{"id":23234,"date":"2014-03-19T08:17:48","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T15:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=23234"},"modified":"2014-03-18T04:21:57","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T11:21:57","slug":"can-you-get-accepted-after-doing-something-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/can-you-get-accepted-after-doing-something-stupid\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Get Accepted After Doing Something Stupid?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hiding-a-conviction\"<\/a>The point of this article is not to tell you that you shouldn\u2019t engage in disorderly conduct, petty theft, or other minor (or major) infractions (though you really shouldn\u2019t\u2026); what we want to discuss here is how you should overcome the obstacle of a criminal record when approached with the application question: \u201cHave you ever been convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you did something stupid, something deserving of a conviction or suspension, how do you prove to an admissions committee that you are worthy of their acceptance?<\/p>\n

First, don\u2019t try to hide a conviction<\/strong>. Clients often ask me if they really need to bring up their troubled past, and I tell them they do. Admissions committees (and the firms they hire) conduct background checks on applicants, and an unexplained discrepancy gives them an easy reason to reject your application<\/a> or withdraw an offer of admission, so, when asked, own up to your behavior on your application.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t make excuses<\/strong>. The biggest struggle I face when helping troubled clients is getting them to move past their tendency to justify their behavior: their writing tends to get overlong with explanations. Even very subtle self-serving statements can be read by an admissions committee as failure to take responsibility for your behavior, so leave out the excuses and directly address what you did.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t go overboard addressing the infraction.<\/strong> The second biggest struggle I face is keeping clients from turning their applications into overblown mea culpas. A client once came to me having written two required essays and an optional essay all addressing a mistake from the past\u2014too much! Often, a well-written response to an application\u2019s \u201cfailure\u201d essay question is enough.<\/p>\n

Do show that you learned your lesson and that your past behavior won\u2019t happen again.<\/strong> This step tends to be less of a struggle for clients, because usually they can show remorse, they can show the actions they took to atone for their behavior, and they can show how they matured<\/a> from their experiences. Often such clients become heavily involved with their community, counseling others who tend toward their same behavior and managing to turn their failure into a success benefitting others.<\/p>\n

Perfect execution of these suggestions certainly will increase your chances of admission, but they may not be enough to gain you acceptance to a top school. So avoid having to deal with this situation altogether: think twice and three times before you do something that you could regret for a very long time.<\/p>\n

\"Learn<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Accepted.com\"<\/a> Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best <\/a><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Accepted.com's experienced admissions consultants<\/a> can help you create the most impressive application possible with comprehensive packages<\/a>, <\/i><\/b>or provide targeted assistance from picking perfect programs<\/a> to designing a dazzling resume<\/a>, constructing engaging essays<\/a>, or preparing for intense interview<\/a>s<\/a>\u2026and more! Accepted.com has guided thousands of applicants to acceptances at top MBA programs since 1994 \u2013 we know what works and what doesn't, so contact us<\/a> to get started now!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog<\/a>, the official blog of Accepted.com.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The point of this article is not to tell you that you shouldn\u2019t engage in disorderly conduct, petty theft, or other minor (or major) infractions (though you really shouldn\u2019t\u2026); what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1,939,775,113,243],"tags":[1071,1048,949,39,1376,370,998],"class_list":["post-23234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-uncategorized","category-accepted","category-admission-consultants","category-applications","category-blog","tag-admissions-advice","tag-advice-for-mba-applicants","tag-application-advice","tag-mba-admissions","tag-mba-admissions-advice","tag-mba-advice","tag-mba-application-advice","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23234"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23238,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23234\/revisions\/23238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}