I was disciplined at my school and my school does not report disciplinary infractions to the colleges I am applying to. Should I simply not mention it?
You should honestly answer any questions from colleges that ask for your disciplinary history in the common app or other app (not all schools ask disciplinary questions.)
If you don’t answer honestly, and the college finds out, they could rescind your admission/enrollment. Assume they will find out…via a counselor or teacher letter of rec, or one of your peers or their parents calling the school to tell them.
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You do not mention what disciplinary action was taken against you. I think it would be helpful to understand what happened and what action was taken first, before deciding it if really qualifies for notification.
ie: You were messing around in the science lab and asked to leave for that class for the rest of the week vs you were messing around in science class, injured another student and were suspended for a certain period of time.
I don’t think posters can sort thru the various types of discipline actions.
OP just has to honestly answer the questions that a given college asks. Most colleges clearly define what type of disciplinary situations they want to know about. Here are Cornell’s questions, for example:
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If I mention though? Especially if the punishment was very serious but the actual behavior is super nuanced and not related to violence, disrespect, drugs, or academic dishonesty, the closest I can be without being specific is something like failing to follow directions, if I mentioned that wouldn’t it be 100% reject while if I didn’t it would be a 50:50? They would only find out if they contacted the school
That’s a lot of rationalization. Do the right thing and answer honestly.
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If you’re a good person, when you’re 30 or 40, you’ll look back and wonder - how could you even ask such a thing?
Speak the truth.
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Sounds like behavioral misconduct (as in Cornell’s question above), no?
No way to know. Plenty of schools won’t care, some don’t even ask discipline history questions (and some only ask about academic misconduct), why not apply to those?
Like I mentioned above, lots of ways for a school to find out. Up to you if A) you can live with yourself being less than honest and B) want to take the chance and accept any consequences should you be caught.
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You must answer direct questions honestly. End of story.
You have made one mistake – don’t add to it by lying on college applications. If the truth is discovered at any point you would be at risk for an acceptance being rescinded, expulsion, etc.
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What about ivies? They ask all and I don’t know if I can explain such a thing especially since it’s senior year. May I ask how they’d find out post acceptance? Because I’m getting rejected and filtered before that
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If they ask, you have the responsibility to answer honestly - or don’t sign your name that you’ve done so.
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You don’t know that it’s cause for rejection, you’re assuming. And if you get rejected by the Ivies - and by pure acceptance percentages you will, you’ll never know why.
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Do you really want to attend school for four years, looking over your shoulder each and every day that you’re going to get called into the office and expelled for something that came up while you were there?
The fact that you are trying to justify this makes me concerned, not just for your college, but your long term future (employment wise and more).
Be honest, be truthful, and sleep well.
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They can find out pre-acceptance or post-acceptance. A counselor or teacher might put it in their LoR. A counselor or teacher might put a call into admissions (some do it anonymously.) A peer or peer’s parent might call admissions. And before you scoff at those things…it happens everyday. Everyday. More active once decisions come out.
And like tsbna says…your college could find out much later that you were untruthful in your application.
Deep down I expect you know the right thing to do, and that’s why you made this post. And you aren’t getting the answers that your id wants to hear.
In the end you are the one who has to live with yourself. I wish you good luck thru the admissions process.
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I’ll bet you lunch that one of your teachers (with the best of intentions) will write “Despite the disciplinary hiccup, Timmy maintained a positive attitude and accepted the serious consequences of his actions which shows a lot of maturity”.
Which will trigger a phone call to your guidance counselor with a 'What the heck?" question. And the infraction AND the punishment will sound a LOT worse if you didn’t disclose it!
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Yep. I read at least one app a week with some statement in an LoR like this.
I’ve said this before…a significant part of a senior admissions person’s job at the school where I work is following up on all the accusations of dishonesty in applications. Calls and emails come in, LoRs mention it. Ugh. Just ugh.
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I would also caution you.
I of course wont out you, but if my memory serves you posted several years ago that you only got accepted to one school and listed the schools you were rejected from. You were a prolific poster in a specific thread that was well travelled.
If a casual reader like me can remember that fact, do you really want to risk your future that it doesn’t come out through someone with an ax to grind. As you undoubtedly know college admissions at some schools can be a blood sport.
Please own your past and treat it as a learning experience versus compounding the problem. I urge this both because you could get caught and more importantly it is the right thing to do.
Good luck.
Yeah I understand I will mention it then since I don’t think it’s too bad
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Oh come on. This is a teenager who is scared of potential long-term repercussions of disclosing a past mistake. What he’s feeling and expressing and questioning is totally normal. I agree with your other advice - and everyone else’s - to be honest and not compound this mistake. That’s the way to go for sure.
But let’s take a breath before worrying about his “long-term future” because, as a teenager, he’s wondering if he might be able to get away with omitting mention of something in the past. Could there be any more normal behavior than WONDERING about that?
OP as everyone has said, you should be honest. It may negatively affect you in some cases, but you will be fine. Godspeed.
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I have a question. Some colleges ask to disclose disciplinary if its related to academic dishonesty or violence. If mine was nothing of the sort, do I still disclose?
Leopards don’t change their spots. I don’t know this young student but they are questioning whether they should knowingly lie.
They are fully understanding of the proposed action.
If it was neither academic dishonesty or violence- let’s say you violated the school’s parking policy by leaving your car in the faculty lot-- then you have NOTHING to lose by disclosing (the college won’t care) and will win points for transparency.
Schools have all sorts of rules. Come clean and you’ll sleep at night…