<p>Let me start out by saying I have tried browsing the web and reading up on what others had to say regarding high school suspensions. Regardless, I still am not satisfied as the general consensus seems to be, "Be as honest as possible... **** happens... kids make mistakes... pray the admissions counselor understands." So before I list my credentials and explain my story, let me iterate my purpose for this post.</p>
<p>Purpose- To gain insight from those who have personally experienced or known someone who has personally experienced applying and getting admitted into a top ranked college with high school suspensions. </p>
<p>My High School Resume.. if you will</p>
<p>GPA- 3.97 UW (Top like 8% of class)
Courses- Rigorous: 8 AP's 3 IB's
Standardized Testing- 35 on ACT, 760 SAT Literature, 800 SAT Math 2
Academic Awards- AP Scholar with Honor, National Merit Semifinalist, Honor Roll
EC's + Awards- DECA state champion, DECA State finalist, SADD Activities Director, 4 year varsity swimmer, Scholar Athlete, Manager of Girls Swim and Dive
Rec Letters- Pretty good for both teachers; on good terms with counselor
Essays- Quite good. I have devoted a lot of time and effort into my essays. Plus I consider myself to be a pretty decent writer. </p>
<p>My story- My major suspension occurred the end of sophomore year- possession of marijuana on school property and suspended for 10 days. Just recently, today actually, I was then suspended again for an incident with an African American girl in my school. Racial slurs were exchanged and I received a 3 day suspension for making a racist remark back to the girl who had first made the racist remark. So.... yeah. I need to find out what's on my record and talk to my counselor about this and all that. But worst case, let's say both of these incidents appear on my record (The Marijuana incident for sure will).</p>
<p>What should my application strategy? Should I be applying to schools like Wash U in St. Louis, U Penn, Northwestern, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, UC Berkeley?</p>
<p>Not likely. The upper 8% of class if your school reports rank is alone a problem. But basically, there are too many other kids with your resume, unless you have something truly outstanding that attracts the colleges why should they pick you over a student with a clean slate. If you were truly the top of the top in your class, had a hook, a national award , an NCAA level recruited athlete, a URM, disadvantaged first generation, that would be a whole other story, But if not, there are many, many with your profile and these schools look for reason to deny to cull the field. You give them an easy out.</p>
<p>I’m afraid that if you exercised extremely poor judgement just once it “might” have been explained away with the passage of time and a counselor rec that said it was truly a one-time thing. However, you did it again and I can’t see how you have any credibility left, especially now that you are a senior. Your grades and stats are in the ballpark to apply to the schools on your list but most would have been reaches even without the suspensions. That being said, if you can afford the expense, I would go ahead and apply to them knowing that your chances are pretty small. Perhaps, you’ll get an extremely understanding AO who will be willing to stand up for you to the committee. I wouldn’t do this, however, before you’ve had a frank discussion with you GC and you are comfortable that he/she will go to bat for you. I wouldn’t count on not reporting the incidents, btw, I know of cases where top schools have rescinded their offer of admissions because they found out about unreported infractions from a classmate of the acceptee’s or by other means. </p>
<p>Lastly, I don’t think you get it yet. It doesn’t matter who said what first. If you try using that line of rationalization with the colleges, you’ll guarantee you won’t succeed. There is no justification for racial slurs.</p>
<p><em>shrugs</em> it’s certainly possible, but the racial one seems to be the killer. I had a suspension, but i got into top schools (w/ 5-10% acceptance rate) both as an RD and as a transfer. your stats aren’t really quite there though, which is a bigger issue.</p>
<p>Oh man you are a solid applicant but you had possession of marijuana and made racial slurs. you woulda got into any of those schools for sure. maybe about 10% chance with your story</p>
<p>I agree, that story is a real bummer. I’d still be hopeful though. Some of the admissions officers I met(notably UPenn and WashU) are the “live and let live” kinds, so they might just look past those two incidents. However, it will definitely reflect, I’m afraid. If they do look past it, those schools are low/mid reaches(Berkeley a tad lower). Otherwise, all are high reach. </p>