<p>I’m not going to sugarcoat it, I think those are going to seriously hurt your chances. I would start looking into other schools, ASAP! Not to say you should abandon your first choices, just broaden them, pick some backup schools that are not as selective. I am in a similar situation though. I’m a 23 year old transfer student with a 3.5 GPA. I was suspended twice (2 different times) in high school for “fighting.” It sucks, because both instances were really lame, I regret them completely, and I’m not a violent person, but what am I going to do? All I can do is be honest, and that’s what I did. Here is what I wrote, but please, whatever you do, don’t PLAGIARIZE this (that will make all of your problems worse.) This is just to give you an idea of what someone else in your position learned from their experiences.</p>
<p>5/15/03 - fighting (mutual combat) with another student
Around the end of my sophomore year of high school, I was approached on campus by a
fellow student with whom I had attended junior high. He was a grade below me and hung out with a different crowd. I had been acquainted with him at some time in 8th grade, but I didn’t remember him beyond that. When he approached me he was accompanied by a large group of friends who were egging him on. He claimed I had picked on him in junior high and that now we were going to fight about it. He suggested we fight at lunch and walked away. At this time all of his friends burst into laughter. I was pretty embarrassed and I honestly could not remember insulting him in any way. I felt he was unjustified but I didn’t want to fight. My friends would have none of it. They told me that I had no choice but to fight, almost as if I had to avenge my pride. Being the naive teenager that I was, I gave into peer pressure. The two of us ended up wrestling to the ground during lunch. That is were we laid for the next minute and a half before campus personnel rushed in to stop us. In the discipline office we both realized we had become nothing more than a source of entertainment for our friends. In the end, I apologized to him for anything I could have said or done in junior high to offend him, and he apologized for instigating the fight. I would not say we became friends after that, but we definitely were not enemies</p>
<p>5/27/05 - dangerous behavior leading to injury
It was my senior year, a few days before prom and graduation. I was in a legal studys
class minding my own business, when I was attacked from behind. The student (a known bully) had pushed me out of my chair onto the floor. He then proceeded to sit exactly were I had been sitting. This all took place in about 5 seconds and in plain view of the teacher. As I lay on the floor, still not fully aware of what happened; I realized the teacher was doing nothing to interject. It was like the calm before the storm. My classmates were stunned, the teacher was shocked, and I was dazed. The only thing that permeated this silence was the obnoxious laugh of the student who had attacked me. Out of reflex I grabbed the bully and held on until the teacher yelled at me to let go. The bully then pushed me into a filing cabinet and split my head open. I stood up dizzy and weak in the knees. I was furious but I couldn’t walk and I could barely talk. Other students came to my aid and escorted me outside. An ambulance was called and I was rushed to a hospital were I received six staples in my head. I was informed later that evening that I was going to be
suspended from school for five days and would not be aloud to attend prom.
My suspension was eventually shortened, but I was still banned from the prom, and was
stuck with the disheartening job of informing my planned date that we could not go. Originally, I was resentful of the school for this decision, because I believed it was an exercise of selfdefense. Over time though, I came to the conclusion it was not self-defense. I had a chance to escape out of the classroom when I was first attacked, but instead I chose to take matters into my own hands. It was the wrong thing to do, and I deserved the punishment. As hard as it was forme, I even reconciled my differences with the other student involved. That was the last fight I was involved in, and I hope it is the last fight I ever get in. I have learned from these two incidences that, as clich</p>
<p>Dude, if you explain that suspension, most colleges (I would think) will see you misunderstood the assignment the second time and your teacher acted groundlessly the first time. In other words, it might not affect you much at all. </p>
<p>But, on the other hand, they might suspect.
Who can really know?</p>
<p>EDIT: to the guy above me, that sucks. Alot.
Good ending line though.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I really think the second assignment was unlucky cause as I said many times before, it was a complete misunderstanding. I’m not sure if I should assert that it was a misunderstanding or if I should mention that it was my fault for relying on my friends and that in the future I should clarify with a teacher.</p>
<p>Not sure if I’m writing too much though. Pretty much finished writing my explanation for both scenarios but it’s 2 pages long. Do you think they’ll actually read all of it and fully consider or automatically reject?</p>
<p>You don’t seem like a bad person by any means. However, the colleges that you mentioned get tens of thousands of applications each year. If you are similar to another applicant and they haven’t been suspended but you have, who do you tihnk they will accept?</p>
<p>Do NOT blame it on your friends! That looks like you are trying to pass the blame. Adcoms will not like that at all. If you blame it on your friends it opens up another whole can of worms - like a lack of responsibility, blah…blah…blah…</p>
<p>i meant blaming MYSELF for not asking my teachers and automatically assuming everything was alright by trusting friends. i dont blame them at all whatsoever.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>true, that is why i applied to safety schools. in addition, perhaps a. they’ll review my case and agree that it was something unfortunate and put no weight on the incident, b. they’ll be impressed by how i handled the scenario and what i’ve learned from it or c. (worst case scenario) they conclude im a cheat and don’t accept me =/ </p>
<p>i can only be hopeful.</p>
<p>
What if every part of it is relevant though? What I included is what happened, why it happened, what i learned from it. I was pretty thorough on every specific aspect to the incidents.</p>
<p>I think two pages is fine. I mean, lets be honest, this is a big deal. They need to know that you know that, and that you accept full responsibility. There is really nothing else you can do at this point, you have your saftey schools, so you should be good to go.</p>
<p>If you all co-authored the lab report, and you all put all of your names down, then it wasn’t actual plagarism. It might have violated the teachers policy and you incorrectly did the assignment. Maybe you should all get a zero since you didn’t properly do the assignment. However, there is nothing academically DISHONEST here because you all attributed the work properly. </p>
<p>I think this is an important distinction that could have huge ramifications. I would get your parents involved and see if you can have the GC letter clarify the situation. It is important that you not appear dishonest.</p>
<p>If you are being honest about both scenarios, it looks to me that you did not have INTENT to cheat or plagiarize in either situation.</p>
<p>By using a couple of ideas from a classmate on the essay, you surely understood that it might appear that you copied those ideas. But it seems to me that you rationalized that it was OK to do that. Poor choice, but not done with a clear objective of cheating.</p>
<p>In the second scenario, it seems that everyone in the group clearly had similar reports, and by design. The only way this one should have gotten you in trouble is if you knew better, and simply jumped on the bandwagon because it was the easy way out.</p>
<p>IMO, both of these situations seem to be misunderstandings.</p>
<p>However, there is one gaping hole in your stories. That is why you wre suspended in the first place. I would like to think that your administration would give a top student like yourself the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they did when they only gave you a 1 day suspension. A letter from one of them on your behalf might go a long way towards helping your cause.</p>
<p>Good luck as you go forward. No matter how it turns out, you will have learned a very valuable life lesson.</p>
<p>Just to summarize/clarify what happened with the second assignment:
We received a completely NEW lab format. She gave us a template and on the template, it asked for “authors” (we usually write our own names down and don’t include partner names). We thus interpreted it as a group assignment where we co-author a lab report. If we had intentions to cheat, we would’ve reworded everything so it was untraceable but we left it cause we thought what we were doing were acceptable.</p>
<p>Wasn’t the main purpose of the assignment to learn? I think it reflects on my test scores and grades in that class (pretty decent). Oh, and we received a failing grade on the assignment but two of us still passed with solid A’s (mind you, the assignment was still a big factor to our grade). </p>
<p>And yes, I can assure you all I’ve learned my lesson (pretty well portrayed in my personal statement/explanation in my opinion). I don’t condone myself for “borrowing” people’s ideas or “taking shortcuts” but I really am glad some of you are able to understand that a. I didn’t have intentions to cheat and b. It was an unlucky misunderstanding. Thank you all for your input. I’m almost finished with my explanation. Any more feedback/suggestions? Would greatly appreciate it as I am coming to a close.</p>
<p>That teacher sounds like a real *****. It may be late, but it’s worth appealing. Make a fuss. They can’t do anything worse to you. Get your parents involved. Do anything short of slander to get the school to change its decision.</p>
<p>Go challege it. Right Now. That is completely unfair. In our school our labs are supposed to be identical. You did not mean to cheat but instead misinterpreted the assignment.</p>