Tools for educators to help students who need to explain expulsion, arrest, etc. in order to continue their education. Hanna Stotland, Admissions Consultant

1. Explain Fully on a Separate Sheet:
The Special Circumstances Essay
Hanna Stotland, Admissions Consultant

2. Hanna Stotland

3. Hanna Stotland
• Flunked out of high school;
G.E.D.

4. Hanna Stotland
• Flunked out of high school;
G.E.D.
• Harvard College
• Harvard Law School
• Counseling since 1999
• Specialize in kids who have lost
their way or ruined their records

5. Who is in the room?
• Counseling for how many years?
• Supported a student writing this
kind of essay?
• Admissions officers who have
evaluated them?

6. What needs explaining?
• Psychiatric issues
• Eating disorders, depression,
anxiety
• School discipline
• Criminal record
• Substance use/abuse
• Family crisis
• Title IX

7. Should I refer?
• This is not Counseling 101
• Your knowledge about their
particular problem?
• Who else is on the team?

8. Do I have to?
Have you ever been found responsible for a
disciplinary violation…[for] academic or
behavioral misconduct, that resulted in a
disciplinary action?
These actions could include, but are not limited
to: probation, suspension, removal, dismissal,
or expulsion.

9. Do I have to?

10. I have to disclose

11. I have to disclose

12. Initial Considerations
• Is this student ready for college?

13. Initial Considerations
• Is this student ready for college?
• Would I want my child to be
his/her roommate?

14. Initial Considerations
• Is this student ready for college?
• Would I want my child to be
his/her roommate?
• Think 5-10 years down the road

15. Initial Considerations
• Is this student ready for college?
• Would I want my child to be
his/her roommate?
• Think 5-10 years down the road
• Is the record rehabilitated?

16. Initial Considerations
• Is this student ready for college?
• Would I want my child to be
his/her roommate?
• Think 5-10 years down the road
• Is the record rehabilitated?
• YOUR integrity/reputation

17. Think like a lawyer
• Advocate, not judge.
• Guilty people need help, too.
• Tell your side of the story
honestly.
• If your student has a lawyer, talk
to the lawyer.

18. Where can I apply?
• Online programs
• Community colleges
• International undergraduate program
• U.S. undergraduate program
• JD, MBA, CPA
• Ph.D. program
• U.S. & Intl. MEDICAL SCHOOL

19. The Audience
Assume a committee

20. The Audience

21. The Audience
Arm your allies &
disarm your opponents

22. Getting started
• Trust with student and family
• Start with a lengthy confession/memoir
and find the essay

23. Rule 1
It’s about the recovery,
not the problem.

24. Rule 2
Everything that was your fault
was completely your fault, even
if it wasn’t.*
*Except where legal liability is in doubt

25. Rule 3
• Never “I’m sorry, but…”
• “I’m sorry, AND…”

26. Rule 4
Answer the question
Common App: Please give the approximate
date(s) of each incident, explain the
circumstances and reflect on what you
learned from the experience.

27. Rule 5
Pity can be earned, but not
requested.

28. Rule 6
The application should not
repeat itself, but it should
rhyme.

29. Rule 7
Close with an offer to
share more.

30. Rule 8
It’s still an essay.
Make it good.
• Go small
• Form over content
• Write what you know
• Omit needless words
• Structure

31. Success Stories
• Eating disorder, voluntary disclosure,
Top 5 LAC

32. Success Stories
• Eating disorder, voluntary disclosure,
Top 5 LAC
• Jail time for burglary; expelled. CC,
then admitted at UC campus

33. Success Stories
• Eating disorder, voluntary disclosure,
Top 5 LAC
• Jail time for burglary; expelled. CC,
then admitted at UC campus
• Cheating, G.E.D., transfer, Cornell,
Harvard Law

34. Success Stories
• Eating disorder, voluntary disclosure,
Top 5 LAC
• Jail time for burglary; expelled. CC,
then admitted at UC campus
• Cheating, G.E.D., transfer, Cornell,
Harvard Law
• Expelled under Title IX, Tier I
research U, U.S. medical school

35. You CAN start over

36. You CAN start over
• No asterisk on my degree

37. You CAN start over
• No asterisk on my degree
• Imagine your tenth reunion

38. You CAN start over
• No asterisk on my degree
• Imagine your tenth reunion
• America gets this right.

39. You CAN start over
• No asterisk on my degree
• Imagine your tenth reunion
• America gets this right.
Stotland@post.harvard.edu