Institutional Action Question

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Premedkido

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Hi,

I have a fairly unique situation and I wanted to know if it would fall underneath AMCAS's category called 'institutional action'. In college, I committed an alcohol violation (it was quite silly, honestly), but I did not receive any disciplinary action for it (no probation etc). All that happened was that I got an email asking me to speak to the alcohol councelor at my school which I did for 20 minutes and that was it. There is no record of it on official transcripts according to my school policy. Do I haveto put this down as being an 'institutional action'? In my mind it does not count as one but I would like advise since I'm kind of worried it might be seen as such.

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If you were given a warning it does not go on your transcripts but is still considered an institutional action (usually called a disiplinary reprimand). You would have been notified about this and the form only stays in the dean's office, not on your transcripts.

The best policy is to contact the dean's office and ask if you have any record. Better safe than sorry.

Adding to that: a one time underage does not matter at all. I got an underage and my university gave me an official warning. I have been told by about a thousand people (deans, med students who had them, SDN) that this does not matter at all. You just need to explain it in a humble fashion and explain what you learned.
 
Yeah. I think institutional action moreso refers to academic conduct then on campus housing violations. I mean... if you stab someone it will probably go on your record, but I believe that recorded institutional action mostly pertains to academic violations.
 
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What exactly constitutes institutional action? Is it any case that involves disciplinary action? Anytime you violate a rule at your school?

I feel like i'm in a gray area. No official warning, no official record, yet I was asked to meet the alcohol counselor.
 
What exactly constitutes institutional action? Is it any case that involves disciplinary action? Anytime you violate a rule at your school?

I feel like i'm in a gray area. No official warning, no official record, yet I was asked to meet the alcohol counselor.

That would definitely NOT constitute disciplinary action such that you would need to answer yes to the question on AMCAS.
 
Our advisor actually sent out an email regarding institutional action. Though I am sure that every school is not the same, my UG does not release any alcohol violations to the dean or anywhere else for that matter. It just goes in an residential housing file and then gets shredded at the end of the school year.

I had a similar alcohol-related situation my freshman year and actually ended up on residential "probation". However I was informed by my advisor that I absolutely do not have to report it and our Dean never had any inform about it. I am pretty sure that institutional action is reserved for major infraction (i.e. we had a student commit a hate crime and was expelled for one semester).

I agree that it is really gray though.
 
Our advisor actually sent out an email regarding institutional action. Though I am sure that every school is not the same, my UG does not release any alcohol violations to the dean or anywhere else for that matter. It just goes in an residential housing file and then gets shredded at the end of the school year.

I had a similar alcohol-related situation my freshman year and actually ended up on residential "probation". However I was informed by my advisor that I absolutely do not have to report it and our Dean never had any inform about it. I am pretty sure that institutional action is reserved for major infraction (i.e. we had a student commit a hate crime and was expelled for one semester).

I agree that it is really gray though.

Whoa.

Yeah I think this is pretty much the case everywhere. Resident violations =/= institutional action.
 
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