Institutional Action question

[jc235693]

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I'm stuck on the institutional action question on my AMCAS.

In my sophomore year I was written up for setting off the fire alarm by smoking hookah in a room (I know it was really dumb, we did it all the time though). Then I was written up for underage drinking at a party about a month before I turned 21.

Should I give all the details to these events on my AMCAS or can I get away with saying I was written up for a fire safety violation without saying I was smoking hookah in a room. Or will leaving out the details just make it look suspicious?

Also do you think these will affect my chances of getting in to schools? I am otherwise a very strong candidate (3.9(sGPA and GPA), 3years of research, extensive experience as an EMT/leader in our campus EMS, no MCAT scores yet but expecting 33~36)

 

[Reekneee]

I also had to write a little blurb for that institutional action question because I got written up and put on disciplinary probation my sophomore year for underage drinking. I was really nervous about it affecting my chances at med schools, but I don't think it really did, I got interviews and acceptances and while I got asked about it at some interviews, no one really seemed to think it was a huge deal, one of my interviewers said she was actually surprised more people didn't have things like this on their record.

As far as how much you should say, I would be as honest as possible, you will probably get asked about it at an interview and if you say something that you didn't write (like that you were smoking and thats what set the alarm off) then it might looking like you were covering something up. Just make sure you explain what happened and say something about what you learned from it. My pre-med advisor said to make sure that I didn't try and downplay it, or make it seem like it wasn't my fault, just to be honest and take responsibility for it.

Good luck!

 

[ThaliaNox]

This might sound funny, but if you write that you were written up for a fire safety violation, but don't explain why, people will assume the worst. This is because these violations are very common, and things like lighting a candle or having a dangling tablecloth are sometimes the reason. The folks who have reasons like this always explain them, because they ARE silly violations. If you don't explain your reason, the assumption is going to be that you lit something on fire or worse! 😛

As for underage drinking, it sure won't help. It probably won't kill you if it was only a university citation, not a legal one, and if it was at least a couple years back.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

All good advice here. Keep the explanation honest, informative, but brief. You want to provide them just enough information so that they don't have any pressing questions for you.

Something along the lines of, "I was written up 3 years ago for smoking in a smoking restricted area, which subsequently led to activation of an automatic fire alarm." Then follow this up with how you have learned from your mistakes and have cleaned up your act.