AMCAS Investigation Report Being Sent to All Schools Due to Institutional Action Question

[plat4589]

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To give some context, my first semester of my freshman year, I had some personal and health issues, which led me to failing a class and my GPA falling below a 2.0. I was placed under "Academic Notice" which is a first-semester policy for new students and is not academic probation. It did not carry any disciplinary or enrollment restrictions and had no effect on my academic record.

Here is the criteria and its effects from the school's website:

Academic Notice/Warning​

Criteria​

1. You are a first time in college freshman (FTIC) in your first semester.
2. You have earned less than a 2.0 semester GPA (below a C average) in your first semester of enrollment.
3. You have 29 or less total semester hours of credit.
   • This is not probation, and you CANNOT be suspended at this time.
   • Academic Notice applies only to your first semester. If you do not earn a cumulative GPA of 2.0 during your second semester, you will be placed on academic probation.

The following semester, I got better and got a 3.9 GPA. My academic notice was removed from my transcript and record, and that was essentially the end of it. Fast forward 6 years to today, applying to med school. I answered "No" for the IA question as I believed that the "Academic Notice" was removed from my record and is no longer on my transcript. Even though it is no longer on my transcript, I guess a record of this was still kept on my account? I'm not sure how AMCAS found out, and I probably should have played it safe and contacted my school to make sure, but I didn't.

I received an email saying I'm being "investigated" by AAMC last week, and they basically told me that I just have to give a statement on why I selected "No" for the IA question, and that their will be a report with my statement that basically says I did receive an IA and it will be sent to all the schools I applied to. I'm worried now that I will just be automatically rejected from all the schools I applied to and blacklisted. It was an honest mistake, and in my eyes, I didn't inherently do anything wrong or try to lie. I mean, it's not like I can hide my first-semester GPA; it's on my transcript, and all the schools will already see that my GPA was below a 2.0 and the "Academic Notice" was removed from my transcript.

The report does specify that I was just on Academic Notice my first semester and doesn't just simply say " Institutional Action", so it doesn't leave room for assumptions about whether I was academically dishonest or anything like that. I'm just trying to look on the bright side, I guess lol.

I already sent in all my secondaries, so it's too late to try to explain myself there.

How screwed am I? Is there anything I can do? Should I send an email to all the schools or something explaining the situation?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Did you apply to AMCAS before? I'm missing that information.

 

[plat4589]

Did you apply to AMCAS before? I'm missing that information.

No, first-time applicant.

 

[wysdoc]

If you send this exact information to AMCAS and explain that you understood this temporary academic warning had been removed from your records, they will quickly respond to say what happens next.
See what their ruling is because if they accept your explanation you might not need to do anything else

 

[plat4589]

If you send this exact information to AMCAS and explain that you understood this temporary academic warning had been removed from your records, they will quickly respond to say what happens next.
See what their ruling is because if they accept your explanation you might not need to do anything else

I did, but they still said a report had to be done. I guess I'll try to plead with them one more time. But assuming they still stick with a report, is there anything I can/should do?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

How did you confirm with your registrar that your academic notice was removed from your record? Do you have an email stating this? Did you have a copy of your transcript to confirm this? I agree that if you sent the explanation to AMCAS, AMCAS will confirm with your registrar if it is their policy and that it was in effect when you were a freshman. (I am not doubting your word here.)

Usually your "academic warning" will be noted on a transcript since your coursework is reported after each term. There is usually a note on the transcript that your term GPA placed you under Academic Warning because, to remain in Good Standing, your GPA should be above 2.0; that is generally explained by the registrar in their policies or in the back of the physical transcript. For each term thereafter, the registrar should note you have returned to "Good Standing." Nothing is ever completely removed unless it is the policy of the registrar. Then again, you see your transcript.

Plenty of schools do an academic warning for first-semester freshmen who drop below 2.0. I hope that your explanation is easy to resolve and to demonstrate no intent to deceive. Will it force an automatic red flag among adcoms? I don't suspect it would depending on the findings of the investigation. If you finished with a 3.9 GPA, I would think this issue is not ultimately a major concern. That said, this is one reason why we always recommend people disclose, even if it is expunged (or we believe it is).