Do Med Schools Call Past Employers

[notthegumdropbuttons]

Do med schools call past employers

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[Moose A Moose]

Doubtful. I've spoken with a lot of applicants over the years and have never heard of it happening.

 

[becomingdoctor]

If someone's experience is questionable, maybe; but I believe it happens very rarely

 

[ZedsDed]

You wouldn't be thinking of lying would you?

 

[becomingdoctor]

You wouldn't be thinking of lying would you?

how about exaggeration

 

[ZedsDed]

how about exaggeration

Is that a meaningful distinction?

 

[mathnerd88]

Although they probably will not call, they will ask about your application during the interview. If you start giving answers that are unreasonable, they will know.

I know many people who have exaggerated things on their application, but won't put out of the blue false information.

Everyone's opinion of exaggeration is very different. Someone may think that they didn't exaggerate while others will.

 

[MightBeACylon439]

They do a criminal background check once accepted. But even that's done by a third party and YOU pay for it.

There are thousands of applicants to each school and few administrative staff. Do you think it would be a productive use of time to call everyone's past employers? To me that sounds like a colossal waste of time.

With that said the line between exaggeration and lying is thin...so tread carefully and be honest with yourself.

 

[Grace184]

Do you really want to start your profession out based on lies?

One word: ethics. I don't understand why you would risk a careers in medicine over an "exaggeration." That leaves it open to what else you've exaggerated about.

 

[Grace184]

We have a bank of questions to ask. Unless you're a sociopath, I don't think that you can be that glib and weasel out of this one.

But now you've convinced me that it's worth some random cold calling hospital volunteer offices.

We can also call advisors. No sweat for me; I can do this while I'm eating lunch and browsing SDN.

I think my wily old Admissions dean can put an admin on this as well. Or dip into my school's TA money and get a hungry med student to do some detective work for us. They, unlike you, take professionalism very seriously.

 

[Grace184]

Straight from the mouth of Goro

 

[DrPatriot]

Straight from the mouth of Goro

What thread was that from?

 

[Grace184]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/zero-medical-experience.1139548/page-2#post-16529950

That HYP Wall Street guy who decided to go med and make up experiences

 

[GrapesofRath]

Newsflash; If you think you can exaggerate something and not get caught it's generally not significant enough to change your application much( no saying you were VP of the pre med club 2 years instead of 1 won't help your odda anyway). And the people who lie are probably the ones who have clear flaws in their application and think they need to. Inflating your ECs wont prevent that 25 MCAT from wrecking your chances at most schools anyway

If you exaggerate or lie on something that is significant enough to change the status of your application and your fate the odds of it being detected are far too significant to ever reasonably think it's worth the risk. Let's just say rec letters, advisor letters and committee letters exist for a reason. Lying about things you didn't do is alot harder than it sounds; especially for those who aren't smart enough to realize how stupid it is

 

[ortnakas]

They can, but it's unlikely.

If you're thinking of embellishing, it's A) unethical B) unprofessional C) not worth the risk..

If you're asking because you left a previous employer on bad terms, not because you're thinking of being "creative"-- you'll be fine, include the contact info. Without your release, all they can do is confirm your employment dates anyway.

 

[trev5150]

OMG I HAVE SPEEDING TICKETS THEY'RE NEVER GOING TO LET ME IN LIFE IS OVER.

Seriously though, if you're planning on BSing your way into med school what else are you planning on BSing your way through? Tests? Treatment plans? Depositions?

Integrity check. How would you like it if you found out your doctor was that guy?

 

[blkgrnblkylw]

This is kind of unrelated, but do you think it would look pretty bad to not include a contact info for one activity. It's not really an important activity, just some manual labor type work experience, but my only supervisor moved to northern Europe, so I can't contact him.

Also, on all secondary applications, do you have to rewrite all your activities and biographical information etc. Or is the secondary application just those few essays and a deposit? Like if I pre-write the secondary essays that are available here on SDN, is that it, or do they ask for additional stuff?

 

[xBODOMx]

.

 

[notthegumdropbuttons]

Thanks for all the responses (and cynicism haha...i should have clarified). I left my past employer on kind of bad terms.