Suspension/Expulsion question..

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi I'm new here. Well here's my story...</p>

<p>I go to a private catholic high school. In an unlikely series of events, I got caught with marijuana at school. So they suspended me and put me under review, where I must wait before they make a decision to expel me or not. Luckily they did not call the cops on me so I didn't get possession or intent to sell. </p>

<p>My major concern is college. I already submitted my application to Stanford under Restricted Early Action and my UC application as well. Do I have to tell them about my suspension? And if I get expelled, what do I do so that I still have a good standing with the colleges that I applied to? All I applied to was Stanford and the UC's. Do I have to tell them about this whole fiasco or is there any way around this?</p>

<p>Thanks for any help. And please don't lecture me about my bad habit, I already got enough lecturing. Thanks. -Sam</p>

2

<p>Aww.. I'm sorry to hear that.</p>

<p>Yes, I think you are bound to tell all schools you apply to of any infractions like suspensions and expulsions. There is a question on the app that says to list any punishments of that sort that you've gotten in high school, and not to lie about it, so my guess is that you need to update Stanford with this new development or you could be accused of dishonesty on your app, which would probably result in rejection. I don't think you should risk it. I don't know what the unfortunate circumstances are, but if you weren't really smoking weed and just happened to get caught holding it or some mistake like that, you could try explaining that to the schools you applied to when you tell them about your suspension.</p>

3

<p>Well I wasn't smoking it. I was just caught with it. The events that led up to it was just a series of bad luck. But none the less, I was caught and suspended. Honestly Stanford was a stretch for me, but I'm more worried about UC's. Will I have to tell them about my suspension/expulsion in full detail? Will it hurt me in anyway?</p>

4

<p>i dont think uc asks for disciplinary records of any sort. so, perhaps it would be best to not tell the UC's and take that risk</p>

5

<p>Colleges know that kids make mistakes and get into trouble at times. My advice is to be open and honest, and to take responsibility for your actions. A school will look much more kindly on a student who is mature enough to accept that what s/he did was wrong and to learn from his/her mistake, than it would on a kid who tried to squirm away from it and perhaps to lie about it. You really would not want a school to find out by other means (teacher letters, GC rec, etc.).</p>

6

<p>Do not make this decision on your own. There are things you need to tell and things you don't. Your app and transcripts are already in, so there is no question of lying on them--it hadn't happened yet. You need to make this decision with your parents and your guidance counselor. Your school may agree not to report this, in which case you should not jump the gun.</p>

<p>There was a kid at my kid's school who was 'asked to leave' during Senior year spring. He had already been accepted to an Ivy school. Somehow he did not lose that acceptance even though he had to finish at another high school. I don't know how this was done or explained, but obviously the original school decided not to torpedo his acceptance. </p>

<p>I don't want to lecture you about pot smoking since I don't think pot smoking is a big deal. But I don't approve of it in high school kids because they already have a natural handicap about making good judgements. They don't often forsee consequences of behavior that can lead to temporary or irrevokable problems. An adult with a small amount still makes a judgement about how much trouble it will be to buy it and to be 'caught' with it when outside one's home. But a high school kid is at school or other inappropriate place and will have harsher sanctions, like your college problems, juvy etc. But is that a detterent? Guess not.</p>

<p>I would make very compelling arguments in your mind why you screwed up and how you are going to be humble and truthful about it with those that have your future in their hands right now. To say you were caught through unlikely series of events eschews all responsibility and won't fly. </p>

<p>P.S. Did you ever read The Gatekeepers, where a student body president at a top private school ate one bite of MJ brownie someone handed her?</p>

7

<p>You need to find out if your school puts disciplinary stuff on your transcript. If they do, the UCs will see it on the transcript and it may/probably will affect your acceptance/enrollment. The UCs admit and then get your transcript for verification. If you are expelled, it definitely will get reported to the UCs and you may be out of luck.
What is more concerning is your statement that you were caught due to "bad luck".<br>
I'm sorry to tell you but it was more bad judgement than bad luck. Marijuana is still illegal and having it at school is asking for trouble.<br>
Whether you were smoking it or "holding it for a friend" you made a dumb mistake. You are going to end up paying the consequences for it.
Find out what goes on your transcript and do some proactive research to find out what the consequences will be.</p>

8

<p>A majority of college students, and people who have ever attended college have smoked pot. It's not as though you killed someone. Be honest, and if the adcoms feel you are still qualified to attend, then you'll get in. Or you'll have you acceptance rescinded. It's nbd. you'll be okay. most people have been around pot.</p>

9

<p>
[quote]
A majority of college students, and people who have ever attended college have smoked pot.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>A majority. Really? I'd love to see the data that backs this claim.</p>

10

<p>While I'd never go near that stuff...I could buy that a majority of students, intellectual or not, have smoked pot. Stanford is in San Francisco area and UC-Berkeley has a hippieish reputation, so these schools especially won't consider it that big a deal.</p>

<p>I'd imagine a school like BYU would care a lot more.</p>

11

<p>It's definetely not a majority, but it's also not very rare.</p>

12

<p>I would be careful not to use the words "series of unlikely events" and "series of bad luck." This shows a serious lack of understanding of whose fault it is that you had pot in your possession and were caught with it.</p>

<p>This was actually a series of bad decisions followed by a logical outcome. </p>

<p>If you have to write/talk about this with GC or admissions, you might want to reflect on whether you regret using pot, not just the fact that you were caught with it, and how one would go about saying this convincingly and sincerely.</p>

13

<p>“I don't want to lecture you about pot smoking since I don't think pot smoking is a big deal.”</p>

<p>“A majority of college students, and people who have ever attended college have smoked pot. It's not as though you killed someone…It's nbd. You’ll be okay. most people have been around pot.”</p>

<p>Here are some facts about pot, just as an FYI…</p>

<ol>
<li><p>While you are on it, you do worse at complex tasks, yet you incorrectly perceive that you are doing better (despite evidence to the contrary). </p></li>
<li><p>An enzyme in your brain cells called anandadine (forgive my spelling) becomes impaired, slowing down cellular functions.</p></li>
<li><p>Walls in your brain cells become up to 400 times thicker (and this is with just three joints a week over a period of months). Since your brain functions by passing chemicals between cells, your brains ability to do its job is seriously slowed down.</p></li>
<li><p>There IS much more THC in pot that is on the street today, versus a generation ago.</p></li>
<li><p>THC mixes in with fats (versus alcohol, which is water-soluble). Globules of fat mixed with THC build up in your upper brain, and (again with only three joints per week over a period of months) it takes up to two years (per animal studies – humans aren’t yet agreeing to successive brain biopsies over time) to clean that out.</p></li>
<li><p>Too much THC in your brain can cause amotivational syndrome, which is probably pretty easy to figure out by the name.</p></li>
<li><p>Even before motivation is globally impaired, THC causes impairment in the ability to delay gratification, an increase in impulsivity, and a disruption of decision-making ability.</p></li>
<li><p>While there is no scientific proof that pot is a “gateway drug” chemically, it can easily be proven that it IS a gateway drug behaviorally. Quite simply, if you hang with people who smoke pot, buy from people who sell it, and things like that, you are statistically more likely to be exposed to harder drugs.</p></li>
<li><p>Approximately 1 in 10 people will suffer from some time of substance addiction in their lifetime. Smoking pot can lower a person’s ability to fight this disease. If you don’t know yet, for sure, that you or your child is in the 9/10 group, why risk it?</p>

<p>Regarding whether or not to report the situation, since your application was sent in before any of this happened, you did not lie. I would try top see if the school will agree to expunging the suspension from your final record (perhaps agreeing to treatment can persuade them - it also may stop them from expelling you). If the suspension stays on your record, I think you take a big risk not to report it. I do know of another CCer who was caught with pot and expelled after being admitted to a top public. He chose not to inform the U, and recently responded to an email from me to let me know that he had not been discovered. He got away with it - so far. Personally, I don't think it is worth the risk or the stress. If he gets caught now, he'll have a college expulsion on his record. I think if you are genuinely contrite and self-report (see posts by adcoms on this topic on CC), and are a great candidate otherwise, your youthful indiscretion may be forgiven. No guarantees, of course. </p>

<p>Do check out Gatekeepers and read about Becca Jannol. Of course, her story was different (she was not caught initially - she reported herself for eating the pot brownie). Many colleges were brutal on her app. However, I think in the long run she ended up at Cornell, so it all worked out. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Good luck!</p>

14

<p><a href="http://images.despair.com/products/demotivators/potential.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://images.despair.com/products/demotivators/potential.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

15

<p>The 'Gateway' drug stuff is BS.</p>

<p>People would be doing harder stuff with it or without it, it is just the 1st thing done almost by default.</p>

16

<p>"Here are some facts about pot, just as an FYI…</p>

<ol>
<li>Walls in your brain cells become up to 400 times thicker (and this is with just three joints a week over a period of months). Since your brain functions by passing chemicals between cells, your brains ability to do its job is seriously slowed down." </li>
</ol>

<p>Here's a little basic biology fact for you:</p>

<p>Animal (including human) cells don't have cell walls.</p>

<p>Please don't post this kind of nonsense. And cite your sources, I'd love to see proof of globs of THC mixed with fat lodging themselves in the "upper brain" of marijuana smokers.</p>

<p>Myths like these make it much harder for progress to be made on America's grossly ineffective and misguided drug laws.</p>

17

<p>I think the term "walls" is a metaphor so that its easier for potheads to understand. But nice attempt at an intelligent implementation of 7th grade biology bud.</p>

<p>Its statements like those that allow sober people to realize how dumb weed is, of course it should be perfectly legal for kids to get high right?</p>

18

<p>HAH! great post^ someone just got pwned</p>

19

<p>Pot is less addictive and less deadly than tobacco. The Tobacco lobby has more money though, and we didn't like mexicans. So we made one illegal and no the other. Add in the fact that we are at/near the tops in tobacco production, while Pot can be grown better elsewhere....</p>

<p>Economics and Racism have played a greater part in the banning of Marijuana than its actual 'badness'.</p>

<p>Alchohol and Tobacco are just as bad. (so don't do any)</p>

<p>It should be illegal for people under 18 to do or buy, just like Tobacco is and Alchohol should be.</p>

20

<p>"I think the term "walls" is a metaphor so that its easier for potheads to understand. But nice attempt at an intelligent implementation of 7th grade biology bud.</p>

<p>Its statements like those that allow sober people to realize how dumb weed is, of course it should be perfectly legal for kids to get high right?"</p>

<ol>
<li><p>If it was, in fact an "analogy," for say, the cell membranes that surround human brain cells, it was a terrible use of one, not only because the term refers to a similar biological mechanism, but because this is a discussion based upon science, not creative writing. Why anyone would use an analogy here is beyond me. Nice try talking down to me though, "bud."</p></li>
<li><p>Your point is what, "weed is dumb?" Great, awesome input. I actually do believe that marijuana sale and purchase should be legalized and regulated by the government, much like alcohol and tobacco are. Prohibition has not worked in our failed "War on Drugs" just like it failed during the prohibition of alcohol in the US in the 1920s. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>"HAH! great post^ someone just got pwned"</p>

<p>Sweet internet slang. Yeah, I really got "pwned" by his lame attempts at making me look stupid. Great post.</p>