The first time 18-year-old Isaac came across a question on a college application that asked if he had ever faced disciplinary action in high school, he decided to be honest and checked the “yes” box.
Asked for more information, he provided details about getting caught on video exiting a school bathroom with a female student. The cameras didn’t catch the pair in the act, but they left considerable evidence behind.
“We commended him for his honesty but then we had to redirect him in the way that he expressed what happened,” said Jason Harris, a college adviser who assisted Isaac (not his real name) on his college applications through College Now Greater Cleveland, a nonprofit that provides advising, scholarships and other services to 22,000 students.
“We had to just say: ‘It’s great that you’re honest, but you have to realize the way that you’re speaking sounds like you’re speaking to your boys instead of talking to someone who theoretically holds your acceptance in their hands,’” Harris said.
[For more of this story, written by Jamaal Abdul-Alim, go to http://jjie.org/about-half-of-...r-admissions/108904/]
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