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- Jun 23, 2015
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Hoping to get some advice from students/faculty on admissions committees.
I recently graduated from a good public university with a ~3.7 GPA and a ~3.8 sGPA. 31-33 MCAT. Decent extracurriculars, lots of shadowing, about 2 semesters of research with no publications. I applied to about 15 schools during the 2014-2015 application cycle, I received one interview invite and was placed on that schools waitlist, rejections from everywhere else. I did not apply very smartly, this was partly my fault and partly because of bad advice from my school's pre-med committee. I had no clinical experience, but they assured me that I would be ok as long as I applied early.
I am going to be a scribe as well as an EMT to get more clinical experience, and I am going to apply more broadly during the 2016-2017 application cycle.
During my freshman year I was stupid and was caught with alcohol in a dorm. Nothing serious, but I had to complete an alcohol education course and was placed on probation for one year.
In March of this year I received an email saying that my school had received notice that I had been involved in the alleged sexual assault of another student. Without disclosing too much detail, the alleged incident occurred at my house after meeting a student at a bar just off campus. I asked the individual to come back to my house, and they said yes. However, after getting back to my room they said they did not wish to continue. I left my room and slept upstairs on a couch. In the morning I drove the individual home and that was the last I heard from them. There was no sexual contact.
I think the individual blacked out, and woke up in a strangers house and was confused. Maybe they assumed something had happened. The individual reported something to the police, who turned the investigation over to the school.
There was a student conduct hearing, and two days after the hearing I was found responsible for sexual misconduct and a violation of the alcohol beverage policy. I was 21 at the time of the incident, so was the other individual, but since alcohol was involved I had to be found responsible for that. The sanction was my degree was to be withheld for one year. I appealed the decision, and the sanction was reduced to six months.
This process was incredibly frustrating for me and my friends/family. I trusted that the process would work and I would be found not responsible, since I was telling the truth and had several witnesses, whereas the other individual was lying, changed their story several times, and had no relevant witnesses. However, I think based on the climate around sexual assault on campuses, the student conduct officials felt they had to protect themselves from a possible lawsuit from the plaintiff and bad publicity.
So at the end of this process, I am left with three conduct violations on my record. I have worked extremely hard to put myself in a position to be successful and attend medical school, but its hard to see that happening with this on my record. My school only discloses policy violations for 5 years from the date of the incident, so one option is to wait five years, work and save up money, and apply with a clean slate in 4 years (since the incident occurred in august 2014). I would prefer not to do that, since I would have to retake the MCAT and I would like to start med school as soon as possible.
Another option I have is to get a "Letter of support" from the director of student conduct, who happens to be my fraternity advisor and a mentor of mine. This letter would go at the end of my FERPA release to med schools, so the school would see my policy violations and sanctions, and then the letter from him. He told me that he wrote a letter of support for a student that was suspended four times during his time at college, and that student was accepted to Law school. I would also work with him to prepare a presentation that I would give to my fraternity that details what happened to me, and how it could have been avoided. For example, not taking people back from bars after a night of drinking, bystander intervention, etc. What happened to me could happen to anyone, and I want to stop that from happening to friends. So I would fully disclose the incident on my application, and talk about how I've grown from it, how I haven't let this discourage me, and how I've helped others.
My family hired lawyers to help with the appeal process. Another option we have is to sue/threaten to sue the school. There were several major issues with the investigation, and the lawyers believe that we might have a case. We brought these issues up in the appeal, but the appeal officer did not seem to care. This is is an expensive option, and we would prefer not to sue if we don't have to.
I would greatly appreciate any input/advice from current students who went through something similar as well as members of admissions committee. Is a sexual misconduct policy violation a deal breaker? Or would the committee look at all the details, the letter of support, and what I've done to help others and possibly give me a shot?
I recently graduated from a good public university with a ~3.7 GPA and a ~3.8 sGPA. 31-33 MCAT. Decent extracurriculars, lots of shadowing, about 2 semesters of research with no publications. I applied to about 15 schools during the 2014-2015 application cycle, I received one interview invite and was placed on that schools waitlist, rejections from everywhere else. I did not apply very smartly, this was partly my fault and partly because of bad advice from my school's pre-med committee. I had no clinical experience, but they assured me that I would be ok as long as I applied early.
I am going to be a scribe as well as an EMT to get more clinical experience, and I am going to apply more broadly during the 2016-2017 application cycle.
During my freshman year I was stupid and was caught with alcohol in a dorm. Nothing serious, but I had to complete an alcohol education course and was placed on probation for one year.
In March of this year I received an email saying that my school had received notice that I had been involved in the alleged sexual assault of another student. Without disclosing too much detail, the alleged incident occurred at my house after meeting a student at a bar just off campus. I asked the individual to come back to my house, and they said yes. However, after getting back to my room they said they did not wish to continue. I left my room and slept upstairs on a couch. In the morning I drove the individual home and that was the last I heard from them. There was no sexual contact.
I think the individual blacked out, and woke up in a strangers house and was confused. Maybe they assumed something had happened. The individual reported something to the police, who turned the investigation over to the school.
There was a student conduct hearing, and two days after the hearing I was found responsible for sexual misconduct and a violation of the alcohol beverage policy. I was 21 at the time of the incident, so was the other individual, but since alcohol was involved I had to be found responsible for that. The sanction was my degree was to be withheld for one year. I appealed the decision, and the sanction was reduced to six months.
This process was incredibly frustrating for me and my friends/family. I trusted that the process would work and I would be found not responsible, since I was telling the truth and had several witnesses, whereas the other individual was lying, changed their story several times, and had no relevant witnesses. However, I think based on the climate around sexual assault on campuses, the student conduct officials felt they had to protect themselves from a possible lawsuit from the plaintiff and bad publicity.
So at the end of this process, I am left with three conduct violations on my record. I have worked extremely hard to put myself in a position to be successful and attend medical school, but its hard to see that happening with this on my record. My school only discloses policy violations for 5 years from the date of the incident, so one option is to wait five years, work and save up money, and apply with a clean slate in 4 years (since the incident occurred in august 2014). I would prefer not to do that, since I would have to retake the MCAT and I would like to start med school as soon as possible.
Another option I have is to get a "Letter of support" from the director of student conduct, who happens to be my fraternity advisor and a mentor of mine. This letter would go at the end of my FERPA release to med schools, so the school would see my policy violations and sanctions, and then the letter from him. He told me that he wrote a letter of support for a student that was suspended four times during his time at college, and that student was accepted to Law school. I would also work with him to prepare a presentation that I would give to my fraternity that details what happened to me, and how it could have been avoided. For example, not taking people back from bars after a night of drinking, bystander intervention, etc. What happened to me could happen to anyone, and I want to stop that from happening to friends. So I would fully disclose the incident on my application, and talk about how I've grown from it, how I haven't let this discourage me, and how I've helped others.
My family hired lawyers to help with the appeal process. Another option we have is to sue/threaten to sue the school. There were several major issues with the investigation, and the lawyers believe that we might have a case. We brought these issues up in the appeal, but the appeal officer did not seem to care. This is is an expensive option, and we would prefer not to sue if we don't have to.
I would greatly appreciate any input/advice from current students who went through something similar as well as members of admissions committee. Is a sexual misconduct policy violation a deal breaker? Or would the committee look at all the details, the letter of support, and what I've done to help others and possibly give me a shot?
