<p>Were you convicted of a crime? Suspended from school? It all depends on how colleges are going to find this out. You aren't screwed, but it is not the best situation.</p>
<p>To be honest here, your chances stand thin.</p>
<p>Even if you were to write some killer essay rationalizing the reason as to why you smoked weed in the first place, it would be hard to picture the admissions people empathizing to your story. </p>
<p>But hey man, I wish you the best of luck because weed shouldn't even be illegal.</p>
<p>hopeful, i wish u the best of luck bc being caught with illicit drugs on school property is a tuff one to shake now matter how good of an essay u write or how good of an excuse u hav.</p>
<p>//But hey man, I wish you the best of luck because weed shouldn't even be illegal.//
beardy, i also agree with u that marijuana should be legal, but not for minors and if this kid was in high school then he probably was under 18 and had no reason to possess marijuana in any case.</p>
<p>i stand corrected hopeful. pardon my mistake.
statistic show that more males do drugs than females. point is i live in europe and a train ride away from the netherlands. marijuana there is legal but its controlled with many laws. i believe marijuana should be legal but not for people under 18. (same for alcohol btw.)</p>
<p>anyways, maybe you had some reasons for possessing it (holdin it for a friend etc..) but i dnt think it will cut it for adcoms.
since u were suspended and all ur going to hav to inform ur schools...the best advice i can give u is to write the best essay. give ur very best shot. good luck.</p>
<p>It will depend on how your school addresses it and how you handle it in your essay about the suspension. The fact that it was soph year is a huge help, especially if nothing has happened since. It is not a deal-breaker at all for colleges. You need to be very concise in your explanation without making a lot of excuses. Talk about how you disappointed your parents, your teachers and, most of all, yourself. Talk about the consequences you suffered and how you vowed to never let anything like that happen again which would jeopardize your education or future career.</p>
<p>Don't beat yourself up. You have learned and will continue learning from this mistake. There may be consequences in college admissions, but most adcoms possess a fairly "second chance" oriented state-of-mind when it comes to a single blemish.</p>
<p>FWIW, mistakes involving dishonesty, including cheating, are generally...generally...viewed with greater concern than one-time drug/alcohol mistakes. </p>
<p>Never lie about it. Do not volunteer it if not asked, but do not parse application inquiries that are clearly intended to discover it, i.e., if they ask if you've ever been the subject of "disciplinary action" and your school calls it a "suspension," don't mess around asking whether you must disclose, just state what happened. And like MomofWildChild said, show your remorse for the consequences to self and others and what you learned from it. And yes, be glad it was a sophomore mistake--you know better than anyone you must maintain a "clean record" from here on out if you want to have choices when it comes to college.</p>
<p>Your guidance counselor should have experience in presenting kids with similar disciplinary histories and can work in examples of maturity, character, good judgment, value to community, etc. in his/her comments.</p>
<p>Yes there were other circumstances, but I do not want to
appear at all like I am making excuses for myself because I
put myself in the situation</p>
<p>Also, I took a UA to prove I didn't actually
use the drug and passed.</p>
<p>Also know this, if for whatever reason, you don't get into your top choice, there are still lots of schools that will want you. Don't beat yourself up. </p>
<p>Ask you GC how this will show up on your transcript, and then you will know where you stand. It should probably work out okay. Just be positive, work with your GC, and get great recommendations...and remember, sometimes our paths veer left and right, but you will get there, wherver there is</p>
<p>I know a kid who got arrested for smoking pot on school grounds, during school hours, the last day of his Junior year. He still ended up getting into his top choice, Fairfield University. It's a tough thing to get around, but clearly there's some way. Just explain yourself to the best of your ability.</p>
<p>I am sorry to hear about your dilemma. If you have an option to write the optional essays in which you tell about something other than grades to colleges, use that space to write about this experience. Write about what you learned from this experience and what you are doing to correct yourself. You could help out in your community if you go to the human services and talk to people about how drugs affect lives. You could say that even though you did not do drugs, just the possession of them turned your world inside out. </p>
<p>Show admissions that you have sought remedy for this. I wish you good luck :)</p>
<p>If you want me to be honest, how this is handled will really depend on who gets a hold of your essay. Marijuana usage is rampant in universities and is really not thought of as a super-serious offense -- there are so many students here who smoke it and even some professors admit to having had smoked it or still do. You may get an admissions counselor who's like "Oh please, marijuana" (I've wanted to do admissions counseling and a 10-day suspension for weed wouldn't make me blink) and you may get that one counselor who clutches her pearls and is all "Oh my god, MARIJUANA!"</p>
<p>Some schools may also have policies about this; I just advise you to be upfront and honest and write about it in an additional essay (don't write about it in your main essay) and just make everything else as tight as possible. You don't have to do anything cheesy like volunteer at a drug addiction center or anything (I think it's despicable how drug education centers lump pot in with cocaine and heroin -- not the same thing, hello) but just convey that this was a one-time indiscretion that you have learned your lesson from -- at least doing it in public :D</p>
<p>In response to some recent posts here...
Pot is not the same as cocaine and heroin, but addiction to marijuana is still epidemic right now. No, the sky is not falling or anything, but let's not put our heads in the sand either. TODAY'S POT IS NOT THE SAME POT THAT WAS AROUND A GENERATION AGO.</p>
<p>People's immune systems don't necessarily work the same as a generation ago either - look at the rampant rise of autoimmune diseases. There is evidence of correlations between immune system malfunction and addiction (it is certainly a possibility). For whatever the reason, get high on somehting else other than pot (like music or something). Why take the risk? </p>
<p>It's also not fair for people who are getting away with smoking pot from a health standpoint to downplay the dangers to others by saying or implying it is no big deal. Just because it SEEMS to be working for you doesn't mean that it won't lead to total disaster for someone else. Let's be responsible here.</p>
<p>To the OP...
That being said, you may be discriminated against by some people, but others will give you a second chance. Apply to enough schools - more than the average person would in each category of reach, match, and safety (to increase your odds). Look around CC to read articles on suspensions written by real admissions officers (to get a good sense of how to position yourself properly).</p>
<p>Good luck! This will NOT ruin your future in the short or long term. Learn from it - the experience can be gold.</p>
<p>I don't smoke/drink. I have been an avid musician since I was like 4 years old (I can play violin, guitar, trombone, tabla, and learning piano right now). Its not unusual to find me just playing my guitar in the middle of the night on a Friday. If you find something that's healthy and enjoyable, you can definitely move on with this experience.</p>