<p>I was suspended sophomore year for a physical altercation with another student. But the situation wasn't as severe as the school decided to portray it as, nor was it a full fledged fight.</p>
<p>The exact situation was that the kid had had a history of making racially bigoted comments about my ethnicity, and I had dealt with it throughout the year because I didn't want to get in trouble. However, a while later in the year he had made another racially bigoted comment towards me and I had playfully punched him (because he had always punched me "playfully") and I walked away. He then burst through a crowd of kids and punched me very angrily in the shoulder. I then tackled him and was on top of him - and stopped.</p>
<p>I was suspended for one day.</p>
<p>How will this affect my college admission process? I know nearly all (if not all) applications ask whether or not you have been suspended and I don't know how to answer it.</p>
<p>My other stats are:
President of NHS
President of GAGI (an awareness organization)
Founder of a non-profit organization
Member of debate team
Former Varsity football player and wrestler
Intern for Barack Obama
Volunteer at a hospital
4.5 weighted GPA
2120 on the SAT</p>
<p>
[quote]
I know nearly all (if not all) applications ask whether or not you have been suspended and I don't know how to answer it.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, obviously you have to tell the truth about your suspensions. I agree with atrophicwhisper, if your GC tells them what happened (assuming you're telling the truth) then the adcoms will probably be a little bit softer on you.</p>
<p>That's the thing I'm worried about. I want to be truthful, but at the same time I don't want to feel like I got rejected because of some stupid immature action that I took in Sophomore year.</p>
<p>I also realize that colleges can and will rescind applications if I lie, so I'm kind of stuck. Thanks for the feedback so far by the way =).</p>
<p>Lots of kids I know had some issue, suspension for drinking, cheating, etc. All got into good schools. If it's a one time thing, you just need to explain it, (and write what you learned, don't sound like you're not taking responsibility). DO NOT LIE, that will kill you. I think that it's not going to hurt you much, if at all, if you write a sensible, well thought out explanation (which they all ask for.)</p>
<p>your HS wants you to go to the best possible college. It doesnt look good for them if you dont. In most schools they dont even tell colleges who got suspended...i know a kid who was suspended for three days for saying something pretty bad about a teacher's sexuality and he got into UPenn...</p>
<p>Check with your guidance counselor. At our local high school, a single one day suspension is not reported by guidance to colleges. A pattern of behavior problems is reported.</p>
<p>First make sure how your high school deals with suspensions. If it's not reported on your record or transcript and won't be mentioned in your recs, DO NOT, and I repeat DO NOT report it. In addition, if it is expunged, DO NOT report it. If it is going to be on your record/transcript tell what occurred. I can't see the admissions officers looking poorly on you for this. As long as you haven't displayed a record of constant rule breaking, which I assume from your record, I'd say you're good to go. Just make sure you explain it very well, especially the racist comment.</p>
<p>I really appreciate the help from everyone.</p>
<p>And I understand the whole high school situation, but where I go to high school, the school honestly couldn't care that much about the kids. It's strict procedural things that they adhere to, so whether or not a kid will suffer in terms of college admissions doesn't really affect them.</p>
<p>To them all I am is a statistic.</p>
<p>But I'll talk to my GC and maybe even my Dean or Principal to see what could be arranged. I appreciate the help though!</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure if it is not recorded it is not a suspension in the strictest sense. Like when they ask you to apply for a job they ask for any felonies/misdemeanors you've been charged of, don't include those that were expunged.</p>
<p>I have a similar situation, I am a straight A sophomore who is in all honors/AP classes, and this year I was textually/sexually harassed by another student and it led to a physical altercation, and I am currently in the process of forming a student group against sexual harassment to prevent any other incidents like this happening. I was suspended for one day, and the other girl got two days. The trouble is my guidance counselor told me that she would not put it on my record, and doesn’t want me to report it at all. I feel really uncomfortable about this, I am sure it will appear somewhere, and even more so, I would feel that it would compromise my integrity to lie on a college application. Above all, I don’t care about getting into the best colleges but staying honest and ethical, but I don’t know how much this is going to affect me, or what I should do.</p>
<p>Personally speaking, I think the whole thing - especially about race or sexual harassment - could be parlayed into a great essay, especially if it ends in a good way – you or the other guy really learning a life lesson… how words can hit a person just as hard as any punch, etc.</p>
<p>While I don’t know how a GC can say I wont report a suspension if it’s on your record, if they do, than I agree. There isn’t much integrity in the process. I will say, however, that if kids get in trouble that might warrant suspension for a day or something, they can typically get it “reduced” to 25-30 hours of “approved” community service. Actually, I didn’t know they would even do that until recently.</p>
<p>Thanks,for the advice my group is coming along- I’ve gotten a teacher agree to be the adviser- the only thing is that several other of my club advisers, such as my band teacher (I have a leadership position in our prestigious Field Corps) thinks that if I make an organization, it will draw negative attention to the incident. For me, this would be a great way to turn something really negative into something positive, and I even plan on asking the girl that I fought with to join me in this organization, as a kind of way to make amends.
For me, I’m going to report it no matter what my guidance counselor says. It happened and I was punished, and now I must live with the consequences, and lying will only cause more negative consequences.</p>