<p>Does</a> a pot bust trump a 4.0 GPA? - Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>College admissions officials are looking harder at applicants' past "infractions" in post-VaTech-massacre diligence. Do applicants really admit all? How do admissions staff weigh this information?</p>
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As campus administrators worry about how to prevent violence like last spring's Virginia Tech shootings, students applying to college increasingly face queries about their past behavior: Were they ever severely disciplined in high school? Have they been convicted of a crime?</p>
<p>Although such questions were added to a widely used college application form months before the massacre at Virginia Tech, admissions officers say that the murders made them more vigilant about students' personal troubles. They say that they won't reject otherwise strong applicants because of one schoolyard fight or a beer arrest, but they may be wary of troubling patterns.</p>
<p>Critics contend that the form allows colleges to invade private matters better left to the law and high school counselors. And the extra attention is raising anxiety among high school seniors.
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The student, and others like him, are worried about the Common Application, a mainly online form shared by 315 schools, predominantly private ones, including Harvard, Stanford and Caltech.</p>
<p>Last year, it began asking students -- and their counselors -- about any suspensions, dismissals or probationary terms because of academic or behavioral misconduct and whether students had been "convicted of a misdemeanor, felony or other crime." The applicants are encouraged to explain the incidents. College admissions counselors realize that "not every 17-year-old is a perfect human being," said Seth Allen, president-elect of the Common Application, the nonprofit organization that administers the form. But a campus should know about infractions -- even juvenile records that may have been expunged -- so it can decide whether students should "be part of our community," he said.</p>
<p>In the past, less than about half of Common Application members asked similar questions on separate applications, estimated Allen, who is also dean of admission and financial aid at Grinnell College in Iowa. Schools wanted the questions added to the shared application because, in general, institutions "are being held to a greater standard of accountability," he said.</p>
<p>A tiny amount of applicants confessed. Of the 266,087 students who used the Common Application last year, only 2.32% said they received school discipline, and only about 0.25% reported a conviction.
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The Common Application questions are "terrible, terrible policy," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Assn. of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.</p>
<p>Nassirian said the questions are not likely to catch the "next Jack the Ripper" but are more likely to harm "the perfectly ordinary mischievous kid without much utility in preventing the next tragedy."
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Among some already nervous college applicants, the new questions make this tense time of year even worse. Internet chat rooms, such as the popular College Confidential, are sprinkled with debates about disclosures and tips on essays that treat a past infraction "as a learning experience" en route to maturity.<a href="Bolding%20added">/quote</a></p>
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At the Webb Schools in Claremont, a student recently asked whether he had to reveal what the private residential institution calls an on-campus suspension, basically a cleaning assignment for sleeping past breakfast.</p>
<p>"The kid was scared to death," said Hector Martinez, Webb Schools' director of college guidance. He told the student that colleges are not interested in such minor infractions.</p>
<p>However, Martinez said he urges disclosure of anything serious, even if no formal charges or school punishment were involved. That was the case of a student in trouble a couple of years ago because of a rowdy party at home. Although police dropped the case, "it was important that the student take responsibility," he said.</p>
<p>Martinez assured colleges that the student was "just a kid who had a party and things got a little out of control." The student wound up at a prestigious university in the Midwest.
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Pomona College, which now uses the Common Application, asked about disciplinary problems for many years, according to Bruce J. Poch, vice president and dean of admissions. Pomona will not accept students if their high schools do not answer the questions; as a result, even reluctant counselors have complied, he said.</p>
<p>Pomona won't reject a student suspended for smoking cigarettes at school.</p>
<p>Still, he added, "a cigarette is different from a theft of an exam, which is different from chasing someone down the hall with a knife."</p>
<p>Such information is important because students come to campus not just to study, but to live together. "This is a signal that we care about these things. And we do," Poch said.
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<p>online comment to the article
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Great, make it even more difficult for a poor kid from a poor neighbor to get into college. Great strategy. What incentive is their to clean up your act once you have done something wrong? It isn't like you are going to get into college anyhow.
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I guess I am not getting my thoughts across as clearly as I thought. Oh well.</p>