disciplinary record

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rogersce

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just wondering how much med schools look at your disciplinary record when you're applying. specifically, i just 'got in trouble' this weekend. here's the story:

i was drunk saturday night and ended up getting into a long conversation with a friend on my phone while walking across campus to get something to eat. I ended up sitting down on a bench in a little wing that connects a parking garage to my school's psychiatric hospital (to keep warm while i talked), and I ended up falling asleep there. the police found me the next morning and were complete jerks to me. after harassing me about what i was doing (though i was obviously sleeping) and doing a background check on me through dispatch, they said they'd drive me back to my dorm. i, however, declined and asked if i could instead look for my cell phone which i had dropped on the ground. the cop then said i could either ride home with him or go to jail. i chose to ride home. i got an email today from the director of student conduct requesting a 15-20 min. meeting with me, so i'm meeting with her tomorrow.

i can already guess the outcome: i'm going to get written up for an alcohol policy violation even though i wasn't drunk when they found me all because it's the cop's word against mine. it's going to go on my record, and thus my concern. will this be a major tarnish on my app or will admissions look over it once i explain all i did was fall asleep on a bench?
 
One step at a time... go to the meeting and see what happens. Don't doom yourself prematurely. Did they do any tests on you to determine blood alcohol levels? If not, then they have absolutely no proof. For all they know, you had a fight with a friend and was talking to another friend on the phone all night and fell asleep waiting for him/her to return your call.

P.S. You fell asleep on a BENCH? OUTSIDE?? How drunk were you?!?
 
well the little wing i fell asleep in is actually an indoors facility. it just connects the garage to an elevator that people use to get to the floor they want to go to (so they don't have to go through the lobby and see all the crazies). so 'technically' i was inside the hospital, and the cop, when getting a background on me, said i was 'inside the hospital'. so maybe he wrote me up for trespassing too. the reason i was in there was to keep warm. they didn't do any tests on me to check my BAC. i can't really remember if he asked me if i had been drunk the previous night because i was half asleep during the entire conversation. so even if he did give me a field sobriety test, i wouldn't have passed because i was still halfway asleep.


ps. i consumed ~15-20 beers over ~5 hour timespan.
 
Just from personal experience, my dorm room was raided for "various substances" freshman year and I was put on disciplinary probation with my scholarship nearly revoked. It was a ****ty time but if you go into interviews being apologetic and emphasize the IMPORTANT lessons you learned from it, I think they're generally forgiving. It hasn't kept me from getting in and if you play it right, it won't for you either.
 
I agree with "AlreadyinDebt" There's no proof. Just because you pass out on a bench doesn't mean you're drunk although it is highly suspicious.
 
If the police force is associated with the campus then most likely nothing will come of it. At my school they will give out "judicial reviews" for a lot of offenses, but they don't mean much. They just scare people and make sure the local courthouse isn't flooded with a ton of minor alcohol offenses. Another thing to consider...the only way medical schools would find out about this is if it is placed on your transcripts for some reason, or one of your LOR's mentions it. Basically...don't sweat it. 🙂

~AS1~
 
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