Criminal Conviction & College Admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges can deny people for just about any reason: probably not straight-up their race but that's about it. Some schools can discriminate based on sex or religion. Of course they can take a criminal consideration into account. You think someone's going to be successful in saying "yeah I know I murdered a couple of people but my SATs are above average"?

Well there are laws preventing the use of convictions to deny someone employment, so why not college?

Not that I'm aware of. There are laws requiring the criminal background check to be deferred until after the interview and the like, but there's no law that a day care has to hire a child molester or a pharmacy has to hire a drug dealer or that a bank has to hire a check kiter.

Because the EEOC guidance says to take into account the conviction and the job. Your examples are relevant to the job (and banking has specific regulations). But someone who was convicted of writing bad checks 6 years ago and you now don’t want to hire them for a software developer role? That is what the regulations are looking out for. It’s also why there are statute of limitations regarding asking candidates about convictions and pulling that information in a background check.

[Anonymous]

As the victim of a crime perpetuated by a minor, I certainly hope so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the victim of a crime perpetuated by a minor, I certainly hope so.

Were they convicted as an adult?

[Anonymous]

They don't have to tell you why they rejected you. But it may be a major barrier, depending on the crime and how long ago it was and whether it's a residential college. Is expungement an option?

[Anonymous]

If your kid has a criminal conviction, I would tell them to grind out straight A's at community college for two years and apply as a junior-year transfer student. Very likely they will get into much better schools as a junior than as a freshman.

Competitive schools like non-traditional, redemption stories. Your essays will be a lot more interesting than the typical applicant. They will want to see maturity and progress.

[Anonymous]

Work with a college consultant with experience dealing with these issues rather than asking DCUM to speculate. Highly recommend Hanna Stotland: https://hannastotland.webs.com

[Anonymous]

Colleges hand pick who they want on their campus. They call it “holistic admissions,” but it actually means that they are able to exclude or include anyone they want based on gender, gender identity, race, state or country of residence, favorite color, shoe size, whether or not you like mayonnaise, and yes, whether or not you have a criminal record.

[Anonymous]

Tuft university accepted a student who murdered her own mother many years ago: https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/11/us/for-student-who-killed-her-mother-acceptance.html

Good for Tuft university for doing the right thing. Shame on Harvard and Columbia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tuft university accepted a student who murdered her own mother many years ago: https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/11/us/for-student-who-killed-her-mother-acceptance.html

Good for Tuft university for doing the right thing. Shame on Harvard and Columbia.

Hold up. It wasn’t “many years ago.” This girl beat her mother to death with a candlestick at age 14. The court called this murder and sentenced her to 8 months in juvy. She claimed her mother was an alcoholic that could sometimes be abusive...but bludgeoning someone to death is just not an acceptable response for a 14 year old in any circumstance. The article has such a lean that it even lists Tufts as “her only remaining option,” like this girl couldn’t have applied to a thousand other colleges. Not so sure I would want her as my daughter’s roommate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tuft university accepted a student who murdered her own mother many years ago: https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/11/us/for-student-who-killed-her-mother-acceptance.html

Good for Tuft university for doing the right thing. Shame on Harvard and Columbia.

Hold up. It wasn’t “many years ago.” This girl beat her mother to death with a candlestick at age 14. The court called this murder and sentenced her to 8 months in juvy. She claimed her mother was an alcoholic that could sometimes be abusive...but bludgeoning someone to death is just not an acceptable response for a 14 year old in any circumstance. The article has such a lean that it even lists Tufts as “her only remaining option,” like this girl couldn’t have applied to a thousand other colleges. Not so sure I would want her as my daughter’s roommate.

Definitely not. I'd be scared. I watch a lot of true crime and kids who kill their parents are (obviously) very disturbed individuals and very young so it's who they are as people.

[Anonymous]

And some non murder (not really a high bar) lost a seat to a murderer

[Anonymous]

I guess so much for the Americans “2nd chance”, just as long as it is not impacting me and not in my backyard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess so much for the Americans “2nd chance”, just as long as it is not impacting me and not in my backyard.

DCUM wouldn't give a second chance to a 4.0 cheerleader stealing their DD's high school boyfriend. The college board is full of crazy people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess so much for the Americans “2nd chance”, just as long as it is not impacting me and not in my backyard.

When you are accepting a few kids and have ton of applicants, not having killed someone seems like a fair first cut. I’d rather forgive a B- in algebra than beating a parent to death if I have to choose one

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess so much for the Americans “2nd chance”, just as long as it is not impacting me and not in my backyard.

When you are accepting a few kids and have ton of applicants, not having killed someone seems like a fair first cut. I’d rather forgive a B- in algebra than beating a parent to death if I have to choose one

I don't think it's nimby not to want my daughter to room with a murderer.