<p>I was suspended 5 days Junior year for violating my school's alcohol policy. I am very worried how this will affect me during admissions. How bad will this hurt my chances at my match/reach schools? Will this have less of an affect at larger state universities? Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>It will hurt you at many schools. Most schools have enough problems with students' alcohol use already without accepting students whose alcohol use already has caused problems. </p>
<p>My guess is that it may hurt you less at your in-state public universities, which tend to have admissions more based on stats than do private universities and out of state public colleges, which pay more attention to the whole picture. </p>
<p>When it comes to private and out of state publics, your match and safety schools will have to be of a lower tier than would normally be true based on your stats.</p>
<p>lol whoaa.. thats a really scary and harsh answer, northstarmom. yet again it seems like you expect absolutely no moral discrepencies in teenagers. but i would think college adcoms have a little more compassion than that. </p>
<p>as long as you have the stats to make up for it, as long as you have killer essays and recs, and as long as you explain your suspension and talk about what you learned from it, you shouldn't have much of a problem. </p>
<p>i learned this from that article on suspensions on the front page of <a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegeconfidential.com</a>, you should check it out.</p>
<p>I read what's on the CC homepage, too, and I still stand by my advice. If a college has a chance to accept someone who's gotten suspended and has learned from it or to accept someone of similar stats who has not gotten suspended, the college will likely accept the latter student.</p>
<p>Being suspended can hurt students' college apps, big time. It's important to realize this so as to select appropriate match and safety schools. Burying one's head in the sand and acting like everything will be fine if one provides a good explanation may leave one without a suitable college to go to next fall.</p>
<p>If you read "The Gatekeepers," you'll see that a stupid mistake (eating one pot-laced brownie) did keep one outstanding student out of Wesleyan even though she admitted her transgression and clearly had learned her lesson. </p>
<p>How adcoms say that they handle suspensions in reality is very different than how many of them approach such applicants when the adcoms have to make admissions decisions.</p>
<p>ouch, im going to agree with northstarmom, thats going to kill you. this may sound unorthodox, but small LACs with non elite reputations are more known for looking at the whole student, hood college for instance allows you to request an interview like a court briefing, you can explain yourself and its a good school outside baltimore. i dont think anywhere like Umich wisconsin maryland penn state or texas (good publics) will be able to overlook that, id say take a strategy which has schools which really evaluate your merits, not your weaknesses. remember, they want to know youre ready for college, will you be able to control your drinking then? ask yourself big questions like if youre ready to handle being away at all, community college might be the way to go.</p>
<p>I believe most suspensions that colleges can overlook are those that are petty, like tardiness, etc. Sorry</p>
<p>(This post is really disjointed. Just giving you guys some warning.)</p>
<p>I think some of you guys are blowing this a little bit out of proportion. The kid got caught drinking, an activity that is socially acceptable for adults and legal for kids in almost every country. </p>
<p>If it was pot (like in the case of the girl applying to Wesleyan), this would be a completely different story. Pot is not socially acceptable and legal in barely any countries (i'm assuming on that one.) </p>
<p>My main point is, admissions officers can identify with a kid who screwed up with alcohol (i'd wager that many of them tried it in high school as well. Whether they got suspended 5 days for it is debatable). Write a heartfelt essay about what you learned and I think it won't be that much of an issue. Marijuana is much harder to identify with.</p>
<p>In one of Michelle Hernandez's books, she talks about two cases of alcohol use that the admissions office completely overlooked as no big deal (one kid even got expelled for it.) And this was at Dartmouth, one of America's most highly selective colleges. </p>
<p>Also last year at my school, a friend of mine who was a senior got suspended for getting drunk at homecoming. He had a 3.3 unweighted gpa and a 1200 SAT, nothing stellar. Still got into U-Conn out of state.</p>
<p>I don't think it will be a big deal.</p>
<p>We probably are blowing this out of proportion, but they'll view it as a question of moral character. If OP utilizes this experiences as a growing one and not just a part of a pattern, it could work in your favor.</p>
<p>NorthstarMom wasn't being harsh, but advising OP to take his/her match and safety schools very seriously. Reach schools are Reach because they have large pools of equally qualified students. You should be conferring with your GC to see how this is going to be addressed in his or her letter of reference. And you should be able to project "having taken responsiblity." I agree with totallysweet... less selective Liberal Arts Colleges sometimes really can focus on the "whole student" and will give you a more personal interview and "second chance." Keep in mind that a very good academic record in any college often opens up transfer options at selective colleges. Good luck. We know that the consequences to being caught drinking can be harsh or not consistent, and that some other kids annually "get away with it" but colleges also must think about their own liabilities and their own best interests in terms of seeking freshmen retention rates and creating living communities that make sense for everyone.</p>
<p>I agree TOTALLY with NorthstarMom!!! If you had the audacity to drink at school, maybe your maturity level is displaying to colleges that you aren't ready. I'm sure you'll get into your state school, but that is about it. Don't think about the Ivies: There are more people just like you that didn't drink.</p>
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I'm sure you'll get into your state school, but that is about it. Don't think about the Ivies: There are more people just like you that didn't drink.
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<p>Get off your high horse and stop being so damn condescending. The kid made a mistake. Admissions officers are human beings; people make mistakes. Like KRAbble says, IF you write an essay that shows you grew from this experience and its NOT just a pattern, I would bet that it won't affect you that much. As i have said, Michelle Hernandez cites two examples of kids who got suspended and even expelled from thier high schools for drinking, learned from the experience, and still got into Dartmouth. Good luck.</p>
<p>BigE is right. These people are professionals and they will spend more than a second looking at the application. They may or may not jump to outrageous conclusions (like he/she is a drug dealer too or a member of the mafia), and that's why it's the OP's responsibility to get it straight (in the essays). Make sure depict some common ground between your wrongdoing and other people's. Make it more universal and the adcoms will understand. I'm sorry but that's all the advice I really have for a situation such as this. Good luck</p>
<p>You are getting some incorrect advice here. I have deeply investigated the subject of suspensions, since S was not only suspended, but also expelled from a prior school. I will re-emphasize that you will need to have a few more match/safeties than the "flawless" kids who are here on CC. However, an alcohol infraction is considered very minor by admissions people, especially if you write a strong explanation (not an excuse, but a concise explanation) and show how you have grown from the experience and, hopefully, how clean your record is since then. I was told (repeatedly) that experimenting with alcohol in high school is EXPECTED, and that there are many, many applicants who report an alcohol infraction. My son's infraction did not involve alcohol, or the "big three", by the way. His application has been given some careful pre-reads by some highly selective schools, and his disciplinary issue (which was in March 2003) is an issue in that it required an explanation (in part because there are some extra schools on his transcript), but is NOT a deal-breaker. That said, your alcohol suspension is not a positive thing, obviously, and it could result in someone else getting the nod over you, just as not taking AP Caculus or quitting the volleyball team could affect how you are viewed.</p>
<p>I also think most people are blowing it out of proportion. And advising him to lower his own standards is ridiculous and damaging. Don't listen to ANYONE who tells you NOT to apply to your reach or match schools. Apply to safeties, too (be sure to) but not applying to any matches or reaches is just as big of a mistake as not applying to safeties. This is your future, and you want to get the best education possible. Don't let 5 days keep you away from four years of your choice college. </p>
<p>My advice would be to write a heartfelt, insightful essay about the experience. What you learned from it, how it hurt you that you could do this, and how it created in you a resolve never to do anything like it again. Also explain what led you to do it. Who knows, someone who has actually had a negative experience and learned from it may look more interesting than someone who has been sheltered. Maybe not.</p>
<p>Good luck, and keep your chin up! You surely have much to offer any college you go to.</p>