Criminal record and LOA from med school

[NotAProgDirector]

I am a medical student that became ill during my 3rd yr. I had a suicide attempt, which led to a disorderly conduct conviction. Yes, the legal system kicks you while you are down. thank you, wonderful cops that do such wonderful jobs of nothing in my town.
Now I am awaiting returning to school. However, I feel my chances at residency are ruined forever. I wanted to do radiology but now am thinking of internal medicine. I am from a top 20 med school, step 1 231, clinical grades 2As, 2Bs, 1C - from having severe depression during this rotation in neurology.
What should I do to look better to programs? How should I explain my conviction? I did voluntary community service out of guilt for my actions. How do I explain a year off of medical school without saying I had a suicide attempt that was so public I got a conviction?

Should I even apply to radiology? I am planning to apply to both internal med and radiology. I was told this was a bad idea. Any opinions?

I appreciate any advice. And just to say, I have never had a good experience with cops. I have had a pretty extensive experience with them growing up. I don't think they do their job at all. They are also super racist towards illegals. I like illegals. They are hardworking, good people

All hope is certainly not lost.

Your year off and conviction aren't going to be positives -- you know that already. You'll need to disclose the conviction on your ERAS application (both felonies and misdemeanors need to be disclosed), so there will be no secrets here.

What to do about this is not completely clear. It goes without saying that you should do as well as you can upon your return to medical school. You'll want your grades to be as good as they can, and a nice Step 2 score would of course help. Had you done research in your "leave year" that would have been nice, but I totally understand that you may not have been healthy enough for that, and getting better needed to be your #1 priority.

Thoughts:

1. The first thing is to make sure you're healthy and ready to come back 100%.

2. You would be best to repeat some of your 3rd year clerkships first, if possible. Jumping right into a 4th year SubI after a (somewhat) lackluster 3rd year (where you were distracted). If possible, it would be great if your school would let you do some 3rd year work from March - June, and then start 4th year rotations in July. You really want to shine in your 4th year, and some repeat/refresher work would likely help.

3. You can certainly apply to both radiology and IM. Happens all the time. It's more expensive, and takes more interview time, but you can do it. Will you get any rads interviews? Who knows, but applying is relatively cheap.

4. Should you talk about this in your app? That's a question only you can answer. Honestly, I think you should write your PS about it -- NOT as a way to "explain" it away, but talking about what you've learned about yourself, the "system", etc. It also might temper the conviction to explain what happened. If you make yourself sound really interesting, programs may look beyond the issues. It would also be great in your PS to demonstrate that you've moved beyond this issue, and that you're healthy again.

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[NotAProgDirector]

Thanks aprogdirector. I am not sure how to explain this in my PS. Also, I don't know if I want that to be the theme of my statement. I have so many other things I have done with my life. I am not sure thought if I need to explain it more than just in the 500 words allotted for the misdemeanor and loa. I have gotten involved in research during my time off and an observership. I (cross my fingers) hope to get some sort of publication this year from the research I am in.
I want to downplay the conviction as much as possible. As a PD, would this signify some sort of red flag to you if I only talked about it during my section on ERAS? Should it be addressed in the PS? I just don't know what to do at this point.
thanks

There isn't a right or wrong answer. Some people would take your experience and turn it into a positive -- how overcoming this has helped you grow as a person and a physician, and will help you relate to others in the same situation. Others would explain it in the misdemeanor/LOA section, and leave it at that. One choice isn't better than the other, just different. Either way, it will come up at your interviews.