A "checkered" background

[IO guy-o]

I do not have the greatest history. Early on in my adult life I made some poor decisions, which resulted in a few run-ins with the law and other adverse effects. I have since made drastic changes to my life, which include a new location, sobriety, and an undergraduate eduacation. My life problems are in the past, but easily observable on google. Should I address my histroy in my SOP? Should I ignore it and hope that admissions does not google my name? I plan on pursuing a PhD, and I do not want to be passed over because of things I did 7 years ago. I have maintained a 3.9 GPA through undergrad and my GRE scores are around the 80th %ile. I am just wondering if anyone has some advice for me, I have what it takes to make it, but I just don't know how much my past will haunt me.

[fuzzylogician]

I imagine that if I were an adcom member and read an explanation of old past behavior that is unrelated to the application at hand, I would find it a little odd and out of place. On the other hand, I understand the desire to explain this away before it becomes an issue. Some thoughts: first, how google-able is your name? Will things found on google be easily traced back to you? I think this may be a case you should be discussing with a trusted professor rather than trusting the advice you get online, because this is an unusual problem and even those of us who have been around for several years haven't seen many such cases.

 

If you do decide to mention this, it may be one of those things that should come from a LOR writer rather than you directly. If you address this yourself, keep it very short - 1-2 lines at most - and don't make excuses. State the facts and move on. Some applications have a "is there anything else you want to tell us" field, where you could put this, or if there is a personal statement component to the application, in addition to the statement of purpose, you might consider briefly addressing this issue there.

[IO guy-o]

Thanks for your reply. You are right that I should discuss this with a trusted professor, but the semi-anonymity of the internet is comforting. It's not that crazy things pop up if I am googled, it is actually a mugshot that I am worried about. The specific details surroudning it are not available online, but the picture itself is. So I may have made it sound worse than it is  with my post, although I do doubt that most other applicants have a mugshot . I am just trying to find the correct balance between honesty and too much information. I don't want them to think I am misrepresenting myself, but I also don't want to focus too much on a bad month I had.