Do I have to report Moving Violations to Med Schools?

[manohman]

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Just got a ticket for running a stop sign. Is this something i need to report to medical schools?

 

[Seihai]

Just got a ticket for running a stop sign. Is this something i need to report to medical schools?

Quoting a post I've made elsewhere:

Traffic violations aren't a special "class" of offence - they can be misdemeanors or felonies just like any other crime. For example, a DUI is a traffic/moving violation just like speeding is, but they're not necessarily both the same "class" (DUIs are almost certainly felonies).

You need to look at your state and city laws. Some states consider speeding offences and other moving violations to be misdemeanors (in which case you absolutely must report them and not doing so could easily get your acceptance rescinded), while others consider them to be "infractions" (which are a lower level of crime below misdemeanors, which you may or may not need to report depending on the school).

No one here is a lawyer (presumably) and no one here can ethically advise you on whether your specific situation is considered a misdemeanor/felony. If you're worried about this, you need to talk to an actual lawyer and figure out what offences you've committed and what levels they were considered at.

An addendum to that:

If your "ticket" rises to the level of a misdemeanor (some states like Ohio consider all tickets to be misdemeanors), then you need to report it on your primary (unless you meet one of the exclusion criteria mentioned in the AMCAS applicant guide) as well as mentioning it on all secondaries that ask if you've been convicted of a crime/misdemeanor/felony as appropriate. If you've already submitted your primary and secondary for some schools, then you need to update each of those schools.

Some schools ask for moving violations/infractions specifically to be included, even if they're not misdemeanors/felonies (UCinci and UVA come to mind). You will need to update these schools.

Talk to a lawyer if you're not sure and you can't find your ticket online through your Clerk of Courts (or equivalent/state search options) and don't have any information on the ticket(s).



TL;DR: Depends. You need to find out whether your ticket is worse than a ticket or if it's just an infraction. If it's a misdemeanor/felony, you need to report/update it everywhere (since it's part of the primary). If it's just an infraction, then only a few schools require information about infractions/simple violations.