Falsification of document and PA school

[Lucidia6]

Hi everyone,
I am a bio student graduating in May with my associate's degree. I have intent to get my bachelor's degree and my master's in physician assistant studies.

My issue is, two years ago I had asked a student to cover and sign for me for animal care duty at my school. I was in a really bad spot at the time and very medicated as I had just got out the hospital from an attempt of suicide. Of course, I was too embarrassed to speak up to anyone about it. Although I still showed up and completely forgot to sign out when I left. The student felt uncomfortable and reported me also saying that I assumed she would forge my signature to sign out, which I honestly didn't. Along with this she also said I forged my time in (I did not, I always looked at my phone when I was signing in, and wrote that time down.) Not really relevant but this student and I never saw eye to eye from the beginning so I'm guessing that's why she threw in a little extra stuff.

This led me to be dismissed from the vet tech program and is now on my record as falsification of a document. My school still let me continue taking classes there and that's where I'll be graduating from in May. I wasn't suspended or put on a probation or anything, just dismissed from the vet tech program. I know how bad this looks and I wanted to know what my chances would still be of getting into PA school as by the time I get to that point to apply it'll be a good 6 years of time since the incident. I honestly learned so much from this happening to me, and learned my lesson about not communicating the way I should and going about things the wrong way. I also learned what field I truly have a passion for which led me to make the PA decision.

I have great grades, and great letters of recommendations. It's just this on my record causing an issue. I have some backup plans if need be but I refuse to just give up on what I truly want to do. How should I go about this and what are my chances of even getting into a PA school at this point?

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[PhilzCoffeeAddict]

You are in a some deep water. I would also repost or move this post to the appropriate section of the forums for more insight. You better hope some schools interview you. Usually anything on a record would warrant a quick dismissal from the application cycle for MOST schools, not all. I wish I could help you more but I don't have any advice on the issue. Sorry I cannot be of anymore assistance.

 

[Lucidia6]

You are in a some deep water. I would also repost or move this post to the appropriate section of the forums for more insight. You better hope some schools interview you. Usually anything on a record would warrant a quick dismissal from the application cycle for MOST schools, not all. I wish I could help you more but I don't have any advice on the issue. Sorry I cannot be of anymore assistance.

Yeah...
How do I move the thread? Haha, I didn't realize I posted in the wrong place.

 

[pamac]

Keep getting great grades, keep your head up. Get good extracurriculars along the way that show you are a humanitarian, and apply to PA school like a boss. If it comes up, explain it like it was... you called in and asked if someone would mark your hours so you could have it on the log, which would allow you to come back later and iron it out. I do things like this all the time, but nobody assumes I’m trying to cheat the system or have someone forge my name, just that I’m accounting for time that I was there. Instead, someone misinterpreted and assumed you meant “forge my hours for me” (which is ridiculous because the few hours involved wouldn’t have made you or broke you, so why would you ask someone to forge your hours?... answer: you wouldn’t). The program still wanted your money, so they let you stay, they just drummed you out of their vet tech program, but that’s beside the point (but says a lot about them, right?)

So yeah, you aren’t going to let that for profit close-to-being-a-scam school ruin your life. If it comes up, I wouldn’t even go into your hard times with your mental health situation. It doesn’t surprise me that a vet tech program (traditionally not known for high achievers) would have a wierd girl in it that deals better with animals (or thinks she does) than people, and went the extra mile to screw up your life similar to how she probably screws up her own.

So, your answer as to why you have that dismissal on your record (should you need to answer to that) is:

“On a sign out sheet, I wish I would have just waited until the next day to return and amend the record of when I left for the day instead of calling back to ask someone to mark my time, because the person I asked to mark it for me assumed incorrectly that I was asking them to forge my signature and not just mark the time I left. I did that so that the faculty didn’t have to track me down and find out what time I left based on the blank next to my signature and my sign in time.”

You could also add “I had very recently been discharged from the hospital, was on unfamiliar medications, and was preoccupied with the circumstances surrounding my health. In that condition, I didn’t mount a vigorous defense, and opted to take them up on the offer to continue to attend the school.”

DO NOT think that all is lost. You’ll be fine. If PA doesn’t want you, find a nice nursing school to settle into and get abused there instead of trying to make PA schools love you. But whatever you do, between now and when you apply to a school, get excellent grades, because that’s the best thing you can do for yourself.

 

[pamac]

You asked how you should “go about this”, and I didn’t explain where to go after you find the words to use, so here’s what I’d do:

Plan to carve out a brief synopsis at the very beginning of your PA school personal statement that essentially says what I laid out to you. Begin by saying “I need to briefely adress my record at (institution) where I was listed as being withdrawn due to falsification of documents”.... then insert the portion from my last post (remove the “I wish I had yada yada”, and start it just bluntly as “I forgot to sign out after I finished animal care for the day at school, and called to ask someone to write the time I left. They assumed incorrectly yada yada....”

After you include the BRIEF explanation, you move on by saying “not wanting to let those circumstances derail my future, I worked hard to demonstrate my character and drive to succeed by......” and then that starts your personal statement. You’ll have to cash out some valuable real estate on the PA school essay by explaining yourself, but it’s direct, sincere, and actually piques some curiosity, because everyone likes to at least read an underdog story, as long as you don’t start it out like a wuss. Just jump right in and hit them with it..... “like a boss”.

If you don’t have good grades when you do this, or else haven’t worked hard to provide the application committee with evidence that you are a good pick for their valuable seats that are worth lots of gold to them (student loan gold rush!), then if you don’t get in, you can’t blame your besmirched record... it will be because PA schools have 10 applicants for every seat, and there will have been at least one student (maybe more) for each seat that has better numbers than you (and also is more interesting to them for whatever reason). That’s nothing personal, there are just lots of smart people who want to go and work under the authority of physicians for some reason, and pay a lot so that they can go do that.

 

[Lucidia6]

Before even going to animal care duty I did ask them to sign for me stating I was there because I wasn't feeling well and that's when they said they weren't comfortable. From that point, I still went in and did my job but just completely forgot to sign out when leaving. So I'm definitely wrong for asking them to sign for me in the first place and I think that's where most of the issues are coming in right now.

I'm just worried to spend so much time getting my bachelor's then to only find out that I can't even get into PA school because of this and have to start all over again.

 

[pamac]

That’s a bit different, and kind of perplexing why you do don’t sign yourself, but at he same time, I’d stick to the basics and just hope for the best. I think a lot will ride on how you carry yourself in the interim. I do think it will be a hurdle, but probably not your biggest one. If you have great grades going in, that will make a big difference for you. The higher your GPA, the more serious ofna student you present yourself as.

In 4 years, who knows how the PA landscape will have changed. Its likely that it’s even harder to get into, so I’d assume you have to work your tail off to get in. But I guess my point is, do your best and hope for the best. If you do well, you have 10 times the options than if you have a gpa of 2.9.