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Exactly, and you’re so good-hearted to give him the benefit of your experience.</p>
<p>Count me among the people who don’t think the OP has shown much remorse. Based on details the OP posted on another thread, what the OP did was much more serious, too, than it may have appeared based on what the OP posted here.</p>
<p>The OP posted on the Internet that he was planning a terrorist attack on a school, and even posted ingredients of an explosive. The FBI terrorism task force got involved.</p>
<p>I think it was a terrorist attack. An attack by someone attempting to invoke terror in innocent people. Which is what he did. I find it hard to believe that if his parents are as well-off and savvy as he has indicated, that he wasn’t warned hard and long before this that certain people have to be more careful than others and will get less of the benefit of the doubt when running their mouths.</p>
<p>Just because I haven’t seen it posted, sorry if it was…</p>
<p>With the gap in the school records and changing mid year, I think that any college admissions officer would/could do a quick Google search and find the problem. They will have the name and city of the student (and time frame) - that should be enough to bring up enough info on the incident if the FBI was involved. Those things tend to get reported on.</p>
<p>I agree with many of the posters here. That he should not “hide” the incident, and he should be able to show that he has matured since the incident. Otherwise, a local community college may be the gap measure. </p>
<p>To the OP: you wouldn’t be the first student to make a big mistake that had very long term consequences. Whatever happens in the college arena, you can still take the high road from here on out. If you make the right choices and stick to making the most of whatever opportunities are available to you, you will win over who you need to. Will this incident affect you forever? It might, but you can overcome it by making good choices from now on.</p>
<p>Interesting that the OP hasn’t been back since 3/30…</p>
<p>Sorry, i was busy with other stuff during these days.</p>
<p>I know many of you think i am denying responsibility and not realizing the seriousness of this offense, but i HAVE; i am the one who faced all the consequences due to the incident… TRUST me, i have had enough for me to realize the seriousness. That was the first thing the FBI and deputies told to me when they called me in. </p>
<p>My parents are not millionaires or anything, but upper middle class(250,000$ yearly.). So they are sacrificing their money for me, not spoiling me in any way. They care about my education and thus want me to have a good education after this bump in the road.</p>
<p>I think this was PARTIALLY racial discrimination because i was born in Saudi Arabia, although my ethnicity is Indian(parents went to Saudi to work), BUT i hate native Saudis with a passion… the truth is; I SUPPORT AMERICA, case closed for all of you who think i am a terrorist. </p>
<p>By the way, the post online was anonymous, therefore you can understand why i would post such a thing(To scare the recipient in a joking manner). Trust me, i have seen a lot of crap posted on the site.</p>
<p>That’s good. Just don’t try and blame formspring for something you did. A website can’t command you to make mistakes. And thanks for telling us that you “hate native Saudis with a passion”. Be sure to bring that up on your essay, right after you mention your Klan-related ECs. :D</p>
<p>But seriously though, I get what you’re saying. It’s hard to judge someone based on, what, 9 posts on one Internet forum. The truth is, none of us have any idea how you really feel. We can go by what you tell us, but in the end it doesn’t matter what we think. What you need to do is to find a way to show strangers how you feel and what you’ve learned from your mistake. It can be hard to avoid, but you don’t want to try to blame anyone else or give even the appearance that you think that this whole situation was even slightly someone else’s fault. Again, it’s hard to get that across in writing, so if an alumni interview is available at your colleges then you should definitely try to explain it there if it’s brought up.</p>
<p>I think I read today that formspring was the website where anonymous cyberbullying drove a girl to commit suicide recently. Seems like anonymous posting on such a website can lead to a lot of problems. (I probably sound like an old fuddy duddy - but really - it just seems like a source of trouble for kids).</p>
<p>“I fully understand that teens sometimes make bad decisions and should not have to have to face permanent consequences.” Not only will they suffer permanent consequences, but their victims also will, sometimes more. 7minutes can cause a lot of damage. Two firefighters rookies can get run over by that 15 yr old who was drinking and driving. They will forever bear the scars.<br>
A young woman can be traumatized by “brain-fart”/ boys will be boys “joke” when an “innocent” lap dance turns into sexual harassment. I am so tired of excuses for teen “pranks” with overused, dismissive phrases.
This OP feels the school “overreacted” and the problem was not his 7 min of typing a bad joke. It is the school’s fault for not thinking that boys will be boys was enough of an excuse. That young woman who filed harassment charges is the problem because she can’t take a “joke”.
So, we are all supposed to infer that it was a prank and accept that you guys were just playing, plus tolerate your way of joking?
What did you expect to happen after writing what you did? People were just going to post comments as to how hilarious it was and laugh? Your intent was to make people laugh or intimidate?<br>
Someone needs some serious growing up to do if he is to become a responsible adult. Not only is the school’s fault for overreacting but they are being racist against middle easterns too. It has nothing to do with the shocking post that sounded like terrorism and the sense of entitlement that he should be allowed to prank and be given second and third chances. I am sure the new school won’t be the overreacting kind. So far, I read that it was the school’s fault, the lawyer’s bad representation and now that things did not go our way, and money had to be spent on new school, he is the victim.</p>
<p>OK, we’ve had 8+ pages telling the OP that no, your school record is not going to go away and yes schools will look at it and that you will be explaining it throughout your college application process.</p>
<p>I am trying to figure out if the OP is here looking for sympathy (it doesn’t look like he is getting any) or what.</p>
<p>And quite frankly, I’m not buying the racism card he just played. Anyone who makes an online threat against a school should expect a visit from the FBI, as armed nutcases come in all nationalities, political affiliations, and socio-economic backgrounds. In fact, OP if not an American citizen (Indian?) is lucky not to have been deported.</p>
<p>OP has to learn that no matter how friggin brilliant he thinks he is, he will be at a permanent disadvantage for college admissions because of his own behavior, which he seems to make a repeated point of minimizing despite the overwhelming advice that this is a poor tactic to take. OP cannot do anything to re-establish credibility with schools other than be a model citizen. He is at the mercy of those around him (teachers, counselors, etc.) to establish his credibility with schools. To the extent he tries to minimize and run from his past action, he loses opportunity to re-establish credibility with those important people. </p>
<p>Judging by his attitude here, he hasn’t been listening too well.</p>
<p>“And quite frankly, I’m not buying the racism card he just played. Anyone who makes an online threat against a school should expect a visit from the FBI, as armed nutcases come in all nationalities, political affiliations, and socio-economic backgrounds. In fact, OP if not an American citizen (Indian?) is lucky not to have been deported.”</p>
<p>I agree with what goaliedad posted.</p>
<p>I must be missing something here. How is the Internet (a public media) anonymous?</p>
<p>Off topic, but new definition of “middle class”:
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<p>Hey, what are you going to do? Even without the Internet, even without cell phones, kids are going to be able to bully each other – especially if they think or know that authorities won’t notice. To me, the issue isn’t formspring (which was created in 2009) but people – and those have been around long before November of last year! </p>
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<p>Middle class in terms of CollegeConfidential. The people here are significantly more affluent than the average American family, but college costs are skyrocketing so fast that it’s even a pinch of them – especially if the kids insist on applying only to the most expensive schools they can find.</p>
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<p>It’s hard to play the racism card right after making a racist comment about an entire country of people! :D</p>
<p>Op also needs to be aware that nothing is “hidden”. Should he file the FAFSA, information can be released about him without his permission.</p>
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<p>A comment on Formspring: I am surprised at the number of young people who join this. My daughter foolishly joined at the urging of friends and ended her membership/profile within two weeks. At first a few of her friends would ask her silly, but innocent questions and then she received some really weird sexual and inappropriate comments from an anonymous person (we think it was a male). She showed me and then finally listened to me to sever her account, which she did. She then showed me the profiles of some other classmates and it was obvious as to how abusive posters could be. But like any Internet forum, including CC, there is a level of anonymity that many feel they have, when in reality all of us are known, one way or another. (The Internet is not as anonymous as many think.)</p>
<p>Using an online source to bully or “jokingly intimidate” is the behavior of an immature coward and it isn’t limited to teenagers. Too many adults are just as inappropriate.</p>
<p>I know there is no way to prove how i am feeling right now, but it’s all based on trust…</p>
<p>By the way; I did NOT make a threat against the school, although i did say the word “school” in it. Just because i said the word “school”, they falsely accused me of threatening to attack the school. The thing that really ticked them off was the FALSE links with al-Qaeda, which called in the “Joint”-Terrorism task force(Who counters terrorist organizations). But honestly HOW is it the schools business if i wasn’t even talking about the school i was enrolled in, but another school in the same state… sorry this is confusing when i type it out on the internet.</p>
<p>Many of you think i took it way to far, but i have seen many kids on the internet joke around about being a member of such organizations, but since they are not from south/southwest Asia, they are not reported.</p>
<p>I think this went a little off topic, i am just asking if the colleges will understand that i made a silly but serious mistake, and that i am remorseful and have shown great improvement afterwards.</p>
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Never mind FAFSA; anyone ever hear of the Patriot Act? Nothing is private. And once you have an FBI file for terrorism, it never goes away.</p>
<p>TheLogic, you believe you’re the only kid targeted. You’re wrong. A young person from MIT was arrested at Logan Airport because she wore a lit circuit board that “anyone could tell” wasn’t a bomb. Well, they couldn’t tell. A young man shut down Newark Airport for five or six hours, disrupting travel for thousands of people, when he ran security to give his girlfriend one last kiss goodbye. He was arrested and is going to jail. His defense was also that they “overreacted” because they should have known he wasn’t a threat. And they should know that . . . how?</p>
<p>You also don’t know how many of these other kids (you know, the anonymous ones on the internet) were or were not investigated. They’re not going to tell you, nor, by the way, is the FBI. Your assumptions are unwarranted and likely false.</p>
<p>You say you’re remorseful, but from your last post, you’re obviously not. You need to improve your writing skills if you want to convince anyone of your sincerity.</p>
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<p>If you put it to schools this way, the answer is no, they will not understand that you made a silly mistake, because you do not sound remorseful, do not understand that making statements that could be taken as a threat against ANY school (or other institution for that matter) is not only stupid, but it is dangerous (slows down the investigation and enforcement of more legitimate threats and as a result could cost many people their lives), and seem to think the world is picking on you because of your ethnicity (see previous post).</p>
<p>For all the excuses you’ve made in this thread, the only remorse that I’ve seen is that you are sorry that you are being treated poorly which is not remorse at all. The question is what have you done to make amends for the harm you have caused? Have you addressed a roomful of your peers and explained to them how the unintended consequences of a “funny” prank can lead to the deaths of others? Apologizing for your actions is one thing, making a concerted effort to try to repair the damage and prevent future damage is an entirely different thing. Bottom line, stop looking for the OK to put this behind you on CC and start repairing the damage you’ve done.</p>
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<p>Um, what? That doesn’t make sense. A Ukrainian guy could treat a Polynesian guy poorly out of racism while the Polynesian guy simultaneously talks about how inferior Chinese people are. Just because the Polynesian guy is racist doesn’t mean he wasn’t also the victim of racism from the Ukrainian guy. (Ethnicities chosen at random, no offense to people of Ukrainian, Polynesian, or Chinese origin.) </p>
<p>But back on topic . . . OP, I don’t think your prank was malicious, but it was stupid. However, I wouldn’t try to hide it from the colleges; they’ll probably find out anyway and if you do manage to hide it you’ll always feel nervous in case they find out. Anyway, it will make a great How I Learned a Valuable Lesson essay if you play your cards right. But work on cultivating more maturity and humility.</p>