Need some solid advice on reporting an IA

[stu403270]

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Hey everyone, sorry for being one in a million who's asking about their potential IA and whether they should report or not. Here's my situation (nothing unique):
Just finished my Junior year and filling out my app for this cycle and I've been strongly debating whether I should report an incident that happened my first semester Freshman year. I got what my university calls a university reprimand for being a little too loud in my room while I was drunk. This is just a warning that my behavior is not acceptable and if I didn't do anything else to violate the student code it'd be destroyed in a year. I never had anything else and the record was deleted. University policy, after checking with the office of conflict resolution, states a university reprimand does not go on a student transcript, so technically I guess I never had anything on my transcript to begin with. When I went to the office to request my history of disciplinary action, they gave me a letter that states that if someone, like a certain med school, came and asked for my disciplinary history, they would give them a statement saying, and I quote, "...the applicant has no disciplinary records subject to release." In other words I have no history to report. The receptionist told me that I could choose not to report it and the office would tell them what I summed up in the quote. The part that's concerning to me, should I choose not to report it, is that they said that if someone conducts a background check they said that public records (i.e emails) of the incident MAY exist and MAY show up in a background check.
That begs the question, how thorough do schools investigate IAs? If the office guaranteed they have nothing to report and it was never on my transcript, can I simply not report it? I realize I might be making a big deal out of this one issue, but I feel like I'm a boarderline applicant and would like to minimize any factors that might impact my application negatively. I've been in and out of the student conflict office trying to get a yes or no answer on if I can not report it or not and at this point I'm torn.

 

[ndafife]

You did what you should have - investigated what your school policy is.

You school says it does not go on your transcript. The disciplinary office says that they will say "the applicant has no disciplinary records."

Your emails aren't showing up on a basic background check. That's like crab people living underground preparing to take over the world levels of paranoia. Relax. You talked to your school. They said it does not go on your transcript and any inquiry into disciplinary action against you will come back as "no disciplinary records." You don't have to report it as an IA. If you need to feel better run a background check on yourself.

 

[DokterMom]

This is the type of IA (if, in fact, it even is an IA) that won't really count against you. It's also one of those things that is likely to cause you many nervous moments if you decide not to disclose.

I'd suggest that you say something along the lines of "I was given a warning freshman year for excessive noise in a dorm room. University policy is unclear about whether or not this qualifies as an institutional action, but in the interests of full disclosure, I felt I should disclose this incident."

 

[stu403270]

@LizzyM I was hoping you'd chime in with some expertise 🙂

Thank you for the feedback @ndafife and @DokterMom really appreciate it!

 

[LizzyM]

This is the type of IA (if, in fact, it even is an IA) that won't really count against you. It's also one of those things that is likely to cause you many nervous moments if you decide not to disclose.

I'd suggest that you say something along the lines of "I was given a warning freshman year for excessive noise in a dorm room. University policy is unclear about whether or not this qualifies as an institutional action, but in the interests of full disclosure, I felt I should disclose this incident."

qft