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[handsanitizer14]

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[Hollow Knight]

Ignore

 

[Mr.Smile12]

8 years ago I signed up for some courses at my local community college. Shortly thereafter, I ended up leaving the area entirely for a job. I don't know if I withdrew (more likely) or just walked away. I'm petrified to call the college and check. I forgot to include this college in my application because it was 8 years ago and way before I started my journey to medicine. What the heck do I do?

I could say nothing and if it comes up, honestly admit I forgot about it. I take the risk they don't believe me.
My other option is to address it now with the medical school and risk losing my only acceptance.

Who really knows what happens in this situation? (please spare me your ethical pontifications)

What did you take?

I presume this isn't related to high school dual enrollment.

You should mention it to the medical school that offered you an acceptance. You must eventually send official copies of all your post-high school transcripts, which will include the CC transcript.

The National Student Clearinghouse will tell the university registrar you attended the CC, who will notify the medical school registrar. So you might as well let the medical school admissions team know. We don't like surprises (just as we don't like surprises in your background check), but I don't suspect this will doom your seat, especially if you tell them this early.

 

[LizzyM]

This is curious. If the community college work was listed on a subsequent transcript (e.g. you transferred credits from that CC) and you didn't list it on AMCAS, it would have been picked up when your application was being verified and you'd have been prompted to correct the record and submit the transcript. I think that this might be true, as well, if the enrollment had been recorded by the Clearinghouse. It might not have been if you withdrew so early that you paid no fee and perhaps even had no transcript.

In any case, it might be best to check with the CC to see if you have a transcript and what is on it. Then check with AMCAS to confirm how and when to update your file which will then go to any schools you've applied to. You could then notify the school that admitted you that you had forgotten about the enrollment back in 2016 (or whenever) and have submitted the transcript through AMCAS.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I don't recall exactly what courses I took.

My official transcripts were already delivered to AMCAS and presumably forwarded to the medical school. I've never tried to transfer the credits to any other institution. I don't entirely understand how this wasn't caught by the National Student Clearinghouse during my verification by AMCAS.

Clearinghouse doesn't work with AMCAS as far as i know.

 

[LizzyM]

Are they likely to find these courses?

It seems wise to take my chances rather than deliberately go and jeopardize my future by telling the school now.

I think that the opposite is true. Not disclosing could jeopardize your future. You signed a statement that your application was complete and true. You discovered after submitting it that it is not complete. If you are caught in that lie it will not go well for you. Stating immediately, before it is brought to your attention, that you made an error and correcting that error will be interpreted favorably unless the transcript shows gross misconduct (you were expelled for attempting to commit a cybercrime using the college's servers). If you don't disclose although you knew that you should, you are committing a worse "sin" in the eyes of med school faculty and administrators.

For a sociologic explanation of errors in medical training see the classic text "Forgive and Remember" by Charles L. Bosk. It can help you understand what is expected and forgiven and what crosses the line and raises serious concerns.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Are they likely to find these courses?

It seems wise to take my chances rather than deliberately go and jeopardize my future by telling the school now.

I would honestly ignore my previous post. I figured there wouldn’t be any more checks at this point (which apparently is untrue)

 

[AJS59]

Just with everything in life, be open and honest. Better to fess up to a mistake than hide it. You put yourself seriously at risk if you don't check and the school finds out. If you genuinely forgot to unenroll (this was 8 years ago) they are unlikely to hold that against you then; they WILL hold an omission of this against you now though.