i had institutional action because of file-sharing using p2p networks. since i live on campus, my university was my ISP, and thus the institutional involvement. i reported it on AMCAS, and only one school mentioned it during my interview, which happened to be my top choice school. both interviews spent around 15 to 20 minutes on the incident (what happened, why i did it, what i learned, etc), which sucked since the interviews were limited to 30 minutes. i felt horrible about my interviews since they focused on that incident and i had little time to speak of my positive attributes. well, i had pretty much given up on that school but i was accepted earlier this month.
i think the best approach to any institutional action is to be truthful, yet mature about it. i took full responsibility for what i did and said that i learned from my mistake and that i have moved on. while i don't doubt that the nature of the action has a lot to do with how the adcomms view it, i think honesty and maturity are the best policies and are viewed favorably by the adcomms.
since i'm guessing you have something on your record (or else you wouldn't be asking), mention it on your applications and make sure you can prove that you've matured since then and learned from your mistake. PM me and let me know if you have any other questions. best of luck.
