Special Circumstances: What do I do?

[Scarlettt]

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I am a student at a well respected public university. I have a 3.85 GPA, my practice MCAT scores have been above 35 (I take the real thing next month). I am a nontraditional student in that I took five years off between my first and second year of college to take care of my younger siblings when my parents were unable to. I consider that a strength and plan to use it in my personal statement.

What troubles me is that I have a couple of things on my record that I'm not sure how to deal with. Eight years ago I was arrested for a misdemeanor... it is a very long story, but it was motivated by local politics (I was a whistleblower against someone with a very cushy local job). The charges were later dropped and I filed a suit against the responsible party in civil court which is still pending.

Almost three years ago, my mother did some things which resulted in me getting arrested again (another misdemeanor, long story). What really sucks is that I was not even home at the time the supposed crime occurred, and had not been home for four days. This case is still ongoing but is supposed to be dropped soon. The first incident can still be found in google with a little digging if you search my name, but the second one is not anywhere online.

I should add that neither of these arrests were violent, drug-related, theft, etc.

My question is, should I mention these things on my AMCAS application? It only asks if I've been convicted, which I have not, but my understanding is that the secondaries will probably ask whether I've been arrested and most schools do a background check on accepted students. I feel that my academic record, recommendations, etc. are very strong, but I don't want these experiences to be taken as a blemish when there are so many applicants out there with "perfect" records.

So should I address either of these incidents, and if so, at what stage in the application process?

 

[sector9]

I am a student at a well respected public university. I have a 3.85 GPA, my practice MCAT scores have been above 35 (I take the real thing next month). I am a nontraditional student in that I took five years off between my first and second year of college to take care of my younger siblings when my parents were unable to. I consider that a strength and plan to use it in my personal statement.

What troubles me is that I have a couple of things on my record that I'm not sure how to deal with. Eight years ago I was arrested for a misdemeanor... it is a very long story, but it was motivated by local politics (I was a whistleblower against someone with a very cushy local job). The charges were later dropped and I filed a suit against the responsible party in civil court which is still pending.

Almost three years ago, my mother did some things which resulted in me getting arrested again (another misdemeanor, long story). What really sucks is that I was not even home at the time the supposed crime occurred, and had not been home for four days. This case is still ongoing but is supposed to be dropped soon. The first incident can still be found in google with a little digging if you search my name, but the second one is not anywhere online.

I should add that neither of these arrests were violent, drug-related, theft, etc.

My question is, should I mention these things on my AMCAS application? It only asks if I've been convicted, which I have not, but my understanding is that the secondaries will probably ask whether I've been arrested and most schools do a background check on accepted students. I feel that my academic record, recommendations, etc. are very strong, but I don't want these experiences to be taken as a blemish when there are so many applicants out there with "perfect" records.

So should I address either of these incidents, and if so, at what stage in the application process?

Don't mention them in your primary. Why would you? If the answer is truly "no" to the question, why would you think about putting yes so that you can explain the long and convoluted story about how your really don't have any convictions?

If the second charge is not dropped and you are convicted, then you have to update schools.

Leave it to the secondaries if they happen to ask about arrests. My understanding is that only a few of them will even ask.

 

[Scarlettt]

So should I try to avoid schools that would ask that question on their secondaries?

And I've heard that it's common for adcoms to do some online research (Facebook, etc.). If they google my name and home state, they will certainly find information about the first incident... five of the first seven matches were about it. I would really rather not mention it in either primary or secondary apps... I feel I handled a very unique situation of injustice well, and learned from it, but it could still be viewed as a blemish.

I just don't want it to be viewed as dishonesty if I don't mention it anywhere and the adcoms find out about it.

 

[sector9]

So should I try to avoid schools that would ask that question on their secondaries?

And I've heard that it's common for adcoms to do some online research (Facebook, etc.). If they google my name and home state, they will certainly find information about the first incident... five of the first seven matches were about it. I would really rather not mention it in either primary or secondary apps... I feel I handled a very unique situation of injustice well, and learned from it, but it could still be viewed as a blemish.

I just don't want it to be viewed as dishonesty if I don't mention it anywhere and the adcoms find out about it.

I suppose you could avoid schools that ask on a secondary, but I honestly wouldn't worry about it as much as you are. You weren't convicted of anything, and as far as I can tell, nothing will come up on your record. As you mentioned, the arrests weren't drug related or violent in any way.

It is dishonest if you don't mention it on a secondary that asks. Otherwise, don't worry about it. Schools get thousands of applications and they don't google everyone. You can't change the internet anyway. Calm down, you'll be fine.