Should I discuss my suspension in my personal essay?

Way back when in sophomore, I had a temporary lapse of judgment and had gotten suspended due to alcohol possession at a school event. However, it was a one-time thing and I’ve definitely learned and grown since then. Overall, I am a straight-A student, honor roll, not a smidge on my transcript besides that and scored high on my SAT&ACTS, as well as participate in a lot of extracurriculars. I know personal statements are supposed to be powerful and well, personal. So I’m wondering, should I mention my suspension as my personal statement and how it affected me and how I’ve learned and grown from it (I feel like it could be powerful and different and set me apart from all the other straight-A kids)? Or since most public schools don’t even see disciplinary records unless they specifically request for it, should I just not mention it because it could hinder my chances of getting in?

Not true. You are required to report all suspensions and disciplinary action on your common app. Depending on your school, it might also show up on your transcript. Your counselor is also obligated to report it to all schools you apply to.

How would taking alcohol to a school event at 15 set you apart in a good way? I don’t think it will.

Unfortunately, you don’t get to choose whether or not to acknowledge it. I believe there’s a question on college applications that asks specifically about disciplinary records. You have to answer it truthfully. However, your guidance counselor can address it in their letter. I wouldn’t waste essay space trying to explain it or, worse, imply that you somehow view it as a positive.

If it’s apparent on the CommonApp anyway, should I make efforts to address it? What I meant is (I don’t mean to paint it in a positive light at all but) the experience definitely changed me as a student I really started taking things tenfold more seriously as a result of the shame, so I was curious to see as to whether that would make a good, vulnerable, personal statement (then again, I don’t know too much)

They expect you to grow from it as a baseline. You can include a little description in the additional information box about how you grew and have never done anything like that again. But your personal statement should be about who you currently are, not about who you were. Sure, you can show how you grew, but its kind of a typical essay “I did something bad and now I’m a good person”. Almost up there with “here’s how grandma inspired me” and “the night of the big game”. It’s a bit tired.