Hello,
This is a difficult topic so I'll just spit it out. In the Spring semester of my Junior year, I went through a hard break up with my ex. We had been together for over 4 years. We were planning a vacation together with the Summer after our Junior year, but it was during this year I was more involved in school than ever before. One reason was that it was now upper-division biology classes that demanded more attention but also the classes were far more interesting and relevant to medicine so I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the library. With my unprecedented attention now towards school, my ex started making new friends and one of her new relationships turned romantic. I found that she had been cheating on me for over 3 months. Obviously the trip didn't happen. We tried to make it work but it didn't. I should mention now that she did not go to the same school as me but later transferred to my school from a community college. My last year at the 4 year university was her first year transferring there. Over the summer I got a lot better, a lot more social and friendly and felt like a new person even though I got a nasty text from her. I had little communication with her after the break up. We parted ways hoping that we could be friends again but acknowledged we need to heal. I was ready to finish my last year strong.
A few weeks into the Fall semester I get an email from the Title IX office that my ex who is a new student on campus has filed a complaint about Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Harassment, and Domestic violence. The investigation lasted an entire year. I was interviewed multiple times. Many of the friends that knew both of us had to be interviewed. It was the worst year of my life not knowing what would happen to my future. Even though I had documentation of the trip we were planning towards the end of our relationship that showed thousands of dollars already spent on airfare and hotel reservations, I had text that showed our relationship was quite well, she did not give details even when pressed, lots of what she said was very improbable, and she thankfully made some statements that I could prove false, and all my friends and her friends stories corroborated with mine I did not know what was going to happen in the current culture. #BelieveHer was real and trending and I was not sure how things would turn out for me even though all the facts of the case pointed in my favor. After a thorough year-long investigation, it was concluded that I was in no way in violation of any policy. No disciplinary marks were made on my transcript and I was allowed to get my degree.
My grades the final year through were terrible. Below 3.0. The mark on my transcript will likely need to be explained and I really don't want to broach the topic. I'm currently going through a post-bacc to show that the last year is not an accurate representation of my academic skill but what else can I do? How can I tell a committee this happened to me? Will they believe the school's decision or think I pulled some fast one? Many people's lives seemed to be ruined by such accusations so I'm worried that even though I went through the most invasive investigation and came out on top it won't be enough.
-Thank you for reading
