<p>im ranked 1st in my class. ive got a 33 on the act, have leadership in some decent ec's, etc.... overlal, im not the best candidate, but i still think im certainly qualified for some top-notch schools.</p>
<p>recently, i got suspended for one day at my school due to an "academic violation". my counselor said that most unfortunately, he has to report the suspension in my mid year report. ive applied to a bunch of ivies, plus Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, etc....</p>
<p>my question is, how badly will this suspension look on me? will they automatically throw my app to the "reject pile" upon seeing the "suspended" on my app, or will they still fully consider me? i realize these are selective schools that try to weed out the best, and i can assure you i regret my mistake and have learned from them. nonethelss, im afraid they're going to be expecting the generic answer of "i learned my lesson, im sorry and i ll never do it again" and simply reject my app.</p>
<p>what im trying to say is, i feel im a formiddable candidate who got decent grades/test scores/etc, but made an unfortunate mistake in getting suspended. i really want to know if they will disregard my suspension as i believe it doesnt truly reflect my character.</p>
<p>I think that top schools take “academic violations” (cheating, plagiarism i’m assuming) very, very seriously. It will definitely hurt a little, but not necessarily disqualify you.</p>
<p>It’s not that the colleges will believe that it was a small infraction if it merited only a one day suspension…</p>
<p>it’s that the colleges may believe that this is the first time the applicant was CAUGHT…and that the applicant’s academic record is tainted by instances of cheating or whatever that were not caught…in other words, that the applicant did not earn the high marks on the transcript honestly.</p>
<p>maybe if you they was more specific with what was done we’d be able to judge better :)</p>
<p>but even though the ‘sentence’ might’ve been light, the dishonesty was still there. </p>
<p>I really think a blemish on your moral character will not sit well with the adcoms. But then again, I’m not an adcom, so I can’t know for sure. </p>
<p>But no matter what people say, take it all with a grain of salt! And sit tight, there’s nothing you can do about it now, but worry yourself to death.</p>
<p>heres my situation:
1st = warning
2nd = suspension</p>
<p>1st time: my essay coincedentally had a lot of similar ideas as another person’s essay in english. teacher labeled it as “plagiarizing”</p>
<p>2nd time: for a GROUP lab report, my friends divided the lab report into three parts and did them accordingly. the requirements said to write “authors” on the top of the lab report so i wrote my name down and their names and they did the same. teacher said it was unacceptable that our lab reports were identical and accused us of “plagiarizing”.</p>
<p>1st time… meh, 2nd time… i sort of think its unfair but i’m not going to argue about it.
look, im not the type of guy who did drugs, got in a fight, hacked the system to change my grades, etc… i admit that what i did was considerably wrong. nonethless, i think it was arguably unfair, especially the second “violation” but whatevers. i didnt make this thread to ask if i’m right or wrong. (just wrote it since you guys said details would help). all i want to know is if i still have a decent shot at the school as much as i would of without the suspension. what do you think now?</p>
<p>You can be like New England Patriot or Dr. House… If you don’t cheat, you’re not trying hard enough… haha they might consider it positive… idk well… good luck…</p>
<p><haha they=“” might=“” consider=“” it=“” positive…=“” idk=“” well…=“” good=“” luck…=“”> Except that it’s not funny. They don’t consider cheating to be positive.</haha></p>
<p>Write a letter with your application explaining what happened. Be thurough, be honest, leave nothing out. For the first violation, say you had talked with the other student about paper topics, do not assume that this is too small to include. Write it in the letter. My experience with the people who work in admissions at my university is that they will pick up on ******** like that very quickly. Also, if the teachers involved still remember the integrity violations, talk to them to see what they thought had happened. And remember if all they see are repeated integrity violations, they will think that this will happen again in College. If it happens in college, the college will probably launch an investigation and review your application file, see the unexplained integrity violations in your file and will look no farther.</p>
<p>It can be hard to get into many colleges if one has drug or alcohol violations. It’s even harder to get into colleges if one has violations indicating that one is a cheater or plagiarizer. Any disciplinary action indicating that one has cheated or plagiarized calls into question one’s entire transcript.</p>
<p>The only thing I can think of leaving out is the fact that the essay was a take home essay and that I looked at another person’s essays and used ideas that I strongly agreed with. this led to my first violation. </p>
<p>As for the second violation, I can’t really think of anymore details i left out. honestly, it was a GROUP project that my friends and i collaborated and apparently, it was unacceptable to have identical papers.</p>
<p>im going to say this one last time, im not here to ARGUE if what i did was right or wrong. all i want to know is how the college adcoms will rrespond to this.</p>
<p>Without a question, you need to send a statement explaining the circumstances of your suspension and alleged academic dishonesty. Such inconsequential instances of alleged academic dishonesty should not be what keeps you from an Ivy League education. And honestly your GC must be an ***</p>
<p>If a student is suspended or expelled, GCs have to report that info. Otherwise, if the college finds out that the GC hid such information, the college will doubt the integrity of both the GC and of students and faculty at the high school, so that will lower all applicants’ chances of admission.</p>
<p>i hope what you said is true as this is EXACTLY what i believe.</p>
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<p>I don’t plan on hiding the suspension as a. i would feel guilty for being more dishonest, and b. i think colleges would most likely find out i was suspended which would get me into further trouble and c. i just feel that reporting this could help my cause depending on how i explain my situation.</p>
<p>i did have a question though, northstarmom. coincedentally, my 1st choice college is harvard and if i am correct, you have graduated from there, and know a lot about the university. in your honest opinion, what do you think will happen to me? i fully realize that the suspension may taint my resume and as you have said before, put my entire transcript into question. However, i strongly feel that the suspension doesn’t truly reflect my actual character and hope that the adcom interpets it in the same fashion. not only that, but i can assure you i deeply regret what happened and will do to the best of my ability to never let it happen.</p>
<p>the most obvious course of action to take now is write a personal statement fully detailing what happened and what i’ve learned from it. it’s just that i am quite sure colleges will be expecting the typical response of “i am sorry for what i’ve done and i will never do it again” and just feel that they would automatically reject me. any feedback on this?</p>
<p>EDIT: I guess overall, what I’m trying to say is that I know highly selective colleges such as Harvard, Yale, etc take academic dishonesty seriously and could really hurt an applicant and sometimes to the extent that it leads to an automatic rejection. How can I prevent this?</p>
<p>" in your honest opinion, what do you think will happen to me? i"</p>
<p>I think that the odds of your getting accepted to Harvard and similar colleges are even longer than they are for similar students with no records of disciplinary actions for academic violations. With an overabundance of outstanding applicants with no disciplinary infractions, why would top colleges take a chance on someone with a history of being disciplined for cheating/plagiarism? In all honesty, what could a high school senior with a recent such disciplinary infraction write that would cause top colleges to take a chance on them instead of accepting one of the many outstanding applicants with no disciplinary violations?</p>
<p>Accepting 7%, with almost half of them having a hook, meaning they accept well under 5% of unhooked candidates, why would they take anyone with a record tainted in the least? They are turning away most valedictorians and most 2400s. You are talking about 2 academic dishonesty violations. That’s as bad as it gets.</p>
<p>If we’re to be honest, this will make it very, very, very tough. I’ve seen qualified 4 generation donor legacies get rejected for 1 alcohol violation. And in all honesty, with a 33 ACT and nothing you list that’s extraordinary, Harvard was already unlikely.</p>