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Med school with a DUI on record
Started by ScienceJunky
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ScienceJunky
Full Member
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ScienceJunky
Full Member
I didn’t know that. It was about 4 years ago. It happened when my son passed away and I hit rock bottom. I’ve had 2 daughters since then and I’ve got custody of them and work for a very good company. Just bought a home and have done well for myself the past few years.
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You should be fine. But you must must must mention it somewhere in your application. I think there’s an option now to report it in your primary with an explanation, not 100% sure though
ScienceJunky
Full Member
Thank you. I definitely won’t try to hide it. Pretty sure lying about something like that would ruin my chances
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D
deleted480308
Are you still drinking?
ScienceJunky
Full Member
D
deleted480308
Be prepared to talk about drinking 2 yrs after your dui and if/how you plan to stay sober
I'm sorry to hear about your son. Are you prepared to talk, in detail, about his loss, how it affected you and how you made those changes to you life since then? Because sb247 is right...
The short answer is, yes, it's possible to get in to med school and become a doc with a past DUI. But it is a major red flag that will follow you forever through school, residency, and licensing applications.
A couple of prime posts from the search results for dui that you should read...
Non-trad reapplying, need advice on pre-med advisor and gap year
Should I even bother?
ScienceJunky
Full Member
I’m prepared to talk about it. It’s been an experience that made me stronger after all is said and done. Now I have a perfect 8 month old son and wouldn’t trade him for the world. Along with two beautiful girls that changed me as well. It’s sure been a roller coaster but I believe everything happens for a reason.
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Yes, for the most part. Recent ones will be more problematic
ScienceJunky
Full Member
Good luck! I'm rooting for you.
While lots of people LOVE to hate on people with DUIs and call them baby murderers and want to ruin their lives and careers with collateral consequences, the reality is that lots of people have had a few too many drinks at some point in their life and drove home and didn’t get caughr and thought, hey I shouldn’t have done that. There are reasonable adcoms who are people too and made mistakes in life. But you may get an adcom who lost a son to a drunk driver and refuse to admit you.
It will be harder but possible.
Serial DUIs are a bigger problem as it suggests substance abuse problems/moral turpitude issues.
It will be harder but possible.
Serial DUIs are a bigger problem as it suggests substance abuse problems/moral turpitude issues.
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deleted480308
It sounds like you are very frustrated with those who take issue with a DUI. It’s an odd position to get sarcastic or dismissive with someone who takes seriously the dangerous and reckless impact of a dui
I think atomi is just summarizing some of the midsets we've seen on SDN on the subject. It's an emotional subject.
In our own Adcom meetings, as atomi pointed out, serial DUis are more problematic. We have a harsher view on those, or DUis which are more recent. We feel that the older one gets, the more should be aware of what one is getting into, or simply know better. We've been harshest on people who have refused to take responsibility for their actions.
Not at all. DUI is not black and white. Some are worse than others. The nature of being intoxicated means you don’t have your normal decision making capacity. Alcohol can make good people do reckless things. Unless you are advocating total abstinence in order to be a good person, then some leeway is needed on this issue. What typically happens on this site is someone says they got a dui a few years ago and it jumps right to premeditated baby murder.
There is a difference between somebody who had two glasses of wine, gets stopped at a checkpoint, officer smells something, person stumbles on a field sobriety test, then blows a 0.06 and officer arrests anyway due to sobriety test.
Vs someone with a history of 4 duis driving on a suspended who soberly decides to continue going to black out at the bar each night knowing he is going to drive home, then t boning a minivan and killing a family.
And a whole spectrum in between.
But nope, dui=dui=irredeemable baby murderer.
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deleted480308
The people killed by drunk drivers don’t regenerate just because it was a first offense, so yes it bothers me to see you taking it so flippantly
We may just need to disagree
There are lots of reckless things people do behind the wheel that increase the chance of an accident, And sometimes an accident is just an accident. Emotion overpowers logic when it comes to whether alcohol was involved in the reckless action. Somehow having 3 beers and driving is worse than speeding with bald tires and worn brakes in the rain.
So yes, pretty clear we disagree.
Decades ago, when I was in HS, my dad had a retail business in a small town. One day we served a customer and after the customer left, my dad told me that the man, a very mild-mannered older guy, had been in prison for having killed two people. I was stunned because he didn't look like someone who would have been in prison. (So much for my teenage stereotypes.) The man never drank. At a holiday party, someone thought it would be funny to give him punch spiked with vodka. On the way home, in bad weather, he struck and killed a professor and the professor's young daughter. He was conviced of DUI and manslaughter and served a few years in prison.
There is often more to the story than we hear at first. There are unfortunate events and stupid pranks and all kinds of things that contribute to a tragedy. It takes an enormous amount of judgment on the part of an adcom to parse it out and decide if it is a deal-breaker or if the person deserves the opportunity to become a doctor.
There is often more to the story than we hear at first. There are unfortunate events and stupid pranks and all kinds of things that contribute to a tragedy. It takes an enormous amount of judgment on the part of an adcom to parse it out and decide if it is a deal-breaker or if the person deserves the opportunity to become a doctor.
