Alcohol Violation?

[premedinpa]

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I had a minor policy violation freshman year, I have no idea what kind of records medical schools receive but I had to pay a fine and its not on my transcript or anything. Is this going to count against me? Thanks for your help.

 

[frikarika]

I had a minor policy violation freshman year, I have no idea what kind of records medical schools receive but I had to pay a fine and its not on my transcript or anything. Is this going to count against me? Thanks for your help.

if that fine constitutes institutional action..then yes, you must report it on AMCAS. I had to admit several alcohol violations on amcas...the issue only came up at one of my interviews.

 

[LizzyM]

It is an institutional action. You must report it. It is unlikely to have an effect on the admission decision (in the end) but it may slow your progress through the system (meaning interview invitations will come later for you than for others).

 

[Bond8204]

I had a minor policy violation freshman year, I have no idea what kind of records medical schools receive but I had to pay a fine and its not on my transcript or anything. Is this going to count against me? Thanks for your help.

Ask your premedical advisor. For my school, for example, if it was something that was kept inside the dorms (i.e. you had alcohol in your room and got fined by your RA for it and that was it) then we generally didn't have to report it. If it was something more serious that went to the office of residence life (being ticketed at a tailgate, getting getting into a fight, being found passed out in the showers) it was something we had to report.

I also had things that didn't show up on my transcript, but because they went to residence life I had to report them (obviously they were different from the ones above). It really only becomes a severe problem once you exceed 2 of these. An issue like yours--where something happened freshman year and you haven't been in trouble since--is usually laughed about in interviews, if not totally overlooked.

Again, it totally varies from school to school...I know friends at UChicago and Northwestern who didn't have to report their institutional actions even if it went to residence life--that's why asking your premed advisor is so important on this--don't blow me off on that.

The question to which we're both referring on the primary AMCAS application is this:

Were you ever the recipient of any institutional action by any college or medical school for unacceptable academic performance or conduct violation, even though such action may not have interrupted your enrollment or required you to withdraw? Select "Help" at the top of this screen for important instructions on answering this question.

Edit: From the "Help" menu:

Institutional Action


Medical schools require you to answer this question accurately and provide all relevant information. Medical schools understand that many individuals learn from the past and emerge stronger as a result. Full disclosure will enable the Medical schools to more effectively evaluate this information within the context of your credentials.
You must answer Yes to this question if you were ever the recipient of any institutional action resulting from unacceptable academic performance or a conduct violation, even if such action did not interrupt your enrollment or require you to withdraw. You must answer Yes even if the action does not appear on or has been deleted from your official transcripts due to institutional policy or personal petition.
If you are not certain whether or not you have been the subject of an institutional action, contact the registrar, student affairs officer, or other appropriate party at the institution for confirmation of your record.
Applicants who become the subject of an institutional action after certifying and submitting the AMCAS application must inform their designated medical schools that an action has occurred.
If you answer Yes, you may use the provided space beneath the question to explain; this space is 1325 characters or approximately one-quarter of a page in length. You will receive an error message if you exceed the allotted space.
Failure to provide accurate information in answering this question or, if applicable, in completing the form provided by the school, will result in an investigation.

 

[Bond8204]

It is an institutional action. You must report it. It is unlikely to have an effect on the admission decision (in the end) but it may slow your progress through the system (meaning interview invitations will come later for you than for others).

LizzyM, I almost always agree with you and your input is always obviously valuable, but I would hesistate to unequivocably say that the OP's situation is an institutional action without knowing more about the specifics of the incident or the school's general policy for reporting such incidents.

 

[premed8844]

what about an underage drinking ticket?

 

[bodonid]

what about an underage drinking ticket?

Citations that only require payment of a fine don't have to be reported, I don't think. (Did you have to go to court?) Only misdemenors have to be reported.

 

[premed8844]

no didn't go to court, that's good news!!

but, wouldn't it show up on your "record" or when you search your state's online records people's traffic violations show up etc, wouldn't this?

thanks

 

[Bond8204]

no didn't go to court, that's good news!!

but, wouldn't it show up on your "record" or when you search your state's online records people's traffic violations show up etc, wouldn't this?

thanks

Unless, like at my school, your underage drinking ticket got sent to the school and you had to deal with them rather than the city, this is a totally separate issue (i.e. it is not an institutional action because your institution took no action on you).

Where this comes in is the question "Have you ever committed a misdemeanor?" The only way to have complete peace of mind with your specific situation is to consult a lawyer. Please refrain from taking any legal advice on this forum--threads like this always proceed to bounce back and forth between people saying "you paid a fine..it's not a misdemeanor!!" and others saying "you might as well report it! better safe than sorry!"

If you don't consult a criminal lawyer about it, you're going to freak out when it comes time to do the AMCAS, and you're going to freak out worse when it comes to completing a criminal background check for a school post-acceptance.

To put you just slightly at ease, the vast majority of such tickets are "infractions" or "civil ordinance violations" (especially if they're from a college town) and don't need to be reported as misdemeanors. Again, though, check with a lawyer to be sure.

 

[premed8844]

good idea, thanks!

 

[premedinpa]

hey thanx for your help.

the specifics were: " found in the same room as an alcoholic beverage and the bottle was unopened".. I'm not sure if this is even on any sort of record being as I was not inebrieated at the time and the RA just had to report it regardless. Thanks again. I am going to ask my premed advisor about this.

 

[Vihsadas]

hey thanx for your help.

the specifics were: " found in the same room as an alcoholic beverage and the bottle was unopened".. I'm not sure if this is even on any sort of record being as I was not inebrieated at the time and the RA just had to report it regardless. Thanks again. I am going to ask my premed advisor about this.

You're totally fine. Stop stressing.
My advice to you, don't mention it verbally, but put it on your AMCAS for full disclosure and put that exact phrase. Noone is going to say anything to you for that. I mean, Adcoms were university students once too, in general they won't fault you.

 

[Lecter]

It is an institutional action. You must report it. It is unlikely to have an effect on the admission decision (in the end) but it may slow your progress through the system (meaning interview invitations will come later for you than for others).

lol wuuuuut. So they'll still get the same invitations, just later? What's that, punishment? 😛

 

[werd]

it's really common to have some (small) institutional action on your record, esp. an alcohol violation. just stay away from having multiple ones and you should be fine.

 

[Bond8204]

even so, it'd be nice not to report anything if you don't have to. This is why it's always best to consult your premed advisor about potential institutional actions and a criminal lawyer about misdemeanors.

You/LizzyM are right overall about that, though. One, tends to be very common and no big deal--something typically laughed at or ignored at interviews (or brought up seriously by aholes but then easily explained). Two you'll get significant heat for, but can still explain, especially if they happened early in your college career. Three is the reason I'll be attending DO school instead of MD school.

 

[LizzyM]

lol wuuuuut. So they'll still get the same invitations, just later? What's that, punishment? 😛

No, just that applications flagged as having an institutional action go through an additional layer of oversight and that takes time.

The alcohol in the room stuff is usually good for a laugh in the adcom office and you know that people always feel better after a good laugh.

 

[premedinpa]

it's really common to have some (small) institutional action on your record, esp. an alcohol violation. just stay away from having multiple ones and you should be fine.

Thanks for the reassurance🙂