Applied for a major university, big questions.

[soundsystem00]

Okay, I've never been to a university before. I've always been going to this crappy community college. The college was horrible and so is my gpa. I also was very young when I went to this community college and very immature, there was a lot of Disciplinary Action taken against me.

So, I applied for a university last week. From what I hear, it is not very difficult to get into this university as long as you have the money. Its not like Yale or something.

I have a criminal background. No felonies, but a large shoplifting misdemeanor that shows up as "theft" that has cost me lots of jobs. Also things such as evading arrest and dui.

The low GPA is the least of my worries, but its a 1 something.. 1.5 maybe.

I was wondering these two things mainly..

1. Will the transcripts from the community college show the disciplinary action or just my classes and grades?

2. Will a criminal background effect the application process?

Thanks very much!!

 

[Rogue Robot]

A criminal background may affect your application. Many applications have a section dedicated to criminal history.

I have no idea about the transcript, in all honesty. However, if you're applying to a large school and you have a low GPA, it will almost definitely hurt you. Should you be admitted, you will most likely be put on academic probation, and you will have to prove that you have what it takes to stay there. The fact that you went to a community college, screwed around, and got a low GPA is nothing to scoff at when applying to a different university.

 

[mrs_mia_wallace]

if i remember correcty there was a question on the common app asking you those two questions directly (criminal background and discplinary actions).
you can lie, i guess.
i don't think the college can request a criminal background check on you, and unless your school decides to send them specific info about the disciplinary actions they took against you there's no way of them finding out about them (they don't appear in your transcript). however, i had some suspensions and other disciplinary actions taken against me and my guidance counselor felt the need to mention it in his mandatory rec letter. however, if the school finds out you lied to them about anything they have the right to reject your app after they accept it, even if it's august and classes start in a week, and in that case you'll be screwed for school for the next year.
i'm not sure how much it affected my admissions process. i had horrible SAT scores, really random grades and never stayed in the same place for more than a year and my essays were less than enthusiastic, so i wasn't really the ideal candidate.
if the info is released to the colleges i would just have your app focus on how you've changed as a person and learned from your bad experiences... it will give you some character/make you stand out, people always love to hear about that.
as for the GPA, a low GPA is always going to hurt you but once again it depends on the pattern. if your grades have been horrible every year except for one or two random semesters, they're not going to be impressed. if your grades aren't horrible but just low usually, they're also not going to be impressed. my grades were either A's or D's/F's and so i explained why i got the bad grades (never being in school because of sports and treatment for eating disorder/drugs) and argued that the good grades showed my abilities when i was able to attend class on a regular basis and wasn't sick. a couple of the schools i applied to liked my explanation enough and accepted me with the condition i would take some remedial courses/study skils classes (which are really easy and just annoying).

 

[Rogue Robot]

lying about it is a BAD idea.

 

[euphoria]

You could ask someone at the school, like an advisor. They're there to help you. Or ask someone from your Community college these questions.

You could just apply and find out what happens. The worst thing that could happen is they won't let you in. Maybe there's another school you could apply to as well, like a backup.

 

[mrs_mia_wallace]

lying about it is a BAD idea.

it could be bad, but honestly, i know SO many people who lied about shit in their apps. i lied about shit. do you really think colleges have the time to go into one of the apps of their 30,000 applicants and check to see if applicant #7843758345 really sang in their church choir for four years, or even if applicant #465436574 was a runner-up in the national poery whatever award?
if you don't want to lie, don't lie, and i'm not saying you SHOULD lie, but it's not completely unheard of and i don't see it as being that immoral, since pretty much everyone i know lied in some small way or used some "immoral" trick to get into the college. for example; a friend of mine asked her father who's a succesful lawyer to please ask his ex-client, the dean of the academic department at an ivy league school, if he might consider writing her a letter of rec (granted he's never met or seen her, but i think the fact that her father succesfully manuvered him out of as 1.3 million dollar lawsuit was enough for him to decide that she would be a good fit for his university.) she got in needless to say.
however, i'm also just bitter about college apps, i hated them and i think the whole process is fucked and it's getting worse and worse every year. the schools are too crowded because we're so overpopulated (the girl who got into the university because of her dad has now taken the spot of someone else who deserved to be there) and the competition to get in has become totally fucked.
so if you fucked up and are trying to do better, whatever, just use what you have to compete.

 

[Rogue Robot]

And of those people that you know how lied, you don't know how many of the other dozens of applicants who applied didn't have their applications selected at random to be processed and fact check.

This is a harm reduction site, and aspects of harm reduction here apply, as well.

I'm going to ask you this once, please, when providing answers to people's questions, try to be as objective as possible. Yes, applying to colleges and universities is competitive, but there's a reason for that. There are ways to get into a college or university that you want to go to without lying on an app. Yes, it may not be the exact route that you want to take, but that's why getting into some colleges it's competitive. I didn't get into my first college of choice, but I now, if I wish, have the option of transferring if I wish, but I've decided to stay where I am.

 

[Chaos Butterfly]

I'm not going to get all moral and uppity and say LYING IS WRONG!! OMG!!! but, about big things, things that can be used for character building purposes, like, look at the struggle my life has been, and look at how much better I am now, or am working towards, it is better to be honest.

Little bullshit like massaging your extra curricular activites, whatever... but big things, especially things that can be relatively easily checked, like criminal history, lying about that, just confirms that you aren't the type of person that they would be looking to accept.

CB.

 

[soundsystem00]

I already sent the application but I have not lied on it or anything. The reason im not so worried about gpa is because ive had friends say its not too big of a deal at this school.

 

[mrs_mia_wallace]

And of those people that you know how lied, you don't know how many of the other dozens of applicants who applied didn't have their applications selected at random to be processed and fact check.

This is a harm reduction site, and aspects of harm reduction here apply, as well.

I'm going to ask you this once, please, when providing answers to people's questions, try to be as objective as possible. Yes, applying to colleges and universities is competitive, but there's a reason for that. There are ways to get into a college or university that you want to go to without lying on an app. Yes, it may not be the exact route that you want to take, but that's why getting into some colleges it's competitive. I didn't get into my first college of choice, but I now, if I wish, have the option of transferring if I wish, but I've decided to stay where I am.

i apologize, he asked an opinion question and i don't know how to respond to an opinion question without losing some of my objectivity (not trying to be sarcastic here by the way, even thought that's the way it's coming off as text).
anyway, i didn't know that our response needed to be totally on-point so i will definitely look to that in the future. and it REALLY wasn't my intention to advocate harmful solutions and i'll just leave it at that. so feel free to delete my response above (honestly) and here's my completely objective response to the first post:
no, discplinary actions are not visible on your transcript.
yes, a criminal record will most likely have an effect on the application process.