I lied on my Fafsa years ago.... Forum

[dood]

bro, u see megamind?

Minion: What happens when Roxanne finds out who you really are?
Megamind: She'll never find out! That's the point of lying!

just keep it up and dont mention it ANYONE. if caught, claim u didnt understand something and cry. always easier to ask for forgiveness.

[Kobe_Teeth]

Is OP the one person in America who doesn't get to go to law school?

bro, u see megamind?

Minion: What happens when Roxanne finds out who you really are?


Megamind: She'll never find out! That's the point of lying!

just keep it up and dont mention it ANYONE. if caught, claim u didnt understand something and cry. always easier to ask for forgiveness.

Probably not.

[rose711]

As mentioned, it seems there are 3 areas of concern here:
1. Law school admission - a. Misdemeanor probably not a problem if you really have a simple misdemeanor possession charge...but I don't know enough about the conviction, it seems odd, like couldn't you have bargained it down? And it makes me wonder if you really did something worse and this misdemeanor conviction is what you pled down to.

b. FAFSA issue - the school should know about the issues with convictions and the FAFSA elegibility question, you need better advice about how this might play out...My only thought is that you have the explanation of how the form was filed and it was an honest mistake. You freaked me out by titling the post that you lied on the FAFSA form...never say that...unless at the time you filled out the form you intended to lie to receive benefits which you say is not the case.

2. FAFSA - will you need to disclose the conviction now? Yes, unless there is some statue of limitations/ grace period on the form and your conviction happened before the cut off date of that period. Will the FAFSA question affect your getting aid? You will probably need to disclose this to your school financial aid office -if you need aid at all. Whether they will call you on the date of the conviction and still getting money after that is hard to tell. Does the government look back at the dates? Do the FAFSA computers do that? Dunno.

3. Character and Fitness. You need advice as to how to disclose the misdemeanor on both the law school application and the character and fitness forms. The disclosure should be IDENTICAL in every respect. And the disclosure should be IDENTICAL to what the official records say. You are going to have to explain this stuff, make sure you know what exactly happened.

So, as far as basic advice, this is the best I can do. I would find an ethics person or the ethics committee that you can call for advice. I know New York has this committee, that you can anonymously ask questions to, you are going to have to research this. You might even call some schools and ask for anonymous advice without identifying yourself beyond the fact you want to apply.

The best take-away for you is to not take this lightly but don't give up without knowing what you are up against. The biggest risk you run is that people will find out about the FAFSA issue, and that seems like a likely possibility.

[Miracle]

wowww why would you lie?

[ggocat]

As mentioned, it seems there are 3 areas of concern here:
...
I would find an ethics person or the ethics committee that you can call for advice.
...

The fourth area of concern is criminal prosecution for defrauding the United States. Although I'm not saying the outcome is likely, the stakes are much higher than not getting future loan money or being denied admission to a law school, etc. Before talking to anyone else, I would talk to a lawyer to get the skinny on the possible negative repercussions of disclosing the drug conviction to a law school or on a new FAFSA.

[URMdan]

its not their business to investigate what you did 5 years ago, disclose it and don't worry

[mpj_3050]

Doesn't even have to be a criminal offense either. The dumbest thing is that you have to report a civil citation for pot possession, even if it is decriminalized in your state. Friend of mine in UG got caught with a small amount of pot, was cited, and subsequently lost aid for a year.

[NoJob]

So i never told my school that I got a drug possesion charge (misdemeanor) and subsequently kept my finaid and was already eligible again the next year. I plan on admitting my charge in my law school apps but I'm not sure if they will want to investigate whether I ever told it to my finaid office at undergrad. This was five years ago, I've technically regained eligibility but I think that would be negated if they find out I lied. Any advice, suggestions, do I just hope they don't have the resources to review?

Shut the fuck up. Delete this thread. You will be in more hot water than you (as a 0l) prolly realize with the feds if they find out.

[NoJob]

As mentioned, it seems there are 3 areas of concern here:
...
I would find an ethics person or the ethics committee that you can call for advice.
...

The fourth area of concern is criminal prosecution for defrauding the United States. Although I'm not saying the outcome is likely, the stakes are much higher than not getting future loan money or being denied admission to a law school, etc. Before talking to anyone else, I would talk to a lawyer to get the skinny on the possible negative repercussions of disclosing the drug conviction to a law school or on a new FAFSA.

This person is right. You LIED on a federal form to get the benefit of federal funds and federally-guaranteed loans. They can rain a shit storm on you for this act especially since you admitted that you knew otherwise on the internet.

[Miracle]

As mentioned, it seems there are 3 areas of concern here:
...
I would find an ethics person or the ethics committee that you can call for advice.
...

The fourth area of concern is criminal prosecution for defrauding the United States. Although I'm not saying the outcome is likely, the stakes are much higher than not getting future loan money or being denied admission to a law school, etc. Before talking to anyone else, I would talk to a lawyer to get the skinny on the possible negative repercussions of disclosing the drug conviction to a law school or on a new FAFSA.

This person is right. You LIED on a federal form to get the benefit of federal funds and federally-guaranteed loans. They can rain a shit storm on you for this act especially since you admitted that you knew otherwise on the internet.

how in the world would they find his posts on internet?