Institutional Action First Semester Freshman Year

[combap]

Hey all, I'm relatively new to posting on SDN, and I hope this post isn't too horrendously long to read. Posted this on Reddit, but I received advice from a few people who had IA's on Reddit to post on here as well to receive feedback.

Okay, so I've been on premed Reddit the past few days just going through dozens of these kinds of posts, and I honestly feel pretty lame for posting one of these things-- I just hope to get this off my chest and to get some answers or, maybe, realistic reassurance.

I'm an undergrad freshman at a private T20, and I received an IA for plagiarism during my first semester of freshman year. This was a super emotional thing for me, and I've never had it happened to me before yada yada. The plagiarism wasn't intentional, but I do blame myself for not reaching out to my PI more (this was an accusation based off a 5%-weighed research proposal on an on-campus lab for one of my research courses). I missed citations and was confused on how to cite as I've never done research/written a research paper prior to this, which was another reason as to why I should NOT have rushed into research so quickly first semester and created this whole mess for myself. I plan to fully own up to this mistake on my applications during my junior year because I don't plan on taking a gap year, and I'm very certain on this at this point in my life. After that accusation, I dropped the class (I would've received a 1-letter grade reduction if I had stayed), but I remained in the lab because I knew I owed it to the PI and my bench mentor to continue helping out until the end of the semester.

The thing is-- I have no idea how this will impact my application. Multiple posts (including on SDN) have talked about how an academic IA can basically just shut down your application for some medical schools, and I definitely plan on applying to T20 medical schools. I've worked so hard to get into the school I'm in right now, and it feels like this IA is shutting down my world-- it's hard to tell myself otherwise sometimes even after reading success stories on Reddit from applicants with IA's. How do I go about this?

Also, for anyone who wants additional information, I'm currently at a 3.8X GPA, ~120+ clinical hours from EMT training (direct patient interaction, 24-hour ambulance shifts), ~150+ research hours (currently researching in a cancer/immunology lab and planning to continue throughout remaining undergrad years), ~30+ shadowing hours, ~25 clinical volunteering hours, and I have a research internship lined up for this summer where I'm working 40 hours a week. I plan to keep going at this trajectory, and I really hope to matriculate in 2026, but it feels like I'm doing all of this for nothing sometimes, like my IA would just throw my application out the door for some schools immediately. If anyone can give me advice on how to approach this and how I could possibly phrase this incident on my application during my junior year (i.e. mentioning that the assignment was worth 5%, staying in the lab, etc.), that'd be amazing.

Thanks so much to anyone who responds and reads this.

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[deleted1139416]

Actions speak louder than words. You need to show and prove that you have learned from your mistake. The problem is that you are repeating your mistake by rushing into things again and insisting on applying your junior year.

On another note, no justification or word chess on your medical school applications is going to make up for what's already done. ADCOM members read tens of thousands of applications every year, and MANY of them are filled with excuses and embellishment Trust me, they can smell bull-**** from a mile away. Other ADCOMS on here can back me up on this.

And just to save you some future hassle, unless you go to an Ivy League, a "T20 Undergrad" doesn't mean much as far as med school applications are concerned.

I don't intend to be mean, I just want to give some tough love because I wish I was told this when I was your age.

 

[combap]

Actions speak louder than words. You need to show and prove that you have learned from your mistake. The problem is that you are repeating your mistake by rushing into things again and insisting on applying your junior year.

On another note, no justification or word chess on your medical school applications is going to make up for what's already done. ADCOM members read tens of thousands of applications every year, and MANY of them are filled with excuses and embellishment Trust me, they can smell bull-**** from a mile away. Other ADCOMS on here can back me up on this.

And just to save you some future hassle, unless you go to an Ivy League, a "T20 Undergrad" doesn't mean much as far as med school applications are concerned.

I don't intend to be mean, I just want to give some tough love because I wish I was told this when I was your age.

Hi! Thank you for the quick response. Admittedly, I may have adopted the way some premeds on Reddit share their stats and undergrad institution titles, so I'll refrain from mentioning my T20 institution 😅 As for avoiding a gap year, that's how I've planned everything out thus far, and that option would be best for me for a number of reasons, and I've thought very carefully on it. Maybe my mind will change and maybe it won't during these next few years, but I do plan on applying my junior year as of now.

I don't think I'll be playing word chess, but I do think that, when the time comes, I'll struggle to find the words to properly explain it-- some individuals who responded to my Reddit thread via dm stated that, for example, they'd talk about 5% and some say they wouldn't since it sounded a bit like an excuse. I've learned a lot about the importance of plagiarism and giving credit in research from this experience, however, and I will definitely address how I've improved on my research when the time comes. Just very nervous about how all this will play into my application.

And your response did not come off as mean at all-- tough love is what all of us need at times.

 

[deleted1139416]

Hi! Thank you for the quick response. Admittedly, I may have adopted the way some premeds on Reddit share their stats and undergrad institution titles, so I'll refrain from mentioning my T20 institution 😅 As for avoiding a gap year, that's how I've planned everything out thus far, and that option would be best for me for a number of reasons, and I've thought very carefully on it. Maybe my mind will change and maybe it won't during these next few years, but I do plan on applying my junior year as of now.

I don't think I'll be playing word chess, but I do think that, when the time comes, I'll struggle to find the words to properly explain it-- some individuals who responded to my Reddit thread via dm stated that, for example, they'd talk about 5% and some say they wouldn't since it sounded a bit like an excuse. I've learned a lot about the importance of plagiarism and giving credit in research from this experience, however, and I will definitely address how I've improved on my research when the time comes. Just very nervous about how all this will play into my application.

And your response did not come off as mean at all-- tough love is what all of us need at times.

I am going to give it to you 100% straight...

Getting into a T20 med school right out of undergrad is an extremely difficult thing to accomplish. And now that you have already have a huge mark on your record, this will now be ten times more difficult. Now it's your life, so I am not saying that you shouldn't try to reach for this. But the problem is that it may tempt you to take shortcuts in the future and jeopardize your application again, just like it did the first time around. I have seen people in your position shoot themselves in the foot so much so that not only do they not start med school right after undergrad, but they end up having to take several years off between undergrad and med school to correct their mistakes.

 

[combap]

I am going to give it to you 100% straight...

Getting into a T20 med school right out of undergrad is an extremely difficult thing to accomplish. And now that you have already have a huge mark on your record, this will now be ten times more difficult. Now it's your life, so I am not saying that you shouldn't try to reach for this. But the problem is that it may tempt you to take shortcuts in the future and jeopardize your application again, just like it did the first time around. I have seen people in your position shoot themselves in the foot so much so that not only do they not start med school right after undergrad, but they end up having to take several years off between undergrad and med school to correct their mistakes.

Gotcha. I entered undergrad thinking that getting into a T20 med school would be a huge reach for me considering aspects of my background already, and have definitely geared myself towards applying to T30 and perhaps other med schools. I honestly just need one A from a decent institution, even if it's not T20, and I just hope that it's possible. And thank you for telling me this! I'll definitely be taking that into account.

 

[chilly_md]

If you read through posts regarding IA's, then you must have come across the common topic of a freshmen lab report where lab partners submitted the same thing. I assume you submitted sections of work your PI had done for your assignment without doing the correct citations.

Don't apply your junior year, wait till your senior year. Give back significant time to volunteering for underserved communities (such as working with refugees, at a local homeless shelter, soup kitchen etc). No, tutoring for free does not count. If the PI can write a LOR that is supportive of you, that always helps.

You are quite adament about applying at a specific time, but that is an odd perspective to have considering how worried you are that your app would be completely tossed in the first place.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

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As a first year student it is way too early for a WAMC analysis.

 

[Goro]

Luckily, we were all young and stupid ones, so if you keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble, this should not be an issue.

But you do have to make sure that you own this transgression.

 

[gyngyn]

This type of IA is surprisingly common.
Own it, and you'll be fine.

 

[eigen]

I plan to fully own up to this mistake on my applications during my junior year because I don't plan on taking a gap year, and I'm very certain on this at this point in my life. After that accusation, I dropped the class (I would've received a 1-letter grade reduction if I had stayed), but I remained in the lab because I knew I owed it to the PI and my bench mentor to continue helping out until the end of the semester.

One thing that I think would help a lot is a letter from your PI that addresses it head on as an issue with your understanding rather than intentional, since I'm assuming it was your current research PI that was the course instructor for an independent study research course?

I'm currently at a 3.8X GPA, ~120+ clinical hours from EMT training (direct patient interaction, 24-hour ambulance shifts), ~150+ research hours (currently researching in a cancer/immunology lab and planning to continue throughout remaining undergrad years), ~30+ shadowing hours, ~25 clinical volunteering hours, and I have a research internship lined up for this summer where I'm working 40 hours a week.

You don't mention your long term goals, but looking at your plans I see a *lot* of plans for research, a good start to clinical experience, and zero mention of non-clinical volunteering. Unless you're aiming for a research focused school, research oriented specialty or an MD/PhD, I'm not sure this much research is a good use of your limited time.

And I say this as someone who loves research: it's great to do to gain skills and can absolutely help you learn how to interpret the literature. But I see increasing numbers of pre-med students who feel like they *have to do a ton of research* and focus on it to the exclusion of other, more important, things.

Edit to add: A some general advice, I'd also second the idea of thinking about *why* you're planning to do things. Why are you focusing on T20 medical schools? Are they necessary for the career you want, and if so why? Why are you planning to apply junior year, is there something particularly important about not taking gap years? You may have excellent reasoning for these choices, but I find a lot of students have these ideas early on in undergrad because they get caught up in the competitiveness of UG pre-med communities, rather than because they are specifically meaningful or important to their particular future plans.

 

[combap]

One thing that I think would help a lot is a letter from your PI that addresses it head on as an issue with your understanding rather than intentional, since I'm assuming it was your current research PI that was the course instructor for an independent study research course?


You don't mention your long term goals, but looking at your plans I see a *lot* of plans for research, a good start to clinical experience, and zero mention of non-clinical volunteering. Unless you're aiming for a research focused school, research oriented specialty or an MD/PhD, I'm not sure this much research is a good use of your limited time.

And I say this as someone who loves research: it's great to do to gain skills and can absolutely help you learn how to interpret the literature. But I see increasing numbers of pre-med students who feel like they *have to do a ton of research* and focus on it to the exclusion of other, more important, things.

Edit to add: A some general advice, I'd also second the idea of thinking about *why* you're planning to do things. Why are you focusing on T20 medical schools? Are they necessary for the career you want, and if so why? Why are you planning to apply junior year, is there something particularly important about not taking gap years? You may have excellent reasoning for these choices, but I find a lot of students have these ideas early on in undergrad because they get caught up in the competitiveness of UG pre-med communities, rather than because they are specifically meaningful or important to their particular future plans.

Thanks for responding! My school's system is a bit interesting in terms of the independent study research course, which is run by a different professor, who oversees other on-campus labs. After that semester, I've long since moved on to an off-campus lab that better aligned with my interests (I definitely took the time to choose this lab, and I'm loving it along with the lab members so far). This makes me a bit iffy, since I don't necessarily have ties to my previous PI, but another factor is that I never saw her around the lab as opposed to the PI I have now. My previous PI and I never really had much interaction, and I basically only interacted with the research assistant in the lab. The only time I interacted with that PI was when I received the letter of accusation.

As for non-clinical, I'm definitely going to put more effort into getting those hours and meaningful experiences in! Thanks for pointing that out And the "why" questions are definitely something I have to think of more deeply, and I'll be sure to do that before applications come around and before it's too late.

 

[combap]

Luckily, we were all young and stupid ones, so if you keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble, this should not be an issue.

But you do have to make sure that you own this transgression.

Thanks, Goro! Yeah, definitely planning on keeping my nose clean for sure. Such an unexpected thing that happened to me, but it's taught me plenty.

I also wanted to ask you if there are possibilities to receive an A from institutions (T30 - T50, maybe) without a gap year considering this kind of academic IA and if you've seen individuals in my position before who've received an A with no gap years. I also understand that I'm still super early in this process, and I probably sound like a crazed, panicked chicken right now, but I've been finding SDN to be more helpful, albeit more tough love-y, than Reddit on these matters. Will be definitely looking/researching into gap years more after reading some of the advice on here, though.

 

[eigen]

Not Goro, but I generally am concerned with students who are super focused on no gap years. I find many of them back themselves into corners where they would have been much more successful and less stressed if they'd taken a full 4 (or 5) years to prepare.

Anything is possible, but no one is going to be able to read the tea leaves on your application this early with any real chance of success. How you talk about your interests, how you showcase that you've matured, how you (or others) are able to address the IA and show you've grown are all going to be factors that we can't really read much into.

And that's not even touching on what may happen to grades, MCAT scores, and hours of experiences between now and when you apply.

 

[combap]

Not Goro, but I generally am concerned with students who are super focused on no gap years. I find many of them back themselves into corners where they would have been much more successful and less stressed if they'd taken a full 4 (or 5) years to prepare.

Anything is possible, but no one is going to be able to read the tea leaves on your application this early with any real chance of success. How you talk about your interests, how you showcase that you've matured, how you (or others) are able to address the IA and show you've grown are all going to be factors that we can't really read much into.

And that's not even touching on what may happen to grades, MCAT scores, and hours of experiences between now and when you apply.

This was oddly reassuring. Thank you. This gives me a sense that I do have a lot more to control than I think. And haha, yes, super early, and no MCAT score yet either-- I may be asking for scraps at this point, but this was very helpful.

 

[Goro]

I also wanted to ask you if there are possibilities to receive an A from institutions (T30 - T50, maybe) without a gap year considering this kind of academic IA and if you've seen individuals in my position before who've received an A with no gap years.

STOP thinking like this. You've already ben told it shouldn't be a problem, and you've got 3.5 years left in college.

T30-t50? That's like saying "any US MD school". It's your job to get into A med school, not merely THAT med school over there. Your salary as an attending will be the same if you go to Harvard or Drexel.

 

[combap]

STOP thinking like this. You've already ben told it shouldn't be a problem, and you've got 3.5 years left in college.

T30-t50? That's like saying "any US MD school". It's your job to get into A med school, not merely THAT med school over there. Your salary as an attending will be the same if you go to Harvard or Drexel.

Okay, got it! Will try to proceed during the next years with this mindset.