Got accepted but have a dismissed charged

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bigbrowndude

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First time poster.
I recently got accepted, but I haven't disclosed a dismissed alcohol misdemeanor on my AACOMAS or secondary application. Looking back at the secondary application, I realized that deferred sentence should have been disclosed. What are the chances that the dismissed charge would show up on Certiphi? Or should I just go ahead and call the school and tell them the honest truth about my charge before it shows up by surprise? Thanks!
 
bigbrowndude said:
First time poster.
I recently got accepted, but I haven't disclosed a dismissed alcohol misdemeanor on my AACOMAS or secondary application. Looking back at the secondary application, I realized that deferred sentence should have been disclosed. What are the chances that the dismissed charge would show up on Certiphi? Or should I just go ahead and call the school and tell them the honest truth about my charge before it shows up by surprise? Thanks!
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Wait, so you intentionally withheld information on your secondary?
 
I thought I didn't have to disclose dismissed charges. It not until afterwards that I realized I needed to. Otherwise I would have disclosed it if was a conviction.
 
Tell that to the judge. Jk.
Yeah, it wasn't good that you didn't disclose that information. Was the misdemeanor recent?
 
When the judge told me that it was dismissed, I assumed I never had to worry about it again. And it happened 2 years ago.
 
The question is "have you ever been charged with a misdemeanor" I believe, right? Then you should have included it.

If it ended up being dismissed with nothing for you on your record I doubt they rescind your acceptance as long as you call and explain to them the mixup.
 
This is tough. I would look at the exact wording on the secondary very carefully and make a decision based on what the secondary prompt clearly says. Don't lie to yourself. It may stink, but the last thing you want is to earn your medical degree and have four years of your life wasted afterwards after they take it away upon discovering your misdemeanor. It might be safer to just call them. Again, this is tough.


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Well I guess the safest thing to do is to called them and explain that I have a dismissed charge, regardless of the wording of the secondary. Better being honest than getting screwed over at the end.
 
Tbh though, one school I got accepted to only asked for convictions, so if I said "no", I'm telling the truth right? I'm just not sure about the secondary on the other school
 
What sucks is that the secondary for the other school is not viewable. So I'm not sure what the wording was exactly. Should I go ahead and called them anyways?
 
bigbrowndude said:
What sucks is that the secondary for the other school is not view able. So I'm not sure what the wording was exactly. Should I go ahead and called them anyways?
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I say call and ask them what their secondary asked exactly, and if they say the misdemeanor charge needed to be told, tell them you thought it was for convictions. However things may get messy, so always prepare yourself for the worse. Because they may view it as withholding information to get a better chance which is extremely frowned upon.
 
Don't let negative people scare you. Call the school, tell them what's up and your thought process throughout the whole thing, and I am sure you'll be fine. I knew a kid who got a DUI and still went to med school
 
tony101 said:
I say call and ask them what their secondary asked exactly, and if they say the misdemeanor charge needed to be told, tell them you thought it was for convictions. However things may get messy, so always prepare yourself for the worse. Because they may view it as withholding information to get a better chance which is extremely frowned upon.
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Strongly Concur, especially with the first part. Scope it out first to see what the secondary said; don't mention anything you don't absolutely have to.


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danimal22 said:
Don't let negative people scare you. Call the school, tell them what's up and your thought process throughout the whole thing, and I am sure you'll be fine. I knew a kid who got a DUI and still went to med school
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I'm not being negative, I mean he just thought about this after being accepted? At no point did he think "maybe I should ask?", it definitely raises red flags(Not saying he did it on purpose) but think about it from the schools angle. However maybe they wouldn't of cared in the first place, I would say ask @Goro to see what he thinks.
 
I also would say that it may be beneficial to discuss this with the school. I'm not going to get into whether you were right/wrong in your secondary, because you obviously know it was a risky decision and it's a moot point now.

My theory is that schools ask this on secondaries mostly because they don't want to get in a spot where you're ineligible to do clinical rotations/potentially secure a residency spot/medical license based on a background check. Hospitals are required to have background checks on students who rotate, and if you're a med school, the last thing you want is to lose 10% of your class during/after second year and get in hot water with accreditors.

It's probably somewhat of an honesty/integrity checkpoint as well, but I would guess it's more of the former.

TLDR: Just talk to the school about it. It's a dismissed charge, so it probably won't make a difference in the end anyway. Theoretically, you should be convicted of a crime before it does something like ruin your career opportunities. You're probably fine.
 
I think that the OP's "I didn't have to disclose dismissed charges." will suffice. But I agree that this may vary from person to person on the Adcom. Remember, the prompts in apps vary. Soem ask for arrests only, others go all the way down to moving violations!



tony101 said:
I'm not being negative, I mean he just thought about this after being accepted? At no point did he think "maybe I should ask?", it definitely raises red flags(Not saying he did it on purpose) but think about it from the schools angle. However maybe they wouldn't of cared in the first place, I would say ask @Goro to see what he thinks.
Click to expand...
 
A dismissal is just all charges dropped, isn't it? From what I understand it is easy to have an arrest expunged/sealed in the event that you weren't convicted. Did you look into that?

An arrest can likely show up on a background check but obviously a conviction would not show up. Really, nobody should even be asking you about occurrences where you weren't charged anyway.
 
Run a livescan FBI background check on yourself first and foremost. See what comes up.

Second, not every secondary is the same, read the language of each one of them.

Third, pay a few hundred bucks to get a lawyers opinion on what you do and do not have to disclose before saying anything to any school.
 
I went through the exact same thing. Called the school I had been accepted to the day after I realized the mistake and they were totally cool about it. Just disclose ASAP and be as open and honest about everything as possible! I think it really depends on the school, but I think you will be alright if you are honest now.
 
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