<p>Oh, the poor parents of these kids:</p>
<p>What planet does the kid live on that he “hopes the arrest won’t derail his [grad school] plans?” Wow! I’d imagine most grad schools would be very interested in the arrest and subsequent legal proceedings.</p>
<p>This kid wants to be a lawyer! Even if a law school accepted him could be ever be admitted to a state bar with this criminal record? There has been enough knowledge everywhere for enough years about legalities/penalties of drug dealing that he can’t claim lack of knowledge of consequences.</p>
<p>Heck, even if he sticks with engineering, he would probably be ineligible for jobs that require him to undergo a security clearance, like a lot of federal jobs & some contracting jobs. Can’t think that many REPUTABLE grad schools would want to admit him or his confederates. Doesn’t seem like the kid has any idea of the implications of what he’s been charged with–probably sees it as “no big deal.” Wow! I guess brains are not fully developed at 20 or maybe these folks were using a lot of their product & other drugs!!!</p>
<p>The girl who plagiarized a novel not only was not expelled from Harvard, but she was accepted to Columbia Law. She cheated to get into Harvard–and of course her parents also shelled out something like $25K to Ivywise to package her, including the packaged book deal-- and she has been handsomely rewarded for it.</p>
<p>I’d say there are some mixed messages out there.</p>
<p>“Even if a law school accepted him could be ever be admitted to a state bar with this criminal record?”</p>
<p>Not if he’s convicted of a felony. If he pleads out to some kind of misdemeanor, though, he may have a shot. </p>
<p>If his GPA is really in the 3.5 range, he was already on his way out of the Ivy League as far as law school is concerned.</p>
<p>^Maybe if he was a humanities major, but he’s a material science and engineering major at Columbia…so…oh well though :p</p>
<p>Major doesn’t matter very much for law school admissions. If he had a 170+, he’d have a shot at Cornell and Penn.</p>
<p>Hanna, would he still be a viable candidate with a criminal conviction for selling drugs? Maybe it would depend on whether it’s a felony or misdemeanor?</p>
<p>I’ve noticed for grad schools (primarily MBA though since that is what i’ve been looking at) about 50% of schools don’t require you to report criminal records (no questions about this whatsoever in the application)…the other 50% ask you to list if you’ve been convicted of a felony. If these guys are able to plead out to some form of misdemeanor then their grad school chances wouldn’t be significantly impacted.</p>
<p>I actually feel sad for these kids…stupid stupid mistake. Their parents must be devastated.</p>
<p>Yes, I think it would depend on the eventual conviction, though it will be a major hurdle to overcome even if it’s a misdemeanor. If it’s a felony, forget it. No good law school is going to admit someone with no shot at bar membership without gigantic extenuating circumstances. (Bernadine Dohrn got into UChicago as a prospective academic; if you’re a superstar student whose political felony played a role in American history, maybe you can sell that to top schools. But to paraphrase Thelma and Louise, there’s no such thing as justifiable drug dealing.)</p>
<p>It was a pattern, not just a one-shot or one-time thing, according to the article. The cops were following the case for five months (that would be from August). I would be unbelievably disappointed if I were one of their parents. I think it’s odd if MBA programs don’t inquire about convictions on your record, but have no direct knowledge.</p>