Slightly chequered past a snag in grad school admission?

December 3, 2010 8:42 PM

I'm an adult in my mid-40s applying to graduate school to train for a brand new career in counseling. I feel confident of being admitted somewhere, except for one potential snag: a long ago misdemeanor conviction that I now have to disclose on grad school applications. Will this hurt my chances for admission?

More special snowflake details: I have a very good academic record, great GRE scores, and a previous master's degree in another field, so I felt very positive about this whole process of applying for graduate school again. Now I feel freaked out instead. I'm not asking whether I should tell the truth or not on my applications, because I know I have to. What I would like is to have either realistic expectations and/or reassurances regarding whether this will hurt my chances of being admitted to the program I want.

The offense in question occurred when I was 18. I wanted a fake ID, so I applied for a "special ID" at the DMV with an altered birth certificate. It was incredibly stupid. I got caught, pleaded guilty, paid a small fine, and that was that. It's a misdemeanor, and has never ever been a problem for me in the past. In the intervening 25 years I've not had as much as a siingle traffic ticket. I even got a job-related security clearance from the Secret Service just a couple of years ago.

Now I have my heart set on this new degree and career, and so I'm very freaked out by the possibility of failure before I even start.

Any experience you could share (either of being in the same situation, or being the people who do the admitting) would be helpful. I wish there were not this unknown quantity in the mix, but best to deal with it directly, I suppose!

Thanks in advance for your input, everybody. Anyone who wishes can also mail me at [e-mail]

posted by anonymous to Education (7 answers total)

First, you should talk to a lawyer in the state of conviction to see if the conviction can be expunged.

Trying to get a fake ID when you were underage 25 years ago? I doubt many eyebrows will be raised by that, certainly not enough to pick a less deserving candidate over you. I wouldn't worry about it too much. You are applying to multiple schools, so on the unlikely off-chance someone at one school has a hissy fit about it, you will still have a chance elsewhere.
posted by grouse at 8:57 PM on December 3, 2010

Give the program in question a call -- or a similar program elsewhere -- and ask them flat out. Nobody says that if you call and ask them you need to reveal your name, or that if you call and ask you are guaranteed to apply to that program at that time.

If anything, you may be able to spin it to your advantage. It doesn't sound like the kind of thing you should make TOO big of a deal about (it's not like you tried to kill someone, etc.), but you could say, "Everybody makes mistakes, and I've tried to make up for my own in the intervening years. That's why I want to go into counseling: I want to help others find the opportunities for change that I've been lucky enough to have myself."
posted by Madamina at 9:15 PM on December 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

What are they looking for is if you have done something that suggests you are a danger to others or unfit to handle the trust of your clients since these are things that would prevent from getting licensed. (The big things would be violence, fraud, untreated addiction etc.)

Here is the California standard. which is "serious criminal convictions substantially related to the practice of the professional license...Included in the Board's evaluation is the nature and severity of the offense, additional subsequent acts, recency of crime, compliance with sanctions and evidence of rehabilitation."

So the school is going to use a similar standard. In your disclosure, make it clear that it is 20+ years old (not recent), there has been no subsequent acts, and detail the sentence and confirm that you fulfilled. (I wouldn't worry about proof for the school unless they asked about it).

I do want to add that if this had been recent conviction, it would probably be taken very seriously - if you would lie to the DMV, will you lie to the licensing board about your intern hours or to insurance companies about services rendered? However, the fact that you were 18, it was a long time ago, you paid your fine, learned your lesson and have a 20 year record of not getting into trouble should make this a total non-issue.
posted by metahawk at 12:26 AM on December 4, 2010 [2 favorites]

My professor, who is a lawyer, advised erring on the side of complete disclosure in this case. She reassured students that the licensing authorities usually will overlook these blemishes. This is regarding Real Estate licensing, so, I can't tell how relate-able it is to your case.
posted by curiousZ at 8:14 AM on December 4, 2010

Do you have career aspirations of working in a school or with children? This might be an issue, as some institutions have zero-tolerance policies when considering blemishes on criminal records. However, I am in no way an expert on this topic.
posted by TurkishGolds at 8:17 AM on December 4, 2010

Complete disclosure. Let them know how much you regret it (not just because you got caught). In most cases, this would fall under "character building". The 25 years since will make a difference.
posted by Neekee at 8:44 AM on December 4, 2010

As someone who used to work for a university that had a flagship graduate program focusing on drug and alcohol counseling, which attracted many formerly addicted people (and among that group, quite a few people who had served time for drug-related felonies) as students, I can tell you that this is not going to be a big deal at all.

The risks of disclosure are minimal; the risks of non-disclosure are high.

Tell them. You could put something about it in your essay--it was an early lesson in the consequences of rash action, and you're grateful for having that lesson be something that didn't mess up your life, and etc., etc., etc.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:00 PM on December 4, 2010