Is there a "scientologist" exception?

Hi guys,

I am a newbie so I'm sorry if this is a stupid question.

Have any of you had success with colleges (or any other institution requiring you to have a documented past including jobs/academics) by simply explaining that you were trapped in Scientology? An essay on that would make a killer "personal statement," surely!

Of course, that doesn't get rid of a requirement to have a GED or equivalent and the basic skills you would need in freshman year, but it sounds like at least some of you done this, even if you had to choose between getting a GED and eating. Unfortunately colleges these days want a resume with no gaps that includes not only jobs, but academics, volunteering, sports, arts, basically the whole over-programmed adolescent experience. At least, from Wog-world applicants. Scientology deprives you of the chance to experience the wonders of the overprogrammed adolescence that is "normal" now in the US.

I'm curious, because it seems like one of the worst real-life effects of growing up in Scientology is that it's both financially and practically hard to get a college education, and college is pretty much required for so many professions these days. You leave the cult financially broke, emotionally harmed, and with gigantic obstacles to many career paths. We should start a scholarship fund,

When I left many years ago, I was a High School grad, but never went to college. I was 32 with over 13 years in the Sea Org and 17 years in Scientology.

Resume was a problem at that time. I met with a career counselor and we worked out job equivalents for the senior positions I had held in Scientology. I told them that Scientology if contacted would never verify that I was even working there in the past.

However the direction I went in was to go to work for a company along with several other former Scientologists with no experience and we learned on the job. This then turned into other opportunities and I eventually went into business for myself and have been successful at this.

So my past now doesn't hinder me at all. I know it is tough though for those that recently have left.

WestCoast,

My daughter is going thru this now. At 22 she decided she needs a college education to get beyond her dead-end job. So far, without HS Diploma or GED, she's been accepted at Phoenix University. The issue that she really didn't graduate or get a GED may come up later. I just don't know.

She dropped out of HS to join the SO, even though I didn't want her to. And I've since learned that she didn't really learn much while attending the private Scn run schools I sent her to.

I'm hoping she can deal with college. Fortunately, her boyfriend is really smart and can possibly help her.

The biggest problem is paying for it. I'm not in a position and she's not yet 24 to get grants. And her bio-dad didn't file the right divorce papers so we can't go after him for the 10 years of child support he didn't pay.

Hi there,

Well, when I apply for graduate school in about a year from now, I will use this approach. This is something I actually avoided before as I never really wanted to discuss my Scilon background with people I don't know.

This past year, I've been taking a lot of creative writing courses at college and inevitably, my Scilon background has come up in many short stories and personal essays. I have only been met with curiosity from my instructors who all have pointed out to me that this gives me a unique vantage point and voice from which I can colour my hope-to-be-realized writing career.

I have come to a point where I can use it in the form of a personal essay or statement of purpose without sounding like a victim, which is the least of my intentions. I do have a unique experience in the sense that I was robbed of something that so many people take for granted. This, sadly, means that I've to some extent have had to work harder to make up for the missing parts, but on the other hand it makes me all the more focused.

I really hope it will work as I still to this day do not perform very good on entrance exams and that sort of thing. I am on the other hand good at voicing my thoughts and, if I may say so, a pretty good writer who wants to become even better and am willing to work hard at it. And I really want to go to grad school.

[astra]

I found several points in my favour:
1) getting a GED is easy, ridiculously so. All you have to do is go take the test, there's no mandatory hours/credits like taking adult ed for a diploma. The test is eeaasy.
2) nobody cares if you got a GED or a diploma. For most job apps there's 1 box for both. The only military branch that cares is the USMC (must have actual diploma -- but they'll help you get it FAST. And if you are going into the military, you don't really have to care about this post.)
3) In my experience colleges don't care what kind of paper you have saying you can do the work. You just test in and get assigned to a class based on your ability. (I'm not talking about ivy leage here obviously -- my experience is with community college and the local U.) Then all that matters is that you can do the work.

I got my GED at 15 in the SO. I had almost no education whatsoever growing up. At 25 I went to the local community college and started taking classes. It was great. I had trouble with the math (not my subject) but after 2 semesters of classes had a 3.5 gpa. I'm not saying I'm some kind of genius -- far from it. If I can do it, anybody can! After getting a 2 year degree from the CC I'm transferring to the university.

That's what I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone who is in the place I was. The only reason I had to wait so long was that you have to be 25 to apply for a federal student aid grant separately from your parents -- even if you were emancipated and have no idea where they are, like I was. The government still counts their income as yours! If your parents are in the SO that's fine, they are too poor to disqualify you. Mine were definitely too rich. (Also you have to have been residing in your state for 1 year or more. For us exceedingly-mobile kids that can cause a problem.)

I found that I was lacking in study skills. The "study skills" that you learn in Scientology are crap. I didn't know how to take notes, or how to write an essay (what's a topic sentence?) but I was lucky enough to have friends, an intelligent beaux, and the college was more helpful than any school I had ever been in. They have free tutors and everything, like they actually care if you pass!