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[hopeful4help]

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[Hollow Knight]

So I wouldn't reveal anything that's not an institutional action or a record somewhere. Like don't tell me you used to smoke weed unless you have an institutional action for smoking weed. Make sense?

For whatever institutional actions you do have, you'll have to explain them all. When you do, stay short sweet, and to the point. "I received an institutional action for ___ in ___. I was stupid. I learned ____. This will never happen again." (be a little more eloquent than me).

As far as your chances, you'll have to wait for some experienced faculty to reply. I haven't done this for very long. For example, I've seen some IAs from Christian schools because their students drank alcohol when they were over 21- I couldn't care less about those. Using hard drugs and assaulting people- I'd honestly just email my dean of admissions and be like "Hey man what do you think about this?" That sounds hard to overcome. But I just don't have the experience for this one.

I wish you all the best.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I'm not sure exactly what was reported and documented in my student records.

This is key and it’s hard to advise without this info. Would also be important to know your overall GPA and your semester by semester trends with number of hours.

 

[LizzyM]

You have the right to know what is in your school records. FERPA is the federal law granting you access to everything in your file (except what you've waived the right to see such as letters of recommendation). It sounds like you've done your due diligence in getting access to your records. It well may be that for legal reasons, nothing more than what amounts to a rap sheet is in the permanent record and no narrative about the circumstances surrounding the situation.

I think that the best you can do is say that as an 18-year old college freshman, I was written up for alcohol and quiet hours violations although I was not drinking but was present where drinking was taking place. A month later, my dorm mates and I experimented with LSD. I had a "bad trip", created a disturbance and was sanctioned by the university with [sanctions] for [violations]. After my incidents, I didn't receive any more violations, and I abstained from illicit drugs with the exception of cannabis and alcohol, which I used until 2018 to cope with depression. In 2017 to early 2018, I had multiple D's and F's and was on academic warning status for 3 quarters. I dropped out for a quarter. I started improving my mental health. I reapplied, had upward trend and graduated.

If you can get past the GPA screens, a school has really got to believe in redemption and second chances to take a chance on you. You need to put enough time between you and your most recent attempts at self-medication to make a school believe that you have better coping skills now and will seek appropriate sources of care if you hit a rough patch.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

This is key and it’s hard to advise without this info. Would also be important to know your overall GPA and your semester by semester trends with number of hours.

Agrees. Set up an appointment with your student conduct office at the undergrad program.

 

[Goro]

I think that with a clean record, lots public service, and great letters of rec, this might be not as lethal as you might think.

You'll really need to find out what's on your record.

 

[FlowRate]

which I used until 2018 to cope with depression.

Not sure how others would feel about this but I might suggest rephrasing this as something like "used until 2018 in a misguided attempt to cope with depression." You don't want anyone thinking you're still convinced that alcohol+weed are appropriate coping strategies for mental health challenges in the future.

 

[hopeful4help]

Thank you all for your thoughtful comments. I should've waited until I got a confirmation on if there are any more details beyond the dates/violations/sanctions before posting. I'll edit if I hear back from the associate dean of student conduct office and possibly schedule a synchronous appointment with their office to learn more, and then edit.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Eh. This really depends on what is going on with the student records and your other ECs. It's been eight years since you did something that was dumb as hell, but luckily your college was somewhat understanding of the dumb stuff college students sometimes get up to.

I would honestly recommend asking your alma mater if they could somehow expunge your record - at least for the LSD incident. You've had almost a decade of good, maybe exemplary conduct under your belt. The alcohol quiet hours is a minor peccadillo - maybe a cut above a speeding ticket.

If you go the expungement route - consult a lawyer as well.

Good luck. I think LizzyM is right about this...hopefully you don't have things like "assault" in your college record.

 

[allseasons]

You have the right to know what is in your school records. FERPA is the federal law granting you access to everything in your file (except what you've waived the right to see such as letters of recommendation). It sounds like you've done your due diligence in getting access to your records. It well may be that for legal reasons, nothing more than what amounts to a rap sheet is in the permanent record and no narrative about the circumstances surrounding the situation.

I think that the best you can do is say that as an 18-year old college freshman, I was written up for alcohol and quiet hours violations although I was not drinking but was present where drinking was taking place. A month later, my dorm mates and I experimented with LSD. I had a "bad trip", created a disturbance and was sanctioned by the university with [sanctions] for [violations]. After my incidents, I didn't receive any more violations, and I abstained from illicit drugs with the exception of cannabis and alcohol, which I used until 2018 to cope with depression. In 2017 to early 2018, I had multiple D's and F's and was on academic warning status for 3 quarters. I dropped out for a quarter. I started improving my mental health. I reapplied, had upward trend and graduated.

If you can get past the GPA screens, a school has really got to believe in redemption and second chances to take a chance on you. You need to put enough time between you and your most recent attempts at self-medication to make a school believe that you have better coping skills now and will seek appropriate sources of care if you hit a rough patch.

I most definitely would not just volunteer “with the exception of cannabis and alcohol” 😂😂. Just end the line at I abstained from illicit drugs, then talks about the positive impact it had on you.

 

[Robin-jay]

I don't think anyone that has committed assault should be a physician.

 

[hopeful4help]

I don't think anyone that has committed assault should be a physician.

You responded days after I deleted the details of this post, so I think you're missing the picture. I had terribly poor judgment, years ago in adolescence. Today, you made a blanket judgement with limited knowledge. While I think that physicians should generally refrain from passing blanket judgements based on limited information, I'll refrain from making a blanket judgement myself. After all, I aim to become a physician, not a judge. In the title of this post, I asked, can I practice medicine, not whether I should. I know I should, in my heart, as I'm here for the betterment of myself and my community. I won't be discouraged.

 

[Robin-jay]

You responded days after I deleted the details of this post, so I think you're missing the picture. I had terribly poor judgment, years ago in adolescence. Today, you made a blanket judgement with limited knowledge. While I think that physicians should generally refrain from passing blanket judgements based on limited information, I'll refrain from making a blanket judgement myself. After all, I aim to become a physician, not a judge. In the title of this post, I asked, can I practice medicine, not whether I should. I know I should, in my heart, as I'm here for the betterment of myself and my community. I won't be discouraged.

Yes I did, so I don't know the specifics of the assault.

However, I'm going to stick with my blanket statement that those who commit assault should generally not become physicians.

 

[hopeful4help]

Yes I did, so I don't know the specifics of the assault.

However, I'm going to stick with my blanket statement that those who commit assault should generally not become physicians.

I think you're mistaken. You're not sticking with your blanket statement. In your first statement, you used absolute language, thereby making it a blanket statement:

"I don't think anyone that has committed assault should be a physician."

In your revised statement, you used qualified language:

"those who commit assault should generally not become physicians."

Whether you believe in your blanket statement or qualified statement, that's up to you.

Whether I believe in myself, that's up to me. I just need one committee to believe in me.