Hey guys. I went to a small school in NJ and was dismissed from school for having sex in a campus bathroom. I don’t know what I was thinking. The school dismissed me but did not put it on my transcript. I transferred to another school and now I am on track to graduate fortunately. I was thinking of applying to grad schools and was wondering if grad schools will find out about this dismissal that I had. The school only has a letter stating why I was dismissed. No mentions on my transcript. What problems would I face during admissions for grad school. I want to get a MS in CS
When you say ‘school’ are you talking about college/university?
You have said ‘school’ many times here:
“…dismissed from school…”, ** meaning first institution **
“…transferred to another school…”, ** meaning present institution **
“The school only has a letter stating why I was dismissed.” ** present institution **
One type of issue comes to mind if you are talking about college or university dismissal and the potential resultant weight of that dismissal for the reasons you stated: matters related to public indecency.
There are so many things to consider regarding your undergraduate institution’s duty and responsibility to a referring institution where close group work with other young adults is going to be a necessary part of the graduate student’s duties.
Were you seeking to enter the teaching professions, or law or medicine (ultimately), any actions known to the undergraduate institution which might be tantamount to public indecency, though not referred to the authorities and handled exclusive within the environs of the campus administrative system, would seem necessary to be disclosed.
Have you inquired of the current institution exactly what action they will take when sending your transcript forward for graduate school admission, and have you spoken with an advisor?
When you apply for admission to grad school, you will need to ask both places to send official copies of your transcripts. I can’t think of any reason why they would send the letter. However, you will need to read the grad school applications carefully and have an answer ready if you are asked “Have you ever been expelled or asked to leave a college or university.” You current academic advisor may be able to help you come up with appropriate wording.
Grad schools may request of the undergraduate school the disciplinary record, in addition to the academic record. Where the disciplinary action was not submitted along with the academic record, this second, or additional, phase may make it likely that the letter discussing the disciplinary action from the first school will be furnished.
Yes, please speak with your advisor.
I meant college when I said the word school. I have made a grave mistake and therefore I am looking to rectify it. I want to go into the Tech field and get an MS.
Btw if I do write honestly about what happened, and what I have done after learning from the incident, and that I show my regrets in the actions I committed, do you think that could help put weight in my application in my favor?
Addressing the violation, the determination the college made in its formal adjudication of the incident, and the resultant dismissal are things better discussed with experts in the field.
Calling regular poster @Hanna here.
There are so many considerations for your future involved, and what you say regarding the incident without counsel may irrevocably alter your future plans.
That you were able to successfully transfer at the undergraduate level may offer you a look into what will be asked of you, and what is possible as outcome, as you seek to apply to graduate school.
When I applied to my current undergrad school, there was no mention of adding an explanation on disciplinary records in my application, hence they never asked me anything. But do you think if I choose to do the Masters online instead of in-person, they might reconsider
A program which will give you the full educational experience you envision is what you want, and I can appreciate turning your focus toward an online experience in an effort to receive the most favorable review and reception by an admissions committee.
I do not know that you must, or should, resolve yourself to that experience alone. (This is why I think your best move forward would be to consult with either an advisor at your present school or someone who works in the field of representing young people in such instances.)
As I understand, notice of your disciplinary record ‘may’ be forwarded upon request.
The timing of any graduate school request for your disciplinary record may depend on whether they have in place a policy for doing a review in tandem with the academic record, or only after a disclosure by the applicant to the question of prior violations.
The one thing you do not want to do is withhold this information from them in a simple yes/no checkbox response on the application.
Disclosure, when asked, will leave open the door for you to make a statement in full explanation of your ownership of the actions which lead to dismissal and your acknowledgement of the import and impact of that moment in the way the college moved forward, and acceptance of the appropriateness of that. You can speak to what you have learned about yourself, your relationship and duty to community, trust earned and kept, etc.
You are willing to make such a statement and it will be imperative that you receive guidance on how – or whether at all – you should do so.
Part of the information you would need to discover to be best prepared to submit an application to the graduate school at which you wish to enroll is whether there is a different level of consideration of an applicant on-line programming than for in-person programming where past student code violations is an element.
Try to do an online search of the application terms of the grad school to which you will be applying and see if there is such an area for disclosure. Do the same regarding notice of violations forwarded by your current college, paying particular attention to what information the college forwards about violations known to them at an institution before you transferred in.
Other young people have come to this hurdle and gotten over it (with guidance) and moved on to pursue their education and career. This can be done.
I would think you undergrad school that you will get your degree from would send a transcript, on it it may show classes taken from another school but more than likely they would all be on one transcript, I would not say anything , you are not the first or the last kid to have sex in a bathroom, unless there is something your leaving out or your applying to a very religious school you should be fine.
Thank you all for assisting me with this. What will be my situation if I apply to companies? Will my employers check anything more than my diploma, transcripts, and my dates that I attended school? Or is there something else that they can check?
Thank you in advance
For companies you should be fine, they check your transcript and a general background check which should not show what occurred m if you first college transcript did not show it, it should end there.
Grad schools will want to see every college transcript, sometimes even requiring a transcript from a local college when you took classes in a dual enrollment situation while in high school.
- How do you think government jobs would treat such a record?
- Would they disqualify me from the pool?
- Do you think they will get access to it?
I don’t hire for the government. But I do hire in tech. I would never see this - we don’t even ask for transcripts; the background check company just verifies that people who get an offer have the degree(s) and prior job(s) they said they had, and all we get is “OK, they’re good to go!”
Even if I somehow found out about this after we’d give an offer to a candidate (or, frankly, before)…I can’t imagine why I would care about this, assuming it was consensual. While certainly inappropriate, I’d assume it was a youthful indiscretion. I did some silly things in college, too.
“Btw if I do write honestly about what happened, and what I have done after learning from the incident, and that I show my regrets in the actions I committed, do you think that could help put weight in my application in my favor?”
Yes. This is really going to be dependent on how you write about the incident. I have a PhD, and were I hiring a graduate student, I’m not sure this would make a difference to me (especially if the candidate is an outstanding one otherwise). It might to some other professors or admissions committees. There’s really no way to tell, but I agree with others that you should work with trusted advisors to craft the statement if/when you have to answer this question.