food fight suspension!!! the fun's over, now am i screwed?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello CC. I am a full IB diploma student with an SAT of 2320, ACT of 35, president of two clubs, captain of snowboarding team, etc.</p>

<p>I've got good scores, good grades, good ECs, and i write a damn good essay, BUT:</p>

<p>I was recently one of 20+ students suspended for 3 days, for involvement in a school-wide food fight.</p>

<p>my specific involvement wasn't throwing food, but joining in a "Senior Power" chant immediately beforehand, which the school blamed for leading to starting the food fight (crazy, I know).</p>

<p>how will this affect my chances at UCs (LA and Berkeley), Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, UVa, USC, Wash U, etc?</p>

<p>both counselor and school principal (and me, of course), will be writing letters about how much I learned and grew from the experience and how it was a fluke.</p>

<p>will colleges recognize that this was just a stupid, harmless mistake, or will any disciplinary action whatsoever eliminate me from the pool? thanks for the help!</p>

2

<p>Uh…you participated in a chant that started (or is believed to have started) a food fight? </p>

<p>I seriously doubt THAT’S going to be very worrisome to the Adcoms. But that’s just me.</p>

3

<p>If I was your adcom, I would accept you because I know you’re a smart kid who likes to have fun =D</p>

<p>But that’s why I’m not an adcom hehe</p>

4

<p>I hope that this won’t affect your chances. Sounds like senior pranks. </p>

<p>But, after you’re enrolled in your college (and safely out of the reach of your high school), if I were your parent, I would give that principal an earful about making too big a deal out of this by giving a suspension and possibly ruining college chances. </p>

<p>But, you say that this was a “recent” occurrence. How, then, can anyone write a rec that says you’ve grown from the experience. Enough time hasn’t passed.</p>

<p>Many schools don’t list suspensions on the actual transcript. Does yours?</p>

<p>Nevertheless, I think you need to also apply to some schools that only ask for transcripts and test scores (no recs, no counselor reports). I doubt those schools will give a rat’s behind about any of this.</p>

5

<p>I already gave them an earful. and then my mom did. no appeal, no changing the punishment, nothing.</p>

<p>“grown from the experience” was vague, more like they’ll write that i’m repentant and did a canned food drive to make amends (which I did). also that all other times, i am a perfect kid.</p>

<p>this doesn’t go on my transcript, but it goes on any schools that ask about suspensions, which is the vast majority…</p>

<p>i already applied to the UCs which don’t ask. the problem is, if i get kicked out of NHS (which is fairly likely at this point), they supposedly send letters to ALL my colleges saying i got kicked out. that makes even the UCs a problem.</p>

<p>my hope is that they won’t care, but that’s wishful thinking.</p>

6

<p>Just explain the situation. Adcoms are humans too, they’ll understand the situation.</p>

7

<p>yeah, i know they’re humans. my fear is that the rest of the applicants aren’t, but instead are perfect robots that never do anything wrong. and i feel like i can’t compete with that if i have a suspension.</p>

8

<p>Resign from NHS immediately. Then they won’t bother to “kick you out.”</p>

<p>PM me… I have some ideas for you. </p>

<p>Frankly, schools need to make use of detentions, Saturday detentions, etc, for instances like this. Then the whole college issue wouldn’t be a problem.</p>

9

<p>ok. did you get my PM? if not, then it isn’t working, just PM me instead. thanks</p>

10

<p>just as an observer/interested reader, i admire how you’re going about this so coolly. many posters would come on here and start screaming about their problems (many times making mountains out of molehills) and the result is not many responses or helpful pieces of advice.</p>

<p>i think if you take this sort of approach when addressing colleges, you will be just fine.</p>

11

<p>Include a letter explaining the situation with your application. If your other stats are good enough, you being upfront may actual be to your benefit</p>

12

<p>I don’t know what’s wrong with adults today. :rolleyes: You’d think they were never kids. You should have all been made to clean up the mess and clean up the cafeteria for a month, or something. I mean, unless someone got injured, this is ridiculous.</p>

13

<p>We used to have the best food fights in college, of course it was when “Animal House” first came out. We used to make sure we didn’t wear anything that wasn’t washable into the freshman dining room.</p>

14

<p>^^^</p>

<p>I agree. Suspension is stupid in this situation. Saturday detention or cleaning the cafeteria would have been a better solution. </p>

<p>Another example of educators being short-sighted. Who puts a kids’ future in jeopardy by giving a suspension when other punishments would address the situation better w/o compromising a kid’s future. How would they like it if they made some foolish decision (which I’m sure they do on a weekly basis LOL) and they were forced to disclose that on every app.</p>

<p>Suspensions should be reserved for serious matters - matters that involve danger or serious breaches of integrity or character.</p>

15

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<p>What’s wrong with adults today is the proliferation of “zero tolerance” policies. While that sort of policy is fine when in comes to weapons or drugs, the unintended result is to legislate out common sense. They also remove any leeway in punishments that could result in accusations of favoritism or, God forbid, lawsuits. Many parents, some of whom were the biggest “troublemakers” in their day, have decided that the leniency they were shown only abetted further mischief. So while policies like this one provide a way to get rid of truly dangerous individuals, it also snares 6-year olds with Cub Scout scissors.</p>

<p>I don’t know what effect this suspension will have on the OP, hopefully it will be little more than a detailed explanation of events. Perhaps this could be good material for an application essay, something about seemingly innocent decisions turning into larger issues. That said, I have to admit, the OP’s version of events has my parental BS detector pinging a bit.</p>

16

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<p>Sorry but a food fight is not a senior prank. And my BS detector is going off a lot on the OP’s story he was just chanting.</p>

<p>The OP deserved to be suspended no matter what his involvement (I know the bleeding hearts on this forum disagree) as it is a serious matter. One of the many problems we have today are parents making excuses for and arguing against discipline of their children. Oh don’t punish little Johnny or Susie. Just ignore what they did - you will hurt their college chances.</p>

<p>Please. Starting or taking part in a school wide food fight is no laughing matter no matter how much some of you want to dismiss it</p>

17

<p>Why is it a serious matter, other than making a mess. No one is making any excuse. OP admitted that it did happen. Some of us are just questioning if punishment fits the crime. I would have just made those kids clean up, that’s probably punishment enough. It’s people like you who had taken everything into extreme.</p>

18

<p>It’s not a serious matter - people’s lives were not in danger, it’s not an ethics breach like cheating on a test. It’s does not rise to the level of jeopardizing one’s college future. </p>

<p>Yes, it warrants a punishment, but not a suspension. </p>

<p>It’s like a speeding ticket that was treated like a first degree felony.</p>

<p>A food fight warrants a punishment such as cleaning up the mess and 6 Wednesday afternoon detentions sweeping floors or doing other productive work. Or, perhaps 2 Saturday detentions doing something. Or, community service. A suspension demands NO PRODUCTIVE WORK. </p>

<p>This is insane. I’m a mom of kids who went to a strict Catholic school. Only one time did the principal go too far with a punishment, and he paid dearly for that. Many of us boycotted the school’s major fundraiser - so we hit him in his school budget. I think he then finally had to admit that he shouldn’t have expelled a very good kid over some silly comment on his Facebook (not sexual or anything like that). And, believe me, the mom who brought the Facebook comment to the principal’s attention was confronted by many parents. Of course she claimed, “I didn’t know he’d get expelled for that. I just didn’t like the comment.” Well, good heavens, then call his parents and complain. Don’t call the frickin’ over-reactive school! </p>

<p>The expulsion sure wasn’t worth the money the school lost that year with its fundraiser!!! The principal had some 'splaining to do with the school board (who depend on that money), and later the superintendent was fired (she insisted on the expulsion without ever talking to the child or parents and NO appeal process - idiot!! ).</p>

<p>Now, some would argue that we shouldn’t have “hurt the school” by boycotting the fundraiser. But, as parents, money is our only real weapon. Money does cause people to listen! We spoke our opinions with our own wallets. We feel that by doing this that one time, it prevented such havoc being wreaked on some other student who wouldn’t deserve such a harsh consequence. So, we feel it’s money worth losing. The school didn’t suffer really at all, but the message got thru.</p>

<p>Parents completely support warranted punishments, suspensions, and expulsions. But, sometimes the educators are very short-sighted.</p>

19

<p>In all likelihood the suspension will show on your record…you will have to address it in your applications…and you will have to check the box thats says you have been suspended.</p>

<p>You need to be respectful of the authority in your school----when you discuss or write about iut–you need to show some humility, calm and take responsibility for whatever part (leadership) you had in this–</p>

<p>It will go better for you to handle it that way instead of yelling and telling everyone you know how stupid the suspension is or whatever–The school admin made a decision. Respect it. If you bad mouth your school to everyone–it could backfire. Hopefully the AdComms will see it as a teenager and senioritis.</p>

<p>Live and learn.</p>

20

<p>oldfort - if you have to ask the question, clearly you won’t understand the answer. This was not a couple kids throwing food at each other. As OP states, it was a school wide food fight. Its people like you who wnat to excuse everything away that assist with the proliferation of this type of behavior.</p>

<p>mom2collegekids - oh, so in you mind the only reason a kid should be suspended is if someone’s life is in danger or they cheat on a test. Wow. And your story says it all - if someone doesn’t do things the way you like or agree with - you will gather the mob and make them pay the price. Way to teach your kids ethics and how to resolve issues in a reasonable, adult manner</p>

<p>fogfog - nice advice. You nailed it when you said “You need to be respectful of the authority in your school----when you discuss or write about iut–you need to show some humility, calm and take responsibility for whatever part (leadership) you had in this”</p>