Hello all,
Here’s the story,
I attended a school in 2013 (fall), for roughly half a semester, before withdrawing. Honest mistake. I was not ready to be away at school. In the fall of 2014, while working a full time job, I took two classes at a community college online, mostly because my parents had been bugging me about being in school. the classes went well for some time then work got busy and I ended up with a D and an F.
Now in March of 2015 I have lost the job and am finally at a point that I feel 100% ready to return to school. I applied back at the original (2013) school as a re admit student and was accepted almost immediately (fairly high acceptance rate but really enjoyed the school). Not really paying attention, I had already thought in my mind that I could start fresh and not transfer any credits to the new school. Upon further research I found that by doing so and not sending a transcript even if I didn’t wish to use the record for anything (I hadn’t received credits with the bad grades anyway) that this could be a wrongdoing and a falsification. I’m already accepted and taking steps to sign up for classes. The classes were paid in cash (no fafsa filled or anything) and i know that’s one of the ways the new school could find out about this, but honest opinions, what should I do? If Ive been accepted am I already out of the woods for them looking into my previous record? I’d love to start fresh and forget about these mistakes but if it’s something that will hurt me I may have to own up to them. But really, what are the chances it’ll be discovered?
Thanks in advance
There’s a saying in Spanish that says, “If you have clean hands, you don’t need soap.” It means that you don’t need to cover anything up if you have nothing to hide. These mistakes are nothing to hide, so you should be completely honest about them.
A stradegy that was used by pre med students at top schools for years was to take their harder science courses over the summer at local state colleges. If they got an A they would transfer the credit, if they got a C, it never happened. If they got an A the first year, they would find a different community college to take the next class in, in case that one ended up being a C, why risk the A. No school anyone attended demanded that you disclose your summer courses taken elsewhere. At least one of those people ended up at medical school (he/she did fine in all courses and did not drop any). I would not use that stadegy for medical school now as the med schools are on to it but I am sure more than one biochemistry class was dropped/ignored by someone you would call doctor today. I am honestly surprised that you even HAVE to report what you took. I have taken dual curriculm classes and with the schools I am applying to I doubt I will get credit, no credit not sure why I would have to report it (I got good grades in them for the record). Since you did not get credit not sure what you gain by reporting it. Having said that, it is your record and you have to decide what to do. Also, without knowing the school (which I would NOT recommend posting the name of), no one can tell you what the requirements are and whether you are violating anything by not reporting. Depends on the specific rules of the school
You should try to say the true. It was a mistake maybe they won’t say anything but you will feel good saying the true. Sometimes hiding the things could make the things worse.
For the rest of your life, whenever you apply for admission to a degree program at an accredited college or university in the US, or for a job that requires all of your academic records, you are obligated to provide official copies of all of your transcripts. No matter how old. No matter how bad. No matter where they are from in the whole world. I myself have had to track down copies of 30+ year old transcripts from one summer course. Happydad had to shell out for a formal evaluation for his foreign undergraduate transcript 25 years after finishing his Ph.D. here in the US.
So, since you have already been readmitted, what you are going to do is contact the admissions office at #1, tell them that you have just realized that you should have sent your transcript from #2, apologize for this error, and then send it to them.
Happymom, I asked my dad (who did go to grad school) and he respectfully disagrees with you. he took summer courses, some he reported, others he did not. No one cared and he was not hiding anything. The only thing he was obligated to report was the classes he took elsewhere that he got credit for from a college where he graduated. No one cared about the bio class he dropped/failed at the University of whereever in the summer of 1990 after he decided podiatry school was not a good choice.
The OP should carefully read the ACTUAL rules of what the college is asking and answer accordingly. My dad’s college and grad school did not care about the courses he did not transfer credits. Neither did any of the other 8 places he applied for grad school. Most colleges do not want to know because they do not want to have to give you credit for the classes (assuming you get more than a D) which is one less class you pay them
Here is a link to an Ask the Dean, it is similar except in that case the person is changing schools to start over
http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/can-student-who-flunked-freshman-year-start-over-with-a-clean-slate/
She would probably advise you to report it but read the article for yourself, especially in the context of your school’s specific rules.
The risk is if you were supposed to report it and you did not, you could be expelled or disciplined at a later time if they ever find out as I read this article