If you accidentally spilled coffee on your friend, or forgot your brother’s birthday, or broke your best friend’s phone, you’d probably feel bad. But if you offered up a sincere, heartfelt, “I’m so sorry,” chances are, you’d be forgiven. It’s hard to stay mad at someone who makes an honest mistake and who obviously feels really bad and apologizes. When you mess up and own up, people tend to forgive you.
This works in business, too. In 2006, Threadless, the online t-shirt company, accidentally deleted all of the blogs that its users had maintained on the site. They felt terrible, apologized to all their customers, and even invited people to submit questions and comments. But if you look at the thread here, there isn’t a lot of Threadless hate being expressed. In fact, most of the commenters were pretty understanding.
And for seniors filling out college applications, if you’re asked to explain any disciplinary infractions, admit how badly you feel about what you did. If you paid a price or otherwise made amends, say so. That woks much, much better than making excuses.