Hello all. I am soon to be expelled from my highschool, and am a junior in his first semester. It was for a drug-related offense, but I had no prior incidents or criminal record. I am looking to move forward from this and am prepared to do whatever it takes to take control of my education. The next CHSPE exam is in March, and I believe by the time I receive the diploma, it would be around June. I would love advice on how to move forward considering the outline I provided. I know the restrictions a drug related offense will have on career choices, but I simply want to move forward with my education in whatever way I can. Would community colleges reject my application seeing a misdemeanor? By diving into extracurriculars and showing growth from this, will it help strengthen my application? Any and all perspectives are welcome.
P.S.- I live in Southern California, and have been a relatively good honors and AP student.
Community colleges might ask you to defer your admission for a semester or two, and work and do good things during that time, to give some space between the expulsion and conviction and you starting on their campus. But talk to admissions at the ccs near you and discuss your situation. See what they suggest.
I know you’re being expelled from your current school. What school options will be available to you? If you have any, you might consider them. This would allow you to spend another year or so in high school, with a clean record - and a chance to devote yourself to a drug prevention related cause as part of your schooling, as a major EC. You’d then be able to apply to colleges while showing good work and positive things post conviction. While some colleges will not admit you due to your drugs related issue, others will, if you have a clean record afterward and if you do “good works” re: drug prevention and education - not casually, but seriously, taking significant amounts of your time and effort.
If you do take the CHSPE and then go to college, do similar in college - make your cause be drug prevention and education, or find some other helping-related cause that you can really throw yourself into. Craft yourself a story. Make it sincere, but do think about doing this type of thing, as it can help you in terms of transferring and grad school admissions.
Talk to a lawyer. See if you can either plead this down to something that is not drugs related, or else have the conviction expunged in a certain number of years if you stay out of trouble. Having a misdemeanor is one thing. Having a drugs related misdemeanor can keep you out of some professions. So do what you can on this.
Thank you for your feedback! I’ll definitely take into account showing growth from this, and reading this made me realize now is the time to start if I want to “craft” myself a story as you said, which is the reality of things once I face colleges and even my pending court trial. I’m going to see what I can do to get this expunged on the justice-end, and I’m already taking steps to start going to community college next semester, but they haven’t asked any questions regarding a criminal record or my specific cirumstances. I signed a stipulated agreement with my school to get my expulsion expunged, but that still doesn’t do any help for cleaning up possible charges I face in the future. Thank you again for your advice, I’m glad to think that there’s a path of education I can take no matter the circumstances.