Getting an OWI at any point in life will come with serious repercussions. However, students will often face additional issues they may not have even considered.
In fact, an OWI can actually interfere with a student’s school career and future job prospects.
Loss of financial aid
As The College Investor discusses, an OWI on record can have serious impacts on a student’s future. First, it is possible for a college to decide to expel a student for an OWI conviction. This usually only happens in the event that the charges also involved property damage to extremes, injury, death, or the involvement of minors.
Even if a college does not expel a student, they will likely revoke any financial support they gave. This also extends to private organizations that may have given financial gifts or scholarships. Many of these organizations have rules regarding the recipients of their financial aid and when they may revoke said aid. Criminal conviction usually counts as a valid reason to discontinue financial support.
Issues in the job field
As far as a student’s prospective jobs, an OWI can make it harder for a student to get into their field of choice. First of all, many jobs do not hire people with an OWI on record for safety reasons. This includes government positions, jobs that work with children and jobs that require a commercial driver’s license.
Students with a suspended license will also find it harder to get internships due to the lack of reliable transportation, so just one OWI can have serious impacts on the overall outcome of a student’s schooling.
