When teens are convicted of DUI, they may encounter difficulty getting accepted at the college of their choice. It may all depend on how they handle it.
One of the questions asked on college applications is whether a student has a history of any arrests or convictions. It’s up to the institution to determine, along with all of the other factors considered in admission, whether it wants that student.
By all means, a teen should never omit a DUI arrest or conviction (or any other type of criminal record) from application documents. It’s better to risk the chance that institutions may deny admission than to be dishonest.
A DUI conviction can also impact a student’s ability to get a scholarship or other type of financial aid. Students who have a felony DUI on their record may want to take the opportunity through their university of scholarship application essay to detail how the experience changed them and what they learned from it. Students who can own up to their mistakes and explain how they’ve learned from them generally improve their chances of admission.
Parents with a teen who is facing a DUI charge need to take that charge seriously because colleges, financial aid providers — and perhaps even future employers — will certainly take it seriously. There’s also the fact a DUI conviction will come with steep criminal consequences, especially if the driver had a particularly high blood alcohol. A Maryland criminal defense attorney experienced with DUIs can try to get the charges dropped or reduced and seek to mitigate the impact on a young person’s life.
Source: Training Wheels of Driving School, “How DUIs Affect College Admission,” accessed March 22, 2017
