HELP!!! my D is in serious trouble at her college

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<p>Here’s one:
Law School and applying for the bar.</p>

<p>The application asks straight up about probation, suspension, any academic or disciplinary actions. It asks you to explain the situation and students end up writing an addendum.</p>

<p>In addition, if not in the application process, then before matriculation, you must get a deans certification which states you attended the school and were in good standing. It also list any suspensions probations or other disciplinary actions that the school has on record taken against the student. </p>

<p>Background check is done when one applies for the bar.</p>

<p>Then I probably would suggest to the OP that her daughter consider the implications to becoming a lawyer if that is her dream.</p>

<p>In general, though, most state licensing boards don’t consider college disciplinary records.</p>

<p>I thought about law right away. That seems to be one non-educational career that asks specifically. Education of course does. Some government jobs ask for a transcript to verify as a specific job requirement. Perhaps for internships that are unpaid but grant college credit (maybe there are legal requirements if the company is not paying the intern worker). Some companies might verify a degree but not require a copy of the entire transcript. The OPs D will need to be forthright if specifically asked and the D cannot have that removed from her record upon graduation.</p>

<p>Almost all jobs right out of college require a transcript. It is not as common after few years of experience. Of course, it is always most difficult to get that first job.</p>

<p>I have only in my working career post college have had to submit my transcripts:</p>

<p>1)With my first job out of college
2)When I applied to graduate schools.</p>

<p>That said, besides the bar, there may be cases where they would check a transcript, like perhaps with jobs involving working with kids or maybe in areas like defense work, though I have applied for jobs where they do that kind of background check and they didn’t ask for transcripts.</p>

<p>As far as the incident and the D’s part in it, that we don’t know, and no one was making light of it, rather what I and the others seem to all be saying is that whatever happened is probably not going to be the scarlet letter or something dogging the D down the road. Obviously, if the incident stemmed from some issue with the D, that is a different matter, but we have no way of knowing that. The point is that with anything that happens that is bad in life, all you can do is move forward, try to learn from it (if there is any learning) and move on and the other part of that is realizing that often what we think is going to haunt us or kill us going down the road turns out to be not as big a deal as we feared, that’s all.</p>

<p>Somewhat off topic, but;</p>

<p>Regarding having to provide transcripts after the first (and maybe second) job. My wife, with almost 30 years of experience in her field, was asked to provide an official copy of her college transcript for a new job she was taking last year. To make this even more crazy, the division of the company she was moving to used to be part of a company she worked for 20 years ago (her first job, the new job is her third company to work for). So, several of the people in upper management knew her personally from before. But they had a company policy, and while they really wanted her to start ASAP, they couldn’t make the formal job offer until they received the transcript.</p>

<p>So, I would be concerned about what goes on the transcript.</p>

<p>I do wonder what this girl did, that wasn’t that bad, but could get her a “vacation” from school. Is it that her mother doesn’t understand how serious her offense was??? Funny she won’t say what it was.</p>

<p>OP - I understand your desire to not give details. But you need to talk the incident through with your daughter. Is it something she could explain if needed in an interview? The answer may influence your planning.</p>

<p>For example (I am making this up) - “Yes, that suspension was caused by an an unfortunate mistake that I deeply regret. I did a stupid student prank and paid a steep price. But I’ve learned from the experience doing yada yada…”</p>

<p>Frankly, I am at a loss to imagine what is not academic or criminal or hazing that could get one suspended for a YEAR. That seems like a serious punishment, to me. Everything I can think of that is not strictly academic is potentially criminal: furnishing alcohol to a minor, sex with a minor, reckless endangerment, etc, etc.</p>

<p>Perhaps the OP’s D is at a religious college and disobeyed some of the rules. Some of them have very strict rules that can result in suspension or expulsion if the rules are broken. The rules aren’t necessarily related to academics or conventional law. It doesn’t really “matter” what the D did and it’s not really any of our business. It’s not resulting in a legal record, it’s something that happened that may or may not need to be explained depending on where she heads after she finishes college. It’s could also be something that might not matter to other universities hence the mom’s original thought about transferring. We can give the OP advice about what might be a path now and what might need to be disclosed or discussed in the future.</p>

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<p>Teacher here…I’ve had to provide my transcript every time I’ve applied for a job.</p>

<p>Both of my recent college grad kids were required to provide their college transcripts for what they are doing now.</p>

<p>it has definitely become more common place to submit a transcript in order to participate in jobs at your college’s on campus recruiting/interview process and for many internship opportunities</p>

<p>Assuming a helpful lawyer or a convincing talk with the college won’t get this suspension off the young woman’s transcript, I would think that the impact of the suspension will be directly related to what the student was suspending for doing. </p>

<p>I understand the OP not wanting to share the particulars, but is the infraction something that will make a potential employer giggle (as in, I lead a group of friends onto the roof of our sorority where we waved a banner we stole from our rival sorority) versus something that would give a mature adult pause (as in, I lead a group of pledges in a drinking game that involved the consumption of large quantities or alcohol in a short period of time or I was in violation of the college’s cyber-bullying policy)?</p>

<p>OP, does it worry you at all that your daughter did whatever it was that got her suspended? Was this a dopey prank or a lapse of judgment that she’s very lucky didn’t result in bodily harm to someone else? Is this infraction something that you think justifies any sort of disciplinary action? Or is the college reacting in a way that you think borders on ridiculous?</p>

<p>If most objective adults who heard what your daughter did would roll their eyes when they heard about her suspension, then I suspect that the negative future consequences of the suspension itself will be minimal. If the suspension highlights a hacking/bulling/influencing others to engage in clearly dangerous activities/ wildly irresponsible behavior type of thing, I would anticipate more of a problem.</p>

<p>If I were the OP, I will do any thing to get the suspension off my daughter’s records. I will let my DD take the year or two years off, hire a lawyer, stay on campus or whatever it takes to get the record expunged. Why? Now a days, any worthwhile job in highly reputable firm will get upto 100 applicants for one job. In the arena that is the most competitive, law, they INTERVIEW 90 applicants to fill just one position. You can find the remarks in the Law section on CC.</p>

<p>Suppose I am the hiring manager in that law firm, why should I hire some one who were suspended for a YEAR by a college among those 90 applicants? How can I be assured those fractions by this person won’t happen again which might result of loss clients and make me like an idiot?</p>

<p>Just for reference, lawyer jobs are really difficult to find, I know of two recent Cornell and UCB law school graduates are still looking for jobs after one year of graduation.</p>

<p>Some schools are seriously cracking down (or trying to) on their alcohol problems. OP mentioned that it wasn’t about drugs, but didn’t mention alcohol…</p>

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Any violation of the honor code in any way will get you the suspension at Rice. DD’s friend was suspended for honor code violation when another student asked for her notes when he was preparing a paper and she gave it to him thinking he was only going to get ideas. He used her information and so she was guilty of the code violation too for giving it to him. Another friend was facing the code vioaltion for not reporting a violation. They are very strict on honor code and what you can do in collaboration and what you can’t. The year suspension is the penalty. Unless that was what you meant by academic.</p>

<p>I work for a large software company - wasn’t hired into the company but instead was a part of a company that was acquired. Despite this, after 25 years of working, I had to get ALL of my college transcripts - grad school as well as all 6 undergraduate colleges. I attended a variety of junior colleges during summer breaks to pick up odd units as well as taking PE at one because it was near my college apartment and taking a one unit PE class was cheaper than a health club. Yes, HR insisted on getting the transcript for the one unit weight lifting class.</p>

<p>Bottom line - yes the transcripts stick with you for life…</p>

<p>Ok, so now we’re having the transcript argument. Point is: IF she ever needs to submit one… NOT: “I don’t think she will have to.” Or, I was never asked.
Qualified posters (hiring managers, etc, in a range of fields) have noted here how they would handle this. It’s generally reassuring.
In addition to verifying graduation and/or asking for a transcript, some employers ask about history of disciplinary actions. It happens.
As an example, Dartmouth mentions this on their web site. They happen to erase the suspension. But, they clearly tell: if, however, you were ever suspended, you must answer all certification questions truthfully. When we are contacted, if asked, we will reveal the suspension.
Also note, lawyers do not have a place in school internal disciplinary actions. Thir role would be if there were a lawsuit brought by the family against the college.</p>

<p>I agree that a violation that warrents a one year suspension is at the root academic, including honor code violations or disciplinary in nature.</p>

<p>Dartmouth will Park you for 3 semesters (fall, winter and spring terms) for violations to their honor code also.</p>

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<p>I totally agree. To all those that are shouting get a lawyer, you are forgetting that sometimes the college uses is own internal disciplinary action. For things that are not academic in nature (especially if an infraction happened on the college campus) the school uses its own process as a means of not turning the student over to the local PD and having the student have some kind of criminal record which in the long run could be far worse.</p>

<p>Notwithstanding the internal nature of collegiate disciplinary proceedings, a lawyer can often be helpful from the “outside”, especially if he/she has familiarity with the procedures and policies at the school in question. Lawyers are trained to assess these situations, look at options, consider what may be well received and what may not, and advise the student accordingly. I have definitely seen it work well in situations where the lawyer never interacts directly with the college. Of course, it depends on finding someone with the right experience, and may not be appropriate in all situations. Just saying.</p>

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<p>She said it wasn’t that. And yes, I consider honor code infractions involving classes to be academic. (It amazes me that sharing your NOTES with someone could be considered an honor violation! So your friend has to miss class for some reason–perhaps illness–and you share your notes and this is somehow cheating? Absolutely ridiculous. Or perhaps I misunderstood the story.)</p>

<p>Regarding the lawyer, although Sybbie’s point regarding avoiding a police record is well taken, it is hard to argue against involving a lawyer, at least at the appeal stage, if the consequences of the suspension are as dire as some say they could be AND if you genuinely feel that you are not guilty. I tend to agree that if the incident is something that will make the average adult laugh and roll their eyes, one should be less worried about the long term consequences.</p>