Medical How do I overcome being caught cheating for medical school applications?

[Goro]

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Hello, I am 19 years old and am 1 year away from completion of my degree from a top public school. I have a 3.8 science GPA and will likely apply for medical school in the 2022-23 cycle (2 years from now) as a non-traditional applicant . I have not taken the MCAT yet and intend to take my good long time for it 🙂

I recently had my first real problem in college, right before my last year, unfortunately. I was caught using Chegg during a summer course during this pandemic and was cited for academic misconduct / cheating. The citation is not on my official transcript, but I am certain something like this is on a behavioral record . I don't want to take any risks as I did not contest, and accepted the light punishment the institution gave me. I intend to be honest and transparent about the situation on the Medical School application. In regards to situations like this, how would you advise bouncing back? Perhaps a larger gap, leadership roles? etc.. I know having something like this on your record is a red flag to adcoms and will be a liability on my application.

None the less, I do have a lot of unique research, EC's and clinical work completed and planned over the next 2 years. I'm still confident in my ability and curiosity in regards to getting accepted into a medical school and pursuing medicine as both my parents are solo practitioners, and I've literally been around this occupation since I could first walk!

Live an exemplary life.

Engage in service to others less fortunate than yourself

Try to obtain positions of responsibility.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

So you are planning on taking a gap year? If so, I think this would be a good move so you can get more ECs under your belt in the areas @Goro mentioned above. You basically need to prove this was a lapse in judgment and that you are a changed person and convince the ADCOM of this.

 

[Goro]

So you are planning on taking a gap year? If so, I think this would be a good move so you can get more ECs under your belt in the areas @Goro mentioned above. You basically need to prove this was a lapse in judgment and that you are a changed person and convince the ADCOM of this.

In addition, put as much time as possible between the incident and your applying.

 

[tantacles]

It's not great, but a one-time issue that you recover from is generally not seen as too terrible provided you put time between the event and your application and show that you can succeed after that event.