Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

It probably depends on how they word it. Juvenile convictions are classified as adjudications. Essentially its the same thing as a conviction just different terminology. It's better to be honest and upfront about it than for the college to find out about it another way. Then they will penalize you for lying.

I agree with the earlier answer that honest is the better policy. But if an adult conviction or a juvenile adjudication was expunged (Michigan calls that "setting aside a conviction/adjudication"), then in the eyes of the law he is deemed to have never been convicted of the matter. The slate was wiped clean for that matter. One of the purposes of that process is to allow people who have demonstrated sustained rehabilitation the ability to honestly check "No" to that box. Before you check that box, run your own criminal record to see what a school or employer might see, and see if the expunged matter is viewable. Go to the Michigan State Police web site (www.michigan.gov/msp ... I think) and click on the i-Chat link to order a Michigan criminal history for a $10 credit card fee. It should include juvie matters too. If you can see it still, go to the juvie court to straighten out the discrepancy. If it truly was ordered to be set aside then the court has to send info to MSP to take it off the publicly viewable criminal history database. THEN you can have some assurance that the people reviewing the application won't see something they shouldn't have been seeing, and you can check "No".