fraud, but that’s your job.</p>
<p>how would they find out though?</p>
<p>My understanding is that will be check at some point either with the application itself or with something in FA, even if you’re not applying for it. Lying is not worth the risk and I hate to tell you but even if you make it into the college you want by lying, it won’t work at any job because they do background checks.</p>
<p>If they do catch you, you will likely be kicked out (which means even fewer colleges will accept you and you have a huge blackspot on your application for jobs) or your degree will be rescinded. That and I believe they could take your FA away.</p>
<p>Point being, 'fess up or else.</p>
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<p>Like that? Think about it. </p>
<p>Yes, some kids are able to explain some issues successfully. 2 misdemeanors? Don’t probation offices make the fact that you’re on probation known to your school? I suspect that’s how they’d find out. When you sign the application you are signing that you’ve told the truth. Lie and you’ll face getting dismissed when they find out.</p>
<p>Your applying to USC?</p>
<p>I doubt your a good student who “accidentally” beat someone up</p>
<p>K I don’t know who you are but I took the SAT once and got a 2140 and have 3.7, just because I’m not a nerd doesn’t mean I’m stupid, and nobody said it was an accident. On another note, a friend of mine who was convicted of a felony just got accepted for Spring 2010, and he didn’t put it on his app.</p>
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<p>Maybe you and your friend can share a hotel room when fraud charges come around. ^_^</p>
<p>bdodge67 -</p>
<p>If no one in the probation office and no one in your HS guidance office can help you with this one, make an appointment with an admissions officer at one of the colleges/universities that you are applying to and discuss the best way to handle this information. Obviously, you have to indicate your record on the forms. However if you are truly in the process of reforming yourself, there will be ways to present your current improved self as a truly viable candidate for admission.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>your record gets wiped when you turn 18. for example i turn 18 next week. if i had gotten a misdemeanor over the summer, it would be gone by the time i apply. george bush got a DUI in Maine at age 30 and I doubt he put it on his resume, lol.</p>
<p>Putting aside for a moment the morally reprehensible idea of lying about substantial matters on your college applications…</p>
<p>Take this for what it’s worth from a criminal defense attorney:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Don’t lie about your background especially when the lie is easily ascertained.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t know where you live but in California, anyone with an internet connection can find out if you’ve been convicted of a crime. This is also true in many other states.</p></li>
<li><p>You’re on probation. What are you going to do when your probation officer asks, “where are you going to school?” Probation officers verify information. Your lies will be discovered.</p></li>
<li><p>If you lie on a federal form, you’re committing a violation of USC 1001, a felony punishable by up to five years in federal prison. Will you get caught? Probably not, but you should know what you’re risking.</p></li>
<li><p>On the subject of whether you will be discovered consider that battery involves a victim, probably one who doesn’t have your future as his number one concern. Even if you dodge the probation bullet and the background check bullet, you still have this victim out there who could someday pick up a telephone and say, “did you know …”</p></li>
<li><p>Moving to your specifics, the fake ID case is not likely to disqualify you from anything. Many application readers and many professors used fake ID’s at some point in their lives. That said, rarely does a person get a misdemeanor conviction for his first offense involving a fake ID so I question whether you really were convicted of a misdemeanor (amybe you got a lesser conviction) or whether perhaps the matter was more serious and your disposition was a plea to a lesser charge.</p></li>
<li><p>The battery case is a real problem, and will be for a few years, especially if you are on probation. You will probably need to give a good (and truthful) explanation as to what happened. I’ll save you the trouble: if you and six friends beat the cr@p out of someone who was essentially defenseless, you have a problem. If on the other hand, this was two stupid youths exchanging punches and the loser went to the ER and the winner went to the police station, the analysis might be very different. How you deal with this is fact sensitive and we have no facts here.</p></li>
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<p>Finally, a thought on the non-legal point: your posts here demonstrate that you’ve learned nothing valuable from the experience. You’re still trying to figure out how to get away with things instead of doing things the right way. Take a good look in the mirror because you need to come to the realization that that is an enormous character flaw, one that will haunt you for the rest of your life. You show no willingness to accept that you’ve made a mistake and that there are consequences to that mistake. That consequence might be that you won’t get to go to your top choice school.</p>
<p>ChoklitRain, please don’t give legal advice. I hear this “when you turn 18” stuff all the time. You can’t possibly know whether or not that’s true for this poster, with his cases, and in his state. You’re doing him a tremendous disservice by giving him that advice.</p>
<p>Nice to see you haven’t recovered from Bush-derangement syndrome.</p>
<p>^ I liked and still like Bush. He was unfortunately portrayed in a negative way that overshadowed much of the good policy he put in place. </p>
<p>My point in my post was that, as hmom says, battery/fraud convictions will not be looked upon lightly. And I am fairly sure that in CA your record is sealed at 18 as long as it’s just misdemeanors. it goes without saying that he should talk to a lawyer, but in this case he was asking the question on CC and thus didn’t reasonably expect to get an answer from a lawyer. [Do</a> a juvenile’s criminal records get automatically sealed when the minor turns 18? - Matthew J. Ruff Juvenile Law Blog on Lawyers.com](<a href=“http://criminal.lawyers.com/juvenile-law/blogs/archives/403-Do-a-juveniles-criminal-records-get-automatically-sealed-when-the-minor-turns-18.html]Do”>http://criminal.lawyers.com/juvenile-law/blogs/archives/403-Do-a-juveniles-criminal-records-get-automatically-sealed-when-the-minor-turns-18.html)</p>
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