70kGoGoSing

Hi i've searched this forum with this topic but couldn't find one.

I kind of want to write about my felony record during highschool as an obstacle that I overcame.

The record is now expunged as I am eighteen but I'm a little shaky on this.
I'm scared it may be perceived negatively on the admission's side.

The general outline would be that I just came tot he states from a different country and so fell into peer pressure extensively. But from the experience matured greatly and grew up to make independent decisions.

atrophicwhisper

Ask yourself this (I say this because it's a felony as opposed to a misdemeanor): Can you describe your incident and how you overcame that in 500 or less words? Felonies a lot of times can be moral dilemmas, and it may be worth it to say, it may not. However, you have to be very careful with how you treat your subject because if you don't carry it out well, your chance of getting into (insert college/university here) just plummeted.

Also, you didn't really have a question, but I figured I'd respond anyway. What was your question exactly?

glschneck

wow, a felony record, tough Q, i want to ask what u did, but i dnt think thats appropriate. I think it depends on the essay and how delicate it is, and I think it depends on which school ure applying to

70kGoGoSing

Sorry for not being clear.

My question was would wrtting an esasy on this topic be too much of a risk and generally how I should carry it out.

Sorry.. Its a very vague question..

My felony was theft with just a lot of worth..., and it was out of moral dillemas.

I'm unsure of how this depends on the school I'm applying to but the top schools i'm applying to are uchicago, UC's, and penn.

hewey

You just need to be sure that you convey the fact you've changed and grown etc. There'll be absolutely no chance of acceptance, anywhere, if there's even the slightest inkling something like it could happen again. You'll also have to show that you're a different person, as well. It's not just the felony that's uninviting, it's the mentality and attitudes that come with the person who committed it (sorry if that sounded harsh, it's not meant to, but you know what I'm getting at). If you can somehow prove, in 500 words, that you don't have the same values and outlooks as you did before then you should be okay.

The other thing is, does your record get sent to the universities? Because if it does, you could see it as a good opportunity to explain it, but I don't know if that should go in a supplemental essay or something.

70kGoGoSing

Thank you for your repy hewey.

Proving that I sincerely changed after the incident in 500 words seems to be hard but I think I'll give it a try.

About the record being sent in, the thing is that the record is expunged but people around me - including my counselor who will write a rec - knows about it so i'm a little afraid that not mentioning it at all would look suspicious.

The other thing too is that a controversial essay like this would possibly grab some attentions in the highly competitive admissions round, although I realize I shouldn't write this essay purely from this reason.

ivychan

I read a book on admissions (it’s called The Gatekeepers. I recommend it to all prospective Ivy and top LAC students). Basically, there were a couple sections on a girl who had a pretty bad incident with drugs. She was a very formidable applicant with leadership and good academics, and I personally didn’t doubt that she would get into the colleges she was looking at. However, she wrote one of her major essays on the drug incident, and although it was a terrific essay (and because of the incident she even became the chairman of some prestigious school organization and earned respect from the entire student body and faculty), all of the top colleges except Cornell denied or waitlisted her due to that incident. Sometimes attention grabbers aren’t very positively compelling. Case in point, for conservative schools and even some LAC, they like to keep on the safer side in their applicant pool—just because. At least that’s what I thought. So unless your case is really poignant or impressive or something, I’d suggest against it.

Muffy333

Write about something more positive in how you came here from another country and had a hard time at first but learned to adjust. Don't blame peers for anything. Maybe you could say you made bad decisions because you wanted friends so badly and then you understood how stupid you had been without specific reference to any felonies.

70kGoGoSing

Thank you for all your replies.

//ivychan

Your response really gave me another perspective on this. I never thought that it could be viewed unconventional at conservative schools. Perhaps it really depends on the school I'll apply to, say the essay would be more fit for colleges with a liberal atmosphere.

//muffy333

That was what I was going to hit on by slightly mentioning the felony incident to grab more attentions. I guess i'll try writting them first, get some feedback and then use it for more liberal colleges if its good.

HighlandMom

Regardless of how or where you include this experience, I would be sure to state emphatically you learned from it and it will never happen again.

hewey

Yes, I would perhaps avoiding discussing it in detail when applying to any Ivies or "Ivy-equivalent" schools.