<p>I recently received an underage drinking violation, which classifies as a county ordinance. I am 17 years old. I am currently attending a very prestigious pre-college school. It is my first offense of any kind and since i am going to a school out of state soon i will not be able to take my local first offenders program. I was planning on applying for school just below the Ivy League and Brown. Johns Hopkins is my top choice so far. Will the one underage hurt my chances very much?<br>
Thanks
(and i know i was being stupid drinking but i was celebrating my brothers birthday at his newly bought house)</p>
<p>In my area, there’s a program in which you can get that first offense (involving drinking) wiped off your record. (You have to do some community service, etc. though)</p>
<p>I would see if your area has something similar, but it could just be a program unique to where I live.</p>
<p>The sad truth is that you have given any college a reason to chose, all other things being equal, Applicant X over you.</p>
<p>This isn’t to say that you are a bad, immoral, and irresponsible person. It just means that in a very competitive pool of applicants, you have done yourself a disservice.</p>
<p>hillary2012… why exactly is it immoral??</p>
<p>was it irresponsible, and reckless - yes. how does morality fit into this???</p>
<p>I think it’ll hurt. Just make sure you fully explain the situation (celebrating with family, etc) and hopefully it won’t affect your chances too much.</p>
<p>my brother got one of those and he never reported it to his school. there was a pretty bad fine attached to it though but it really wasn’t all that serious.</p>
<p>what? i said that it doesn’t make the person a bad, immoral, or irresponsible person…</p>
<p>ah. my bad. misread that</p>
<p>sorry ! :)</p>
<p>Once you turn 18 you can seal your “criminal” records, so any offenses you obtained while you were a juvenile can not be looked by anyone unless you grant them permission.</p>
<p>However, colleges do ask if you have gotten into trouble. If you deny or omit the infraction, and someone from your school or community tells the college, you will have a big problem. </p>
<p>There is a whole thread devoted to an article about people writing adcoms about wrongdoings of applicants (both by students and parents-yikes.)</p>
<p>Maybe I’m mistaken- but don’t they ask if you’ve committed a felony on the common app, not small offenses like this? I mean, this is equivalent to a traffic ticket, and I doubt people actually put that on their college apps. I don’t know- maybe my memory’s wrong- but I’d suggest you get a common app account and look it up.</p>