High School Suspension

So back in my sophomore year, I got suspended for 5 days under “terroristic threats”, where I regretfully posted a violent joke on SC which I really am sorry for, and I’ve definitely changed as a better, much more mature person. I’ve thought of the suspension as learning from my mistakes, and am no longer constantly thinking about it. However, on the Common App, it asks about disciplinary records, which I am completely fine in being honest about. My question here is knowing how detrimental that’ll be for my college applications for the T50 colleges, the suspension factor alone. Will this ruin my chances with the top colleges?

Not necessarily, no. It is key that you show remorse and can show what you learned from the experience and how you matured. If you took action on your own initiative to remedy your wrongs, mention that.

Do you know if your GC is mentioning this incident in their rec letter? If they are you need to know how they are covering it.

I’ve still had yet to talk to my GC due to the COVID situation, but now I’ll definitely ask about how I should handle this as well as what they’ll do for the rec letter. I really appreciate the advice, thanks.

In my opinion, and from my experience, this could be extremely detrimental to your applications. Look at it this way - if the admissions committee has a choice, they will pass you over, thinking that you could be trouble.

This is the last year that this question will appear on the Common App. If I were you, and if you can get your high school to remove any mention of the suspension, I would not apply this year. If you apply next year, you will not have to tell the schools anything about that suspension (which in my opinion, is the most alarming type of suspension report that an admissions committee might see). Meanwhile, I would bring a great deal of persuasion, with legal advice, to the school to erase the record of the suspension, based upon your excellent reformed behavior. I would plan not a gap year, but a year off before college (who knows if next year will be a normal year, either, due to Covid), have all your applications ready to go by the end of the school year, and submit them in the summer of 2021 for entry for the fall of 2022. Meanwhile, work as hard as you can this year in school - while all the other kids are having senioritis, you should be able to rack up excellent grades and do maximum prep for SAT/ACT so that you will have the best possible scores to submit. You can also work on improving your extracurriculars, particularly ones that illustrate what a good boy you are.

I have personal knowledge of this from a brilliant, incredibly high-performing family member from the best private school in a top 20 sized metropolitan area who got suspended for a group act of vandalism (slightly worse than toilet-papering a yard, but not as bad as spray-painting) that was viewed as bullying (which it was, but kid didn’t know the companion’s history of bullying, just stupidly went along with it). Under any other circumstances, she should have gotten into several, if not all, Ivies, plus pretty much any other school kid applied to (and yes, I know, not true for anyone, but this young woman had placed very highly in national competitions, had perfect scores, perfect grades, took all the most challenging classes, had many top-level extracurriculars, and was legacy at two ivies). She only got into her flagship state U (not a highly competitive one), and one top 30 private school, with no merit money. Clearly, the admissions committees passed on her, because with so many qualified applicants, they just said, “No thanks, we don’t need a girl who was suspended for bullying.”

This is what you’re trying to avoid. No one could fault you for trying to do an end-run around what could be the most competitive admissions year in memory, due to the fact that about 20% deferred. Hopefully, you could plan to do an equivalent of a gap year, possibly in a foreign country, doing something that would make you an even better contributor to a college community. If you are asked why you waited to apply until after your senior year, you can say that you wanted to avoid freshman year during the pandemic, and that you felt that your performance in senior year would support your application.

If you are determined to start college in Sept 2021, I believe that this would affect your chances of admission to reach, and even match schools. If you instead apply for admission to begin in fall of 2022, the pandemic will probably be over, you hopefully will be able to conceal the suspension without dishonesty, and you may have an even stronger application, and have some excellent choices.

First off-thank you SO much for giving me such detailed and helpful advice, your info really does make things more apparent and clear for me. I’m actually in the middle of my junior year, but I’m learning about the application processes and whatnot, so I have plenty of time until applying. This suspension has been making me feel so guilty and regretful, and I accept the responsibility and consequences 100%. It’s been more than a year, however, ever since my record’s been fine and I’ve been making up for it by maintaining high grades, challenging courses, and extracurriculars, and I’m trying to prove that I really am a different and more mature person. I’ve definitely learned from my mistake and am willing to be completely honest about it. Since this would be the last year of the question being on the Common App, are there other ways of the college knowing such as my school alerting them, or having hold of my disciplinary record? I also had no idea it was possible to ask the school to keep this off my transcript.

I’m so sorry for being a bit annoying, I think it’s stress getting to me. Either way, thanks so much for the advice, I’d rather have the plain truth rather than people telling me it won’t be a big deal when it is.

Yes. The school can have it on your record, and that record can get sent to the colleges. If I were you, I’d start discussing with your parents the possibility of getting advice from a lawyer experienced in these matters, and getting help getting it off your record. I can tell you that this is commonly done. I knew two senior boys who cruelly bullied a 9th grade handicapped boy. They interfered with that boy’s education with their repeated bullying, stealing and hiding of his school materials, locking him out of classrooms, etc. They were caught, and reported to administration. The families lawyered up, the school district rolled over, and nothing went onto their transcripts/records. If it had, they would likely have been denied admission to their schools of choice. I’m not saying it was right - it was NOT. I’m just saying that this sort of thing happens ALL the time, and families in the know get a lawyer involved, and make sure that it does not wind up reported to colleges by the schools.

I’ll make sure to look more into the process of possibly having this removed from my record, regardless of whether it’s possible or not. Definitely, I remain apologetic and regretful over the incident and have changed, however it can’t hurt to see if it’s possible to be removed. Thanks!