Expelled from College...Next Steps?

vinceh
Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:18:41 +0000

To be clear, you did cheat. The argument that you didn’t cheat evokes the image of a drug dealer saying that they don’t actually use the drug they merely sell it to other people; what they do with it is their own business. You set up a small business whereby you profited by deceiving end users, i.e., professors, and arguably, undermining the educational process. The students were punished for possession; you were punished for dealing.

The problem is this “mistake” brings all of your accomplishments into question. Your decision has planted a seed of doubt in any future admissions committee’s mind. Why should we or they believe that this is the first time you’ve made an ethical error? Why should we believe you won’t do it again? Complicating the matter, your first idea on how to handle the issue is to omit that the event ever happened, or as lynxinsider accurately put it, to lie. Your second question continues this theme of selective amnesia. Both are horrendous strategies and remind me of advice my father gave me: When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!

To my mind, you have three options:


Continue with community college for two years while growing your business. After a couple of years you may be able to convince a school that this incident was simply a youthful transgression.
Continue growing your business and self-educate. You seem fairly bright and motivated even if your ethics are a bit slippery.
Embrace your mistake and fall on your sword in applications and interviews. Explain to anyone who’ll listen that your entrepreneurial spirit got the better of you. As a self-imposed “sentence” volunteer in an inner-city environment teaching young people English and Math. Take classes in ethics. In short, admit and accept responsibility for what you did and then go out and do whatever it takes to show people that you’re trying to atone for your actions.


I’m doubtful that number 3 will sway any elite schools, but that strategy should help with other colleges.