I got into Saint Louis University with a good scholarship and I really wanted to do well and stay in school. But I had only been partying this whole summer and on the first Friday night of the semester, I was around some bad people, smoked some weed and took a probably misdosed"acid" tab from a new dealer. I ended up tripping badly when I got back to my dorm and the RA had to call cops to take me to the hospital.
The school wanted to suspend me for a year and put me on lifetime probation. I appealed and it was not successful at all. At the moment I’m just suspended and living in an apartment in St. Louis.
I do not want to go back to SLU and be stuck with this lifetime probation. At the moment I’m thinking about going to California and attend a CC paying instate tuition and eventually transfer into a top-tier UC. I’m thinking about never mentioning this incident or that I attended SLU to future colleges for the good.
However, is there any way that my future college could find out that I attended SLU? Would there be any considerable risk in me lying and just not mentioning my disciplinary record at SLU?
Would it be altogether better if I just take a whole year off and apply to a couple of UC colleges? I have my stats at the end and I would really appreciate if you can guesstimate what are my chances into the top tier UCs.
I had 3.7 unweighted GPA in HS and 32 on the ACT. I passed 7 AP tests (Computer Science(3) , Spanish Lang(4), Calc (5), Stat(4), European History(3), World History(4), Physics C:Mechanics(4)). I never graduated from high school due to some personal problems and ended up getting very high scores on HiSet (the GED in Missouri). I don’t have EA really, but I won a congressional scholarship to go to Germany for a year. I speak four languages as well.
uh, how are you going to pay for UCs? Not to kick you while you are down, but yes, they can find out since you were officially enrolled. And getting into a top tier UC is highlyunlikely, which I assume you mean UCLA or UCB.
Did the bad people make you smoke weed and do acid, or were they only bad cause they gave you bad acid? It sounds like you were gifted some great opportunities and threw them out the window. Hope you can prioritize going forward. There’s time to recover from all this if you want to, starting with a CC may be a good plan. But if you are just gonna keep partying, don’t waste your time in school.
You are lucky that you did not die. Stop whining and move on. SLU is over for you. Did they rescind your scholarship or defer it for a year? You should use those language skills and work for a year or two until you get your act together. Stay out of trouble and stay clean. Then, and only then, when you are mature enough to appreciate what was offered to you, revisit school and make something of yourself.
Clearly your first instinct is to run away from the mess you’re in, but at some point you will have to deal with it. Sooner is better than later.
Yes, there is a database where the colleges can figure out if you have “forgotten” to mention another school at which you have been enrolled. Yes, there is “considerable risk.”
I disagree with @TooOld4School - SLU does not have to be over for you. They said you could come back on probation. A year from now, you may be sorry if you burn bridges any more than you already have. Take the suspension and use your year wisely. If you decide not to come back and study under probation, then let them know next fall.
Did you loose the scholarship and can no longer afford SLU? If not, I would be very grateful for not being expelled, spend the year wisely, and comeback. The probation would mean nothing if you stop using drugs and study hard for the rest of your college years.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Glad no graver medical situation occurred. 1) Have you spoken with your parents? There’s no getting around that. 2) You can’t simply move to CA and get instate tuition at a CC unless your recent home was CA.
You may want to try to take time off before continuing school and get the drugs/alcohol problem in order. Go work for awhile and figure out your priorities. After that, when you know that you’re ready to study and get As, and not treat college as a huge party, then and only then are you ready to go back. You will know when that is.
The time off is useful for figuring out your interests. If you have an academic interest, you can try out something in that area in the working world. Or you can explore various other interests. In that time your mind will have matured – your frontal lobe, the part of your brain with impulse control, isn’t fully engaged until about age 25. Each year you take, will get you closer to that impulse control.
You can start with CC and then go to college at that point, and probably get much more out of it.
As others have noted, thank your lucky stars that you didn’t die or ruin your brain or body, and that your college was supportive. Best of luck with your parents. If you approach them with a mature plan in place (as it seems you are attempting to do) then they may be less furious with you. If you were my child, I would hope that you would express to me the various lessons that you’d learned from this experience, and that you had a real plan in place for taking time off, including 1) working with your parents and/or a therapist or treatment program to get you clean from drugs; 2) your plans for getting and holding a job or internship; 3) your plan for getting back into a college.
You need to get your act together or you are likely to repeat your mistakes. You need drug and alcohol counseling or you are headed for the life of an drug addict/alcoholic.
I think you should go back to SLU and finish this semester. Assuming you stay away from drugs and do well in school you will be able to reevaluate and transfer somewhere else. If you don’t feel you can stay away from drugs you need to see a professional to help you. I realize weed and acid are not physically addictive. That does not mean you can’t have a problem with them.
Honestly, most college student drink or smoke weed including very motivated students at Ivies etc. I don’t think you deserve too much criticism for that, unless you do these things habitually and to excess.There is really no way to know what you mean by “partying” and if you have a problem with substance abuse.
In the case of the fateful Friday night, the acid was a serious mistake (from someone you don’t know, yet). Now that you have had a bad trip I certainly hope you stay away from hallucinogenics. The psychosis they induce can be permanent, I have seen it).
There are many young people who have incidents like this, or failures of one sort or another, and they end up going back to school or finding training and doing fine in life. (Someone in my family had a drug incident similar to yours and ended up a tv exec).
Please understand there is plenty of time in life. Make good use of this year. Work or intern as others have said (one of my kids had a medical leave and interned for most of it at an agency related to her interest). Did you ever go to Germany? Maybe you can WOOF. Look it up. Your languages could be helpful with that. National Outdoor Leadership School is another idea that kids in your position have done.
Do you have any interests in terms of future major? Use this year to explore that, and if you need more time to have a real reason for college, that’s fine too.
Basically you want to be able to show SLU or any other school that your incident was not a chronic issue, or if it is chronic that you have recovered and are now motivated to learn. CC is an option but as time goes on, you will be clearer on whether you want to return to SLU or apply somewhere else. (Will your scholarhsip be reinstated?)
Do you have a lease in Saint Louis? If you stay there for now, I hope you will work with a counselor/therapist. You allude to personal problems in the past. I think having a person to talk to to clarify your goals and help you recover from this detour in your life would be very helpful. If you have an underlying depression get help for that too (not diagnosing or assuming).
You can still have a “bright future” as they say. Believe it. But it will take work and some humility, because you have to accept what has happened to you and move on in a way that shows you understand and want to recover and improve.
We all mistakes. Learn from it and move on. Maybe it’s time for a college consultant. If you can’t afford one, go back to your high school GC and see how they can help.
I don’t think this is a legit post but if it is, you need to focus on getting off drugs. Being a user of a controlled substance will not lead you to success. Most successful kids and adults do not indulge. Step one…admit you have a problem and get help.
I’m sorry that you did this. You need to move forward and perhaps avoid “bad people”, drugs, etc. You know better the consequences.
You are in the national database as having enrolled at college. Forget about lying. You made a juvenile mistake. Own it. Move on. Did you lose the scholarship? If so, you can forget about SLU. If you didn’t lose the scholarship, go back there.
You can’t just move to California for the purpose of going to school and get instate tuition. You need to move there and become gainfully employed for a certain period, I believe a year.
Those are some impressive stats. It’s unfortunate that you messed up. I’m not sure how you recover, but you will learn how to, and you will.
Here is an idea.
Look into the Harvard Extension School. It’s a very high quality very low cost program for non-traditional students with a strong liberal arts program. So it looks like you have 7 credits toward a 32 credit degree, so you only need 25 more courses. Perhaps study for some CLEP exams in subjects that you haven’t already gotten credit for like Psychology or American History.
Take the placement tests. Anyone can register. In order to matriculate into a degree program you need to achieve a certain GPA on 3 courses, one of which must be EXPO 25 Academic Writing and Critical Reading. That class fills up the first day of registration. Know the registration dates, and if you place into EXPO-25, register for it. The prerequisite class in case you don’t place out of it is EXPO-15 Fundamentals of Academic Writing. That fills up fast too. These courses can be taken online, so maybe continue to live where you do and fulfill the matriculation requirements before actually moving to Boston. When you are ready to matriculate, the economy in Boston is good. You’ll want to move here, get a job and live with roommates.
This is a legitimate second chance that won’t require you to lie, it will also avoid the party culture for which you were unable to handle.
I don’t have to tell you to stay off the drugs, though Massachusetts will likely legalize pot this fall. You do know that pot impairs your short-term memory making it very difficult to study.
Also get used to having integrity (no lying). It’s empowering and is priceless. It’s something you can only lose, it’s really hard to get back.
Not possible if you are honest…and really, you need to be honest.
On your college application, there will be a question “have you ever attended another college?” Or something like that. You will need to honestly answer YES…and you will need to provide a transcript from SLU to be considered for admission…because you DID attend SLU.
That being said…where are you an instate resident? How about going there…and going to a community college. Those have open enrollment. To matriculate for a degree, you will need to provide that transcript, but community colleges would likely be more forgiving. Do well, keep out of trouble, and make sure you honestly discuss your situation with the transfer advisor at the CC.
Your college career is not over but rather it has been put on hold for a year. There are national databases so starting over fresh is not a option. Young people make mistakes all the time so I will not beat you up about that. Take the year and get yourself together. Like stated if you can still retain your scholarship return to SLU. If not take the year off to determine what school you want to move forward with. It’s your life and how you proceed is up to you.