Which med schools DO NOT ask about misdemeanors on application?

[forhonly]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi all. I really need your help.
Long story short, I was slapped with a misdemeanor conviction a few years back for some stupid reason and it's since been hanging over my head. The thing is..i'm going to be applying soon and I would truly appreciate it if anyone here can tell me which schools do not indeed ask such a blanket statement to the effect of "have you ever been convicted of any criminal offenses?"on their secondaries. The situation that I was in is a potentially embarrasing one that I cannot bear to explain to the adcoms...and I voluntarily do not wish to apply to schools that ask this questions. Would you please let me know if you have indeed seen a fair number of secondaries and can say whether or not they do ask? Thanks so much

 

[Tezzie]

Apply to the schools you want. Later on they are gonna run backround checks anyway. If it wasn't a felony then you can use the story as your "struggle" and how it help you mature blah blah blah. You never know how the adcomms will feel about it.

 

[forhonly]

thanks for the suggestion Tezzie..but I really prefer not to do that..which is quite an expensive way to find out dont you think? cause I definitely will not consider sending in the secondary if they did ask.

 

[donnyfire]

Don?t you think that if you are honest and up front about what happened, that an admissions committee will overlook it?
Particularly if you show that you regret and learned from the experience,
I agree with Tezzie, they will run a background and find out anyway, whether or not they ask in the secondary. In this day and age, I can't see how they can afford NOT to.

 

[Megalofyia]

I don't remember any of the DO schools I applied to asking this questions.

Um..
I don't think Finch.

I don't remember exactly cause it wasn't a question I was looking for in secondaries.

 

[forhonly]

it's not a matter of not wanting to admit what i did wrong and showed regrets..it is the interview, talking about this that I cannot bring myself to do. It's not a big deal at all when they do a background check on me..it's not like it's something big that i'm trying to hide from. just a point of reference: it's way LESS severe than the following: drug, theft, perjury, assault, sex offense issues...now i hope you know what i mean. i was framed for something that I cannot talk about in the interview...that i cannot even mention in this forum...please help me 🙁

 

[Chronotropic]

I don't think theres anyway to skirt the secondary quesitons. And I'm not sure when the schools run background checks so there is a chance that it will not be on a secondary but brought up in an interview.

 

[PianoGirl04]

Originally posted by forhonly
it's not a matter of not wanting to admit what i did wrong and showed regrets..it is the interview, talking about this that I cannot bring myself to do. It's not a big deal at all when they do a background check on me..it's not like it's something big that i'm trying to hide from. just a point of reference: it's way LESS severe than the following: drug, theft, perjury, assault, sex offense issues...now i hope you know what i mean. i was framed for something that I cannot talk about in the interview...that i cannot even mention in this forum...please help me 🙁

It's difficult to help you without knowing some more specifics, but I won't push...it's clear that you're not comfortable talking about it here, and that's fine. However, it WILL come up some time during the admissions process...so it's better to let them know on your secondaries rather than have them be surprised by it on a background check. I think they'll be more likely to give you an interview if you tell them about it because it shows maturity and honesty. Hiding something like that from an adcom is a sign of dishonesty, like it or not, and the last thing people need is a dishonest doctor. This is not meant to be a personal attack on you...this is just how I think the adcoms will view the issue. If you really want to go to med school, you're probably going to have to talk about it at some point. I would explain that you were framed and still maintain your innocence, and focus on what you learned and how you matured due to this incident, as Tezzie said.

 

[swankydude]

If your conviction has anything to do with drugs, guns, or property? you have a big uphill battle? all this has to do with getting your DEA license to write drug prescriptions. Otherwise, if your misdemeanor is just simple youthful indiscretion (i.e. sex on beach, PDA, dating the mother and then dating her younger daughter? oh, is it the other way around?), I wouldn?t worry about it. Just give them the ?I struggled story and grew up speech? (as mentioned above).

Also, did you know that you can get a copy of your background check/public record? There are tons of websites and private investigation businesses in every town that provide this service for a cheap fee (mainly to businesses for employment purposes? ex-wife looking for alimony? wife trying to catch you cheating?). I would recommend that you get a copy of you BG check to help you in deciding whether you should check ?yes or no? on your application.

Remember not everything shows up on background check?oh, just as long as you didn?t do anything wrong after Jon Asscock and ?W? came into power?

 

[Tezzie]

I thought that misdemeanors don't appear on the record after a few years (10?) pass by ... Right?

Tezzie

 

[Outer Space]

Originally posted by forhonly
it's not a matter of not wanting to admit what i did wrong and showed regrets..it is the interview, talking about this that I cannot bring myself to do. It's not a big deal at all when they do a background check on me..it's not like it's something big that i'm trying to hide from. just a point of reference: it's way LESS severe than the following: drug, theft, perjury, assault, sex offense issues...now i hope you know what i mean. i was framed for something that I cannot talk about in the interview...that i cannot even mention in this forum...please help me 🙁

You will have to explain it in the AMCAS if you apply to med schools. Then for secondaries, you will just do the whole cut paste deal since secondaries ?'s are identical to AMCAS in this respect. As for interviews - if you apply to schools which are closed file they won't ask you about this unless you want to tell them yourself. So if your problem is talking about this in interviews, apply to closed file schools, but that's an awful way to limit yourself for something so insignificant. I bet by the time you talk about it 5 or 6 times you would be completely indifferent about the matter.

 

[souljah1]

amcas only asked about felonies and i don't remember any secondary asking about misdemeanors.

 

[forhonly]

Thanks guys for all your inputs...
Souljah1 was right about amcas asking only for felonies. I highly doubt that they would ask me any such related questions in the interview if they had no specific reason to so. I already have tons of interesting stuff to talk about and this is definitely not one of them! I absolutelly think that if I was not forced to answer yes to the blanket question, I certainly would not have to deal with it ever again. It was the past...and an absolute taboo..but I was stupid enough to have self-incriminated myself that practically circumvented any possible claims of innocence.

Doing a background check on myself is probably a good idea. I'm sure it's there..even though most certainly it would show up unremarkably. I do not want to be lying about it when they do ask me for the details on the application ("PLEASE elaborate", which was on the application I saw from a friend who was applying last year). Don't ask, don't tell. which I learned from the military

But would you please, if you still remember, tell me which schools which sent you a secondary that did not ask about "convictions of any criminal offenses"? They will not ask about misdemeanor specifically...but it's the "ANY convictions" that is killing me.

Please help me... 🙁

 

[swankydude]

Man? it be honest all school will do a background check even if they don?t ask this on the application? just b/c the fact that all public institution and many (if not all) private medical schools CANNOT and WILLNOT spend money to educate a person who has any doubt of a chance at getting medical and DEA licensure? there are just too many people to pick from?
Think about? you did something that was really bad? would anybody in society want you to provide them with life-saving healthcare???

SDNer?s cannot give you specific help if you don?t tell us what you did? this is an anonymous board? not one knows who you are? granted they may know your ISP and fake email account which can both be changed at an instance...

 

[calcrew14]

forh,

You might want to get a copy of court disposition of your case handy just in case. It is available either at the County Supreme Court Office or the Court that you went to, or both. The cost is about $10-25 for a do-it-yourselfer. Some place also does the request by mail. A waiting line is not needed there.

I have heard that the Supreme Court in my state does not keep any record older than 10 years. They will then certify the unavailability of the case record. There is no charge for the certificate.

You can't hide. Sooner or later, you will have to talk about it. Any doctor can be supoenaed by a court for a deposition anytime. And one of the attorney will always dig deep to find something to discredit you.