<p>As i was (am) waiting for my act results, I browsed through the cal 2013 and I noticed a thread asking about whether ucb cares about suspensions. I have a similar question--sort of. It is a "what are my chances question":</p>
<p>Sophomore year I kind of got expelled; I say "kind of" because it was a suspended expulsion, not much difference. What now? Does this mean i have absolutely no chance at UCB, or perhaps even all top tier UCs? </p>
<p>It is for possesion of marijuana. Long story short, I was at fault. A mistake I regret.
If you want the whole spiel you can search the what are my chances forum...</p>
<p>Please be honest; I'm tired of people not being straightforward.</p>
<p>There is nowhere on the application you are told to report disciplinary actions against you. Nor is your record from your school sent until you are already in and have accepted. At which point, they will not rescind your acceptance on reasons of discipline, because they state that the only reason they will rescind it is if you lied on your application or failed to fulfill the minimum grades for senior year.</p>
<p>What I would be concerned with is grades for sophomore year? Where are they? What does your transcript for that year look like? You may have to explain that, but you are not required to state you got expelled. You can say, I changed schools in the middle of the year due to personal issues. Will that raise a potential red flag? Maybe, maybe not, I doubt it will make a difference if your record is strong enough. Of course, if your transcript is fine sophomore year (like, it’s not obvious you didn’t finish a semester), then it is not a concern.</p>
<p>you should definitely talk about your experience and improvement (if applicable) in your essays. everyone makes mistakes–the question is, did you learn and improve from them?</p>
<p>if you can prove to the admissions that you improved, you have a decent shot still. i have a friend who totally screwed up fresh and soph years, but took control of himself and improved. he wrote about it, explained the grades, and he’s going to cal next year.</p>
<p>Honestly, if there wasn’t a sharp decline in your school performance and no where else on the application alludes to that, don’t say a word about it.</p>
<p>Even if you moved because of it, there’s no overwhelming reason for them to know that was the reason behind your move. Seriously.</p>
<p>I’m sure there’s a reason why they don’t have applicants include that, because they very well know that stuff happens. If you care enough about the other aspects of your application, you’ll get into a first-tier UC.</p>
<p>And I can’t find it on google right now, but I know on a California job application that you don’t have to list minor convictions due to marijuana, so you could extrapolate that to college applications if it suits you.</p>
<p>Ummm, isn’t my transcript sent to the UCs? It says sxp (suspended expulsion) under enrollment history.</p>
<p>Sophomore year there was a slight drop in the second semester, nothing to serious. First semester–the semester in which i was expelled–I received all A’s.</p>
<p>I do not thinks grades will be a problem, I’m just concerned about disciplinary record because I’m pretty sure the UCs will know what happened. Is it possible to have the sxp part removed from enrollment history? Some girl from where I live, apparently, had it removed, but i don’t know if the situations are similar…</p>
<p>So wait you are becoming a junior, by the time you have to apply for the UC marijuana might be full on legalized in California (meaning it might not look as bad as otherwise)</p>
<p>I’m not sure whether it is the best idea to write about this experience. I’ve heard that it is a bad idea to write about trouble an applicant has been in. Would not it be better to make subtle hints about being pragmatic and mainly focusing on the better aspects about me–perhaps my personality? The main point of the essay is to show who “you are as a person” and I don’t think that I can capture the true essence of me by explaining one mistake in my life.</p>
<p>I think that if the question comes up of “wether i improved/learned” from my mistakes, the colleges will notice that since the expulsion, my academic performance and involvement in school has improved immensely. </p>
<p>The only thing i really don’t want to happen is for my application to be overlooked because of just one part.</p>
<p>There’s a section on the UC Application that asks you if you’ve ever been suspended or expelled. If this is true, you must check the box and explain the circumstances.</p>
<p>The main reason you would want to do this is because your suspension expulsion is on your transcript that you’ll need to turn in. There won’t be any discrepancies between what you put on your application and what your transcript shows. You electronically sign a contract that states that all of the inputted information is correct. If you break this contract, you’ll probably have your application terminated.</p>
<p>The alternative option is to take the risk that the admission officer who reviews your transcript you send in may overlook your suspension expulsion.</p>
<p>And hey, it’s Cal. Marijuana possession may be a turnoff elsewhere, but it could play to your advantage if you share the wealth with the rest of the admissions committee.</p>
<p>I worked in the office of undergraduate admissions last year as a work study assistant. I sorted and filed countless of high school transcripts. Absolutely none of the transcripts had any behavioral/disciplinary reports or records (Don’t worry…I didn’t study or snoop…I filed hundreds of these so I had to glance at every single one of them. Plus I was under a pretty intense confidentiality agreement…).</p>
<p>I also worked as a TA in my high school office and got pretty close with the secretary that sends out transcripts. She also told me that suspensions, expulsions, detentions, Saturday Schools, etc. are not reported on transcripts sent to colleges.</p>
<p>The above poster mentioned that there is a part in the UC application where you have to specify if you did get expelled…I don’t remember that but you might want to check it out…if there is…just be honest and explain how you’ve learned from that experience. The thing I loved about Berkeley admissions is that it’s holistic-- so one minor expulsion is not going to ruin your chances of getting in. Good luck.</p>
<p>Don’t sweat it. I had a much larger bruise on my disciplinary record at school and got into Berkeley just fine, without mentioning it. It’s the private schools you’ll have problems with (at least I did!). I think xpeachpleasurex is absolutely right. However, just in case, do what I did. My mom called in to ask what my school’s policy was on releasing disciplinary records to colleges. As it turns out, our district’s policy is to…NOT. So many of my friends got suspended, detentions, and a couple expelled and still got into great colleges because none of their choices were notified. You should double check to be sure though. </p>
<p>Regardless, I’m pretty confident that disciplinary record is not on your transcript and Berkeley doesn’t require letters of reccommendations, so there is no reason why any school administrator would be able to let Berkeley know (unless they are lame enough to call in).</p>
<p>Good luck! I made a mistake much worse than yours, and it worked out fine. Thank heavens for Berkeley and the UC system haha.</p>
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