Dental school Application and expungement

[RonaldGG]

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Hey Everyone, about a year and a half ago I got charged with a DUI for marijuana and a marjiuana and paraphernalia charge. I was not intoxicated yet I was still charged, my lawyer is telling me that it will get dismissed and that he will expunge it. The marijuana charge however will likely not get expunged since I did have some on me. Currently I am studying for the DAT which I am taking in April and I wanted to apply for this cycle. Is it better to wait until I get the expungement done and apply next year or just apply this cycle and see what happens?
If I apply this cycle with a charge on my record and next year I apply with the expungement will they still know that I had it on my record..do they keep tabs on their applicants?

 

[SmileswithKammy]

Great question. Would love to see the responses.

 

[Arthur Jeffries]

if you are charged and it is not yet on your record it may not come up on a background check but i would ask your lawyer/certiphi about that considering it's more of a legal question. if you apply and it comes up and have to reapply for some reason but it's expunged if a school asks about it i would just tell them it was expunged....there shouldn't be any additional questions on their part. if you plead guilty or are found guilty for the marijuana charge disclosing it can be tricky because depending on the state it will either be nothing (if its decriminalized), a summary offense, or a misdemeanor and all of them will most like be viewed differently even though theyre the same charge.

your situation is tricky because you want to disclose as little as possible but at the same time you dont want to skip disclosing something and then it comes up on a background check. that could put an acceptance in jeopardy and make a school question you as an applicant. best of luck

 

[RonaldGG]

On the Dental school application, and I'm sure it varies from school to school, does it ask if you had been charged or arrested? or does it just say have you been convicted?

 

[Arthur Jeffries]

all of the above depending on the school. as for the general AADSAS application double check the guide itll say

 

[hajin]

Dismissed means the case was dropped. If that happens you have nothing to worry about. Either you were found not guilty or the charge just wasn't pursued by the DA.

Expunging is for when it's not dismissed and you ARE found guilty and convicted but then want to get the record of that conviction off your record.

Dental school apps say "convicted." However, if you were actually convicted but then later got it expunged, from a legal standpoint it never happened. You are fully within your legal rights to say. "I have never been convicted of a crime." Not a factually true statement I guess, but it is legally true.

However, if you are convicted you will have to do everything to satisfy that conviction (community service, whatever) and then LATER apply to get it expunged. Your lawyer would know better than me, but based on what I've heard most courts will generally not expunge a conviction immediately after you've been convicted. Usually a good amount of time has to pass first.

 

[Wowzer89]

The application asks if you have ever been convicted. I had a similar situation this past cycle. Don't make the same mistake I made. My stats are great, along with my ECs and LORs. I was arrested... long story... but everything was expunged. I was given the advice to be completely honest about it on my application and explain what I had learned from the experience. Although I never even went to court, plead, or was convicted, I disclosed everything. I thought the admins would appreciate my honesty. I was wrong. I applied to 10 schools, received 2 interviews, and no offers. If you have something that was expunged.. do not put it on your application. I will eventually reapply.. but I have learned my lesson. It does not always pay to be honest. It really sucks to see people getting accepted with lower stats.. I worked so hard for so long. Best of luck to you!

 

[Wowzer89]

Dismissed means the case was dropped. If that happens you have nothing to worry about. Either you were found not guilty or the charge just wasn't pursued by the DA.

Expunging is for when it's not dismissed and you ARE found guilty and convicted but then want to get the record of that conviction off your record.

Dental school apps say "convicted." However, if you were actually convicted but then later got it expunged, from a legal standpoint it never happened. You are fully within your legal rights to say. "I have never been convicted of a crime." Not a factually true statement I guess, but it is legally true.

However, if you are convicted you will have to do everything to satisfy that conviction (community service, whatever) and then LATER apply to get it expunged. Your lawyer would know better than me, but based on what I've heard most courts will generally not expunge a conviction immediately after you've been convicted. Usually a good amount of time has to pass first.

You do not have to plead or be found guilty to have something expunged. You can do a diversion program and the charges will be dropped. This varies state to state.

 

[hajin]

You do not have to plead or be found guilty to have something expunged. You can do a diversion program and the charges will be dropped. This varies state to state.

I'm speaking from experience here. If the charges were dropped, that means you were never actually convicted of anything. So, there was no conviction record to be expunged. An arrest record might show up in a background check that's more thorough than what's done by a dental school, but that's all it is -- a record of an arrest (you could be guilty / not guilty / who knows). Legally speaking, I think no entity outside of the military and a few others is even allowed to ASK you about arrests because nothing is proven by the arrest itself. What matters is if you were convicted of anything.

I'm sorry to say this, but I think you were given bad legal advice on disclosing a non-conviction. You should have (truthfully) answered no and left it at that.

Also, if anyone here is worried about what may or may not appear in your background check you can actually pay to get the same company dental schools use to run a check on you before you apply.

 

[Wowzer89]

I'm speaking from experience here. If the charges were dropped, that means you were never actually convicted of anything. So, there was no conviction record to be expunged. An arrest record might show up in a background check that's more thorough than what's done by a dental school, but that's all it is -- a record of an arrest (you could be guilty / not guilty / who knows). Legally speaking, I think no entity outside of the military and a few others is even allowed to ASK you about arrests because nothing is proven by the arrest itself. What matters is if you were convicted of anything.

I'm sorry to say this, but I think you were given bad legal advice on disclosing a non-conviction. You should have (truthfully) answered no and left it at that.

Also, if anyone here is worried about what may or may not appear in your background check you can actually pay to get the same company dental schools use to run a check on you before you apply.

How do you do that? I checked into it and it wasn't very straight forward.

 

[RonaldGG]

The application asks if you have ever been convicted. I had a similar situation this past cycle. Don't make the same mistake I made. My stats are great, along with my ECs and LORs. I was arrested... long story... but everything was expunged. I was given the advice to be completely honest about it on my application and explain what I had learned from the experience. Although I never even went to court, plead, or was convicted, I disclosed everything. I thought the admins would appreciate my honesty. I was wrong. I applied to 10 schools, received 2 interviews, and no offers. If you have something that was expunged.. do not put it on your application. I will eventually reapply.. but I have learned my lesson. It does not always pay to be honest. It really sucks to see people getting accepted with lower stats.. I worked so hard for so long. Best of luck to you!

So when you apply again, does the school see that the last time you applied you wrote convicted? Or do they not keep tabs?

 

[hajin]

Also, sorry I guess I should clarify. In some states, yes, you can expunge the arrest record itself. But, again... arrest records don't matter if there's no disposition attached and no school will ask you about past arrests.

 

[hajin]

How do you do that? I checked into it and it wasn't very straight forward.

Yeah, I do remember that looking it up was a pain. Sorry I don't know the specifics but I do remember that it was NOT certphi itself. I googled a bunch and tracked down whatever subsidiary / subcontractor / something it is that certphi uses for their checks and then ran a check on myself through them.

Fun fact -- if you're a non-traditional type and / or your bad behavior was some freshman year stupidity you're likely completely in the clear even if you didn't get anything expunged because certphi checks go back to I think a a max of up to 7 years, and more often 5 years or even less. So... if all else fails and dental school is your dream then just go to grad school or something and wait them out. lol

 

[setdoc7]

Also, sorry I guess I should clarify. In some states, yes, you can expunge the arrest record itself. But, again... arrest records don't matter if there's no disposition attached and no school will ask you about past arrests.

Arrest records are very difficult to get rid of, as many sites will have them, and not all update their files. Although you can search for yourself on some of these sites, professionals (lawyers) have their own sites to do background checks with, ones which we cannot access. Advice to OP....ask a lawyer of a judge, no advice here is really valid.