Just got accepted into medical school but background check problems

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I'd recommend consulting with a lawyer to see what can be done. If nothing can be done and it isn't a clerical error, you need to be honest with said medical school.
 
Sorry, but you're in a world of trouble... Please review super-carefully what the secondary questions were - exactly - and what your responses were. Some schools are explicit about charges that were dismissed and/or expunged -- either to list or omit. Other schools are not.

If your school explicitly said to omit dismissed/expunged or juvenile charges, then you may have a chance, based on your lawyer's assurances that all charges had, in fact, been dismissed. But really, what your situation illustrates more than anything else is the importance of full disclosure and owning your mistakes. A simple "When I was young and stupid... But thankfully, all charges were dropped or dismissed" essay would have saved you a lot of grief.

By the way, this lawyer needs to double-step on his repair work. This should not have happened.
 
OK - So you've got some explaining to do... According to the court's records, you have been convicted, so you will need to explain why you answered the way you did. And this will be one tough letter to write... You'll need to own your mistakes, show that you've grown, then cross your fingers and pray...
 
throwaway342 said:
no I haven't been convicted of anything really. all my stuff is not guilty/dismissed (dui/possession of stool goods/alcohol possesion) (and I am really not guilty of these things. I was a stupid teen but didn't do that stuff and the courts saw it) but i have a misdeamnor i'm guilty of for alcohol possession. I can easily get it expunged according to a lawyer but I think it is a clerical error bc we were told i had nothing
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Depending on the type of background check a school runs they can even see expunged arrests/charges/convictions. Expunging stuff is useless in the medical field. I imagine your lawyer was not aware of this.

Either way you should have run a background check on your own before applying to see if you have any convictions. In which case you would have seen the conviction.
 
throwaway342 said:
no I haven't been convicted of anything really. all my stuff is not guilty/dismissed (dui/possession of stool goods/alcohol possesion) (and I am really not guilty of these things. I was a stupid teen but didn't do that stuff and the courts saw it) but i have a misdeamnor i'm guilty of for alcohol possession. I can easily get it expunged according to a lawyer but I think it is a clerical error bc we were told i had nothing
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Possession of stool goods? You were convicted having crap on you?
 
throwaway342 said:
no I haven't been convicted of anything really. all my stuff is not guilty/dismissed (dui/possession of stool goods/alcohol possesion) (and I am really not guilty of these things. I was a stupid teen but didn't do that stuff and the courts saw it) but i have a misdeamnor i'm guilty of for alcohol possession. I can easily get it expunged according to a lawyer but I think it is a clerical error bc we were told i had nothing
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The alcohol possession is the 'conviction' I was referring to. So even though it's a relatively unimportant charge, you were technically untruthful, meaning there are grounds for - if the school wants to - rescindment. Your mission is to make them not want to.

The real problem is not your misspent youth, which happens. It's very forgivable because we were all young and dumb once - though mostly not 'on the record' dumb. 🙄 The problem is your lack of transparency about it. That lack of transparency and truthfulness is recent.
 
Just call the school and talk to the Dean.

Just keep stool out of it.
 
throwaway342 said:
is it that simple? can you elaborate?
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What else are you going to do? You're going to need to communicate with your school ASAP because this is going to be a major problem. Whether you believe you were never convicted of a misdemeanor or not doesn't matter; the fact is, your background check says you were convicted. Contact your school and your lawyer ASAP.
 
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throwaway342 said:
well so far the plan is, verify that the misdeamnor for alcohol possesion is a clerical error, but if not: start the process of getting it expunged and lawyer will write a letter saying I was unaware of this charge/ that we're getting expunged/ etc etc. So I will probably have my lawyer send the school a letter to that effect which indicates I was unaware of this.

As far as the dui/posssession of stoolen goods/other alcohol possession things, which ended up being not guilty/dismissed.... no form I've come across has asked me ot include charges that were dropped. only things i've been convicted of/pending charges. so I am thinking I don't even need to address this w the school, even though the certiphi will show the school that I once had those charges put against me and they were all cleared. i've been told that since they're all not guilty, at the most hopefully, I may just be asked about these incidents
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:smack: 👎 :corny:
 
@throwaway342, what @DokterMom and the other posters have been trying to elucidate is that medical schools expect a certain level of maturity and honesty from their matriculants. It would behoove you to take full responsibility for everything that is on your record and show how you have grown from these experiences and how they're not a direct reflection on the person you are today. Not taking responsibility would leave the school with a very negative reflection of you as a person.

Even taking responsibility for your record might not help you at this point, but that's the best shot you have.
 
throwaway342 said:
what would u suggest i do
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I did suggest.

DokterMom said:
You'll need to own your mistakes, show that you've grown, then cross your fingers and pray...
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What you posted above smells a whole lot like excuses -- not owning your mistake. And the biggest mistake will turn out to be saying nothing when a statement along the lines of:

DokterMom said:
A simple "When I was young and stupid... But thankfully, all charges were dropped or dismissed" essay
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would have allowed you plausible deniability of any non-dismissed charges while providing the appearance of truthfulness about the substance of your legal issues.
 
Some secondaries ask if you've ever been arrested or charged in addition to convictions, you might want to double check if the school you were accepted to had this somewhere.

Also, you could have ordered a copy of your background check from certiphi before you were accepted. You mentioned you did some background checks but did you go through certiphi? I think it would be interesting if you did and came out clean before but had a different result after being accepted.
 
throwaway342 said:
what would u suggest i do
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People took a backseat eating popcorns because you were thinking of NOT mentioning your DUI/possesssion charges.....................
It's quite unbelievable you don't understand the seriousness of the situation. And then going on to again misidentify your background check.

You need to understand what full disclosure is.
 
I agree with @ridethecliche - call the dean and explain the situation. Try not to sound like you're making excuses. Simply say that you made some bad decisions as a minor, and worked with a lawyer to try and get your record clear, which said lawyer eventually "confirmed" with you. You may also need to explain that you didn't add these crimes to the section about criminal history because you only believed it asked for convictions/guilty sentences, while most of your charges were dropped. Full disclosure is important here.
 
I'm not sure what's the most legally correct thing to do here, but for the sake of honesty, just disclose everything. There's a low chance you'll pay a price, and if they do end up being unnecessarily harsh, then go do all this stuff with the law and at that point you'll have full disclosure on your side. On the other hand, if you try to cover your tracks, you're taking a risk that you wouldn't be able to recover from regardless of the law (because at that point you'd have purposely covered your tracks).

I'm curious, with all these issues that students run into where they have to hire a lawyer, does the lawyer actually get the issue solved and does the student get into/stay medical school. I come from a immigrant family with family background only in engineering and I'm the only just the first one to deviate so I have minimal experience with it. The reason I'm asking is because I'm pretty sure medical schools aren't legally binded so they can't discriminate against the past convicted so it's really their preference. I have nothing to back it up but I get the vibe that even being technically correct from the point of the law might not not be enough to "mandate" a medical school to keep a student. I could be terrible wrong here...does anyone know?
 
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I don't understand this situation. I'm not trying to be mean but how could you not know you had a misdemeanor? Any alcohol possession is a misdemeanor. If you saved your citation or expunge contract it should tell you exactly what your charges will be. You should have these records saved. Also, even if you get the charge expunged now, there is no way to hide it from the schools on such short notice. Even if you didn't lie, it looks like you did to the schools unless there was an error. This seems bad. I hope you DUI isn't on there too. Not trying to be negative nancy but this is no bueno.
 
Yikes man, call the school first before they get the report.
 
Eppur Si Muove said:
I don't understand this situation. I'm not trying to be mean but how could you not know you had a misdemeanor? Any alcohol possession is a misdemeanor. If you saved your citation or expunge contract it should tell you exactly what your charges will be. You should have these records saved. Also, even if you get the charge expunged now, there is no way to hide it from the schools on such short notice. Even if you didn't lie, it looks like you did to the schools unless there was an error. This seems bad. I hope you DUI isn't on there too. Not trying to be negative nancy but this is no bueno.
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False. Many alcohol possessions are only ordinances.
 
1. You need a letter from your lawyer stating that although your background check shows that you have a conviction, his understanding is that this is an error, that he told you before you started applying for med school that you had a clear record, and that he will be taking action to clarify the position and have the record amended or expunged as appropriate.

2. Then speak to your Dean, tell him that your background check has come up with something that you did not know about, that you have a letter from your lawyer confirming this, and that the letter will be with him ASAP.
 
Jagon said:
False. Many alcohol possessions are only ordinances.
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Just because they may be an ordinance doesn't mean they aren't punishable as misdemeanors. I've never heard of an alcohol infraction not being a misdemeanor regardless of an ordinance unless it's not a misdemeanor under state law.
 
OP, you better get in touch with your school before that background check gets released. Don't ignore this just because it's not what you wanted to hear.
 
Eppur Si Muove said:
Just because they may be an ordinance doesn't mean they aren't punishable as misdemeanors. I've never heard of an alcohol infraction not being a misdemeanor regardless of an ordinance unless it's not a misdemeanor under state law.
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That's incorrect. The definition of an ordinance is a non-criminal infraction. Ie. Less than a misdemeanor.
 
Jagon said:
That's incorrect. The definition of an ordinance is a non-criminal infraction. Ie. Less than a misdemeanor.
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this is 100% dependent on the infraction and the city you are in. You are completely wrong stating that an ordinance infraction can't be a punished as a misdemeanor. Call your court and local law enforcement if you really don't want to believe me.

Ex- Michigan can give misdemeanor traffic citations as a local ordinance violation. Alcohol violations are the same. Easily researchable. Stop spreading false info to people who could be impacted by such infractions.
 
Eppur Si Muove said:
this is 100% dependent on the infraction and the city you are in. You are completely wrong stating that an ordinance infraction can't be a punished as a misdemeanor. Call your court and local law enforcement if you really don't want to believe me.

Ex- Michigan can give misdemeanor traffic citations as a local ordinance violation. Alcohol violations are the same. Easily researchable. Stop spreading false info to people who could be impacted by such infractions.
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You are completely wrong you sad, sad little man.
 
Is there that I can have this thread deletd somehow, the comments were helpful but I was hoping I could delete this thread
 
throwaway342 said:
Is there that I can have this thread deletd somehow, the comments were helpful but I was hoping I could delete this thread
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You're completely anonymous. It doesn't matter.
 
throwaway342 said:
I know but still, if its no trouble for the mods I'd prefer for it to be deleted
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You have to be a certain level of donor to delete your own threads...and since this is a throwaway account for you, it wouldn't even give you continued perks in your real profile.
 
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