criminal background... juvenile or adult record?

[dboy]

Does anybody know if medical schools look into the juvenile records of their applicants? I know a lot of people are not allowed to look at juvenile records because they are confidential, but there are exceptions such as buying a handgun. Seeing that doctors write prescriptions, you would think med schools would be able to do an extensive background check on their applicants. If you were convicted of a misdemeanor as a juvenile, what would you put on your application to med school , secondaries, or any other application that asked if you have been convicted of a crime?

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[mzeroapplicant]

Does anybody know if medical schools look into the juvenile records of their applicants? I know a lot of people are not allowed to look at juvenile records because they are confidential, but there are exceptions such as buying a handgun. Seeing that doctors write prescriptions, you would think med schools would be able to do an extensive background check on their applicants. If you were convicted of a misdemeanor as a juvenile, what would you put on your application to med school , secondaries, or any other application that asked if you have been convicted of a crime?

Better to disclose, someone with such a misdemeanor might have to disclose when they're obtaining their medical license, so you wouldn't want a discrepancy between your med school application and later documents. Plus, as long as it wasn't a part of a pattern that led into adulthood, I doubt most med schools would give a damn.

 

[omarsaleh66]

Does anybody know if medical schools look into the juvenile records of their applicants? I know a lot of people are not allowed to look at juvenile records because they are confidential, but there are exceptions such as buying a handgun. Seeing that doctors write prescriptions, you would think med schools would be able to do an extensive background check on their applicants. If you were convicted of a misdemeanor as a juvenile, what would you put on your application to med school , secondaries, or any other application that asked if you have been convicted of a crime?

nope, if it was a misdeamonor, it's off your record when u turn 18. Atleast from my "friends" experience. "My friend" got into med school and is going to graduate next year.

later

 

[mzeroapplicant]

nope, if it was a misdeamonor, it's off your record when u turn 18. Atleast from my "friends" experience. "My friend" got into med school and is going to graduate next year.

later

In your friend's case he hasn't licensced yet, which means he doesn't know if not disclosing was the right choice. In the case of law school students, I've known two people who got into law school without disclosing criminal offenses and then ran into trouble with the bar... so getting accepted isn't the best measure. Now medicine may very well be different, but the reality is that just because something was supposed to be "expunged" doesn't mean that it won't show up on a certain kind of background check. And this extends even further, because you can bet your ass that if the OP is sued for malpractice that the patient's attorney will look at the doc's background. In my opinion, it's just better to disclose, disclose, disclose, because it won't keep you from being admitted, but at the very least it could keep you up at night if you don't disclose.

 

[OnMyWayThere]

nope, if it was a misdeamonor, it's off your record when u turn 18. Atleast from my "friends" experience. "My friend" got into med school and is going to graduate next year.

later

I agree... you don't need to put anything on the application. And they won't take your med school app and compare it with your license app. If they specifically ask (Have you ever been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony, including expunged, juvenile, etc.?) which the medical board might, then you'll respond. If not, like med school apps, then you really don't need to tell them anything because your juvenile record is inaccessible to them anyway.

 

[Law2Doc]

nope, if it was a misdeamonor, it's off your record when u turn 18. Atleast from my "friends" experience. "My friend" got into med school and is going to graduate next year.

later

Whether or not a juvenile record gets expunged is going to be different from state to state. It would be a really bad idea to assume there is a global rule nationally based on one person's experience who is likely in a different state. And as a prior poster indicated, it is the licensing board (also state dependant) that would do the more significant and extensive criminal record search, or ask the relevant questions, so the fact that your friend is already in med school does not mean he won't soon hit the snag.

 

[Church]

I'd go with full disclosure, as long as it wasn't part of a pattern that continued as you became an adult. You could even play to it as a positive during interviews or in an essay: "As a result of those bad experiences, I learned and grew blah blah blah..."

I had a 0.47 GPA my first 2 semesters of college, went in the Navy, and obviously did better the second time around. I didn't know whether to fess up or bury the old grades, but I did the "look at how I learned from my misspent youth" thing, and it worked out pretty well.

It has been my experience that if you screw up, and tell the truth about it, you will almost always get in far less trouble than if you start/keep lying. Honestly, as some other posters have mentioned, it was on your juvie record, not your adult one. Odds are, the med schools you apply to won't freak when they see it.