Please Help!! how this will affect my chances. Please Help, i'm looking for all inputs!

[IWCBTYJ]

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[DOC YANKEM]

I understand there are a lot of posts like mine, but it would be extremely appreciated if you guys are willing to help me out and give me some advice as to what to do

So a little background story about myself, I am a student at a Top-tear University, with GPA above 3.85, who has not taken DAT yet, but in practice DAT am getting around 23. I have a lot of leadership, volunteering, and research and felt comfortable with my status as an applicant until recently.

Recently, while I was applying for a volunteering program through my school and was accepted, I ran in to some trouble. I was ,first, accepted to the program, and after being accepted, they sent me bunch of forms which My parents and I had to sign and turn in. However, on the day that i was supposed to turn in all the papers, I was told that one of the forms didn't have my parent's signatures on it. Thus, because my parents lived close to school, I told them I would call home and ask my parents to come and sign the documents. However, upon calling, I realized that my parents were busy, so instead, I asked for their permission to sign the document, and signed it myself.

Now, a little back ground info about myself is that I'm from an Asian country, and where I am from, as long as a third party asks for permission prior to signing something on behalf of someone else, it is perfectly legal and accepted. Also, based on what I thought to have remembered about the laws of forgery, it was also legal for me to sign the document on behalf of my parents as long as I had permission to do so.

Now, because of all the information I had mentioned, I thought what I had done was perfectly fine and essentially interchangeable with my parents signing it. And thus, when I went back ( I know this is stupid), I just told the lady that my parents signed it, because well.. I thought it was the same thing.
However, the lady started to then accuse me of signing the document my self, and started to tell me that this action will be reported to Office of student conduct if I am lying. It was only at this point, I realized that what I had done was not acceptable according to my Institution's laws but because I was scared of being reported and getting this thing on my permanent record, I kept lying to the lady that it was my parents. ( I know it was stupid, but I was just scared of the possible retribution).

Now, after that happened, they filed report to student conduct, who sent me a letter of investigation. (One thing to note, here, is that after the meeting with the lady who accused me, I immediately went to one of Disciplinary advisors and tried to give my self up to student conduct office saying i never meant to deceive anyone or try to gain advantage by lying, i was just sacred and was not thinking straight. However, I was told you should not do that yet as Investigation (at this point) had not even began, so I waited a bit for the official investigation to start on my case and then completely confessed, expressed my sincere apologies to everyone).

Now, I am on Disciplinary Probation ( not on my academic record, but on my disciplinary record) on the charge of Academic Dishonesty (lying) and Fraud. Apparently, I am charged with academic dishonesty since the program I was applying/ accepted to was an academic/ volunteering program.

I am currently a Junior who planned on not doing gap year, but now, Should I do gap year to show that some time has passed since the incident, and how does this affect my chances of getting in to top dental schools?

I know what i did was soooo stupid, and I can guarantee something like this will never ever happen again, but it did happen and I'm taking full responsibility. Please help me. I know this is long, but thank you to anyone in advance who helps!!!!!!!

I don't have any legal experience, but I would advise you to work it out with the school disciplinary committee. It is truly unfortunate that you had to deal with the lady in question, and you got caught. There is no turning back now and you should keep your head up high and move on. This is not a huge offence and I would assume dental schools won't deny you acceptance because of it. In your application, there is a section where you explain the predicament in detail. I have attached a screenshot of it.

Best of luck.

 

[ElephCement]

I understand there are a lot of posts like mine, but it would be extremely appreciated if you guys are willing to help me out and give me some advice as to what to do

Now, a little back ground info about myself is that I'm from an Asian country, and where I am from, as long as a third party asks for permission prior to signing something on behalf of someone else, it is perfectly legal and accepted. Also, based on what I thought to have remembered about the laws of forgery, it was also legal for me to sign the document on behalf of my parents as long as I had permission to do so.

I'm Asian and have been over to many of my Asian friends' homes and have never even heard of this being apart of any culture.

First, I think you need to accept full responsibility for your actions because it sounds like you were already priming us with excuses. What you did was deceitful no matter how you frame it. I had a similar incident and instead of forging the signature, I explained it to the office and they told me not to worry about it. There were other options you could have exercised such as explaining your situation better and providing your parents' phone number so they can verify if it needed.

 

[rolltide15]

they will ask you about it on your application. i doubt you can do anything to get it removed so if I were you I would just own up to what happened and face the music. Maybe write about it in your personal statement or something to explain what happened and how you have changed since the incident.

 

[IWCBTYJ]

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[ElephCement]

I'm not sure why you are trying to assume the worst of anyone you see on the internet. I thank you for your honest feedback, but I did my best at explaining my situation to the office and even provided my parents number and offered for my parents to come down and explain the situation. I'm sure where I come from and where you come from may be different, but please understand what you are saying to someone like me in this situation is extremely offensive and inconsiderate.

While i'm happy it worked out for you, the same thing can't be said for me. I am taking full responsibility and am just trying to get a better picture in terms of what i should expect. In future references, please don't undermine me or where I am from nor my character based on what I have posted. I don't think what I did was right, and I do plan on taking full responsibility for it, and I was just trying to explain it from my point of view.

Thank you for the feedback, but I don't think the way you approached me nor the way you gave me feedback was helpful nor necessary.

You started this thread saying you appreciate "all inputs". I'm sorry that what I posted is not what you wanted to hear, but maybe your attitude about criticism can improve.

I don't have to say anything about your character. People here can read what you posted and see that you listed excuse after excuse before saying what happened.

What I posted is simple. When you can realize that you yourself were 100% responsible for what has occurred, maybe you can understand the steps you can begin to take to improve yourself and your application. I hope you can take what I have offered to you as advice. Good luck in however you choose to handle it.

 

[toothdoctor123]

Now, a little back ground info about myself is that I'm from an Asian country, and where I am from, as long as a third party asks for permission prior to signing something on behalf of someone else, it is perfectly legal and accepted. Also, based on what I thought to have remembered about the laws of forgery, it was also legal for me to sign the document on behalf of my parents as long as I had permission to do so.

Now, because of all the information I had mentioned, I thought what I had done was perfectly fine and essentially interchangeable with my parents signing it. And thus, when I went back ( I know this is stupid), I just told the lady that my parents signed it, because well.. I thought it was the same thing.

If this is all true, then why didn't your parents just call the school during the investigation and say that they signed it? Based on this story, you shouldn't have confessed. (What kind of document would require your parents' signatures, anyway? I presume you are older than 18. Don't tell me you forged a check!)

Unfortunately for you, in the United States, ignorance of laws (or school policies) is rarely considered a reasonable defense for breaking them. You'll need to think of a better way to explain this to dental schools.

Look, everyone does a stupid thing once in a while. I sympathize with you. But as small is this may seem, this will not look good on paper.

This is not a huge offence and I would assume dental schools won't deny you acceptance because of it.

Forging signatures is actually a big deal in dentistry. It's not only unethical; it's illegal. Think about prescription pads, patient consent forms, insurance forms, etc.

 

[IWCBTYJ]

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[IWCBTYJ]

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[DOC YANKEM]

If this is all true, then why didn't your parents just call the school during the investigation and say that they signed it? Based on this story, you shouldn't have confessed. (What kind of document would require your parents' signatures, anyway? I presume you are older than 18. Don't tell me you forged a check!)

Unfortunately for you, in the United States, ignorance of laws (or school policies) is rarely considered a reasonable defense for breaking them. You'll need to think of a better way to explain this to dental schools.

Look, everyone does a stupid thing once in a while. I sympathize with you. But as small is this may seem, this will not look good on paper.


Forging signatures is actually a big deal in dentistry. It's not only unethical; it's illegal. Think about prescription pads, patient consent forms, insurance forms, etc.

You do bring up an excellent point. That being said, I can't undermine that argument. He did say that he received verbal permission from the parents.

Prescription pads are no longer legal, because e-prescription is the new implementation. However, dentists still use their own prescription pads. Let me know what you think.

 

[Likkriue]

I thought as long as you are authorized or have permission from your parents it's okay to sign using their name? At many offices it's the secretary who signs documents because she is authorized to by her boss. It's a very common pratice.

 

[IWCBTYJ]

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[Likkriue]

It is perfectly legal, however it is not the same thing as them coming and signing the document which is what I said happened. i know it was stupid, but i genuinely thought they were interchangeable, but I was wrong and should have known better

Oh I see. When AADSAS opens up you should explain the situation. Could it affect your chances? Yes it can. But what's done is done.

 

[IWCBTYJ]

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[tyjacobs]

I understand there are a lot of posts like mine, but it would be extremely appreciated if you guys are willing to help me out and give me some advice as to what to do

So a little background story about myself, I am a student at a Top-tear University, with GPA above 3.85, who has not taken DAT yet, but in practice DAT am getting around 23. I have a lot of leadership, volunteering, and research and felt comfortable with my status as an applicant until recently.

Recently, while I was applying for a volunteering program through my school and was accepted, I ran in to some trouble. I was ,first, accepted to the program, and after being accepted, they sent me bunch of forms which My parents and I had to sign and turn in. However, on the day that i was supposed to turn in all the papers, I was told that one of the forms didn't have my parent's signatures on it. Thus, because my parents lived close to school, I told them I would call home and ask my parents to come and sign the documents. However, upon calling, I realized that my parents were busy, so instead, I asked for their permission to sign the document, and signed it myself.

Now, a little back ground info about myself is that I'm from an Asian country, and where I am from, as long as a third party asks for permission prior to signing something on behalf of someone else, it is perfectly legal and accepted. Also, based on what I thought to have remembered about the laws of forgery, it was also legal for me to sign the document on behalf of my parents as long as I had permission to do so.

Now, because of all the information I had mentioned, I thought what I had done was perfectly fine and essentially interchangeable with my parents signing it. And thus, when I went back ( I know this is stupid), I just told the lady that my parents signed it, because well.. I thought it was the same thing.
However, the lady started to then accuse me of signing the document my self, and started to tell me that this action will be reported to Office of student conduct if I am lying. It was only at this point, I realized that what I had done was not acceptable according to my Institution's laws but because I was scared of being reported and getting this thing on my permanent record, I kept lying to the lady that it was my parents. ( I know it was stupid, but I was just scared of the possible retribution).

Now, after that happened, they filed report to student conduct, who sent me a letter of investigation. (One thing to note, here, is that after the meeting with the lady who accused me, I immediately went to one of Disciplinary advisors and tried to give my self up to student conduct office saying i never meant to deceive anyone or try to gain advantage by lying, i was just sacred and was not thinking straight. However, I was told you should not do that yet as Investigation (at this point) had not even began, so I waited a bit for the official investigation to start on my case and then completely confessed, expressed my sincere apologies to everyone).

Now, I am on Disciplinary Probation ( not on my academic record, but on my disciplinary record) on the charge of Academic Dishonesty (lying) and Fraud. Apparently, I am charged with academic dishonesty since the program I was applying/ accepted to was an academic/ volunteering program.

I am currently a Junior who planned on not doing gap year, but now, Should I do gap year to show that some time has passed since the incident, and how does this affect my chances of getting in to top dental schools?

I know what i did was soooo stupid, and I can guarantee something like this will never ever happen again, but it did happen and I'm taking full responsibility. Please help me. I know this is long, but thank you to anyone in advance who helps!!!!!!!

I'm sorry but whoever reported you for this is legit ridiculous this was such a small matter and she blew it up for legit no reason

I feel so bad. Just be honest on your AADSAS app I honestly think you'll be fine if you explain the situation well

 

[DOC YANKEM]

from your experience, should I take a gap year? No one has answered my question as to what I should do yet, so i'm just looking for some input. Do you think that I should put some distance between myself and the incident in terms of time?

Most people take a gap year to reinvigorate themselves before dental school. Whether it is to travel or work, you are longer burnt out and most importantly gained more life experience/maturity.

Taking a gap year to distance yourself from the incident doesn't make sense to me because it doesn't "lessen" the severity of the mistake.

 

[stoopidmonkeycatdog]

Edit:

Is it a permanent notation?

 

[IWCBTYJ]

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[rolltide15]

Honestly, this is just my personal opinion. I took a gap year and I think it made my application stronger. I got a job in an orthodontic practice and I took a few more classes to show the admissions committee I wanted to continue my education. All of my interviews have asked me about my work and its been really beneficial to talk about.

 

[struckbywhitening13]

from your experience, should I take a gap year? No one has answered my question as to what I should do yet, so i'm just looking for some input. Do you think that I should put some distance between myself and the incident in terms of time?

yes absolutely take a gap year. this happened to me (different situation-still was put on academic probation) and I was able to prove how much I matured and grew since the incident. I even referenced it in my PS so they knew how much responsibility I was taking for it. got into 3 awesome dental schools. if you want more specific info feel free to PM me!!

 

[toothdoctor123]

Prescription pads are no longer legal, because e-prescription is the new implementation. However, dentists still use their own prescription pads. Let me know what you think.

That's definitely the case in New York State, but as far as I know, they are still legal in most other places. New York has among the strictest healthcare regulations in the country.