Quoted: History of prison time and med school application

[Doodledog]

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Will my criminal background keep me from being being accepted to Medical School or keep me from being certified?

Let me explain - I made a lot of poor choices after graduating college. Although intelligent, I was very immature for my age and made a lot of bad decisions. Due to my lack of maturity and backbone at that age, I got in with a group of friends who used drugs. I was used by a close friend who was a drug dealer and due to my poor choices, I plead guilty to a drug related felony and did some time in a prison boot camp.

After I was released from prison, I applied to school for clinical social work (MSW). I had always been interested in being a therapist, and needed to start anew. My program was a clinical therapy intensive program. I graduated with a 3.95 GPA, and had the high reviews for my field work, as a student therapist and as a case worker at an Inpatient Government Psychiatric facility (they had to make an exception to let me work their so soon after my incarceration - those people were truly saints). While working at the inpatient psych facility - I began to understand that the most needy patients often did not respond to only therapy. While medicine alone did not cure all their symptoms, medicine was often necessary before they were responsive to therapy. I became very interested in medicine and wished I could do my life over again and go to school to be a psychiatrist.

After graduating from school, I found that with my school bills and legal bills, an MSW career couldn't pay my bills. I got an opportunity to go into consulting. Five years later, I've payed off all my bills, am seen as a leader at my company, and am well regarded in my field. I have been preparing to get an MBA. Only problem is - it isn't my passion. I can't truthfully write an application essay about how I am passionate about business, when this would be dishonest. Working in the field of mental health is my true passion, and for this I have no doubt.

My questions therefore are - can someone who had a substance abuse related felony ever aspire to be a psychiatrist? I'm very open about the mistakes I made in my life, have been drug free for seven years, have a paper trail of good grades, reviews, and promotions in the seven years since I've left jail.

Prior to even applying to medical school, should I send a letter to my state's medical and psychiatric board requesting information?

Also - I do have the opportunity to get my records expunged. However, my past is important to me, and so is being honest about my background. I'd like to keep my record open and continue to tell my story at every job interview I have - though if getting my records expunged will help my chances to get into medical school, I would pursue it.

I'd appreciate any and all advice that anyone with knowledge of medical school admissions and board process could give me on any of my questions. Thank you.

I won't comment about the licensing issues - that is best discussed with a legal expert as is the issue of expunging the record. I will address, as an adcom member, my personal perspective on your situation. My opinion is just that, one person's opinion and does not reflect any consensus opinion, etc. There is no such thing as "the way adcoms see things" - all adcom members are different as are all group processes at different schools.

In any case, I would tell you that if everything else in your record was excellent, including grades and MCATs, and if you can make a compelling case related to your history, I would be willing to consider you as a viable medical school candidate. This is an uphill battle though. You must have the numbers and be convincing in your story and the story told in your letters of recommendations that you are suited for a medical career.

Good luck!

 

[michaelrack]

This isn't exactly the question you asked, but you will need to convince a med school admission comm of your passion to be a doctor. It's fine to express an interest in psychiatry, but unless you can convince the adm comm of your passion for medicine in general, you probably won't get in.

Your legal background will create challenges in getting into medical school as well as getting licensed, but these challenges are not insurmountable.

 

[2Sexy4MedSchool]

Hello. I'd like to start this by saying how impressed I am that you screwed up, turned it around, and got your life back together again. In a lot of ways, what you have accomplished thus far was a lot harder than the traditional med school journey.

The second thing I want to say is that my advice is limited to the state of California; I don't know where you live now or what the laws of your state are, so please take this advice with a grain of salt.

In my opinion, you have three different issues working against you. First of all is the fact of a felony conviction for a "crime of moral turpitude" that resulted in prison time. Not every conviction is a felony, not every felony is a CMT and not every conviction for a CMT results in prison. Unfortunately, you hit the trifecta -- the bad one, not the good one. This will have repercussions for admission to med school, eligibility for financial aid and ultimately licensing by the state medical board and DEA.

The second issue is the fact that this is a drug related offense. See above.

The last issue is that in California, even "expunged" criminal convictions must be disclosed on applications for licensing. In other words, you can expunge a conviction here for the purpose of public records searches, but the law enforcement computers maintained by the state Dept of Justice will always show the original conviction and licensing boards have access to those records.

See California Penal Code section 1203.4: http://law.onecle.com/california/penal/1203.4.html

Now, it appears from your post that you are more interested in psychiatry than medicine per se. If that is the case, why not consider a PhD in psychology? All the fun of working with crazy people without any of the concerns about med school or the DEA. I know it's not exactly what you want, but have you explored other areas of mental health treatment that might be easier for you to get into?

I wish you good luck on whichever path you choose. 2S4MS