Degrees really dont mean much with civil service as far as bypass criteria mainly because they are considered entry level jobs. As far as the Speeding Tickets go Ive seen my department burn through the first 12 people including 4 vets because of motor vehicle violations, Im also am highly sure they wanted to the number 13 and 15 guys because they were specials with the town and 1 of them had the full time academy. It happens. As far as an appeal not to discourage you but appeals can have some pretty big reprocutions as far as ever getting on with the dept. especially if one of the people they selected over you is a relative of someone on the pd or someone the town really wants. Its tough to say because ive never been in the situation but I am judging on what Ive seen. As far as the motor vehicle violations civil service has no problem with accepting them as reasons, actually its not civil service its the personell administror of human resources that recieves a form saying we are discarding applicants x, y, and z because of this....... And then states we are appointing a, b, and c instead. Even though you still can appeal I really dont see how it can help because MGL 31 states just because a candidate appears on the list does not mean said candidate has a vested right to the position. Which kind of defeats the purpose of 2n+1 becuase even though the town gets a list of who it can hire 99% of the time they fly through the list to get who they want because at the end of the day these are the people they will be working with for 30+ years. Like MPD said do your homework and see about getting an "in" with the department or find out who the people are they are going after before making an appeal. Just my thoughts, like I said Ive never been in the situation but Ive seen and heard the war stories through Dept.