Criminal Activities and Institutional Actions

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>When I was 16 I was arrested for shoplifting and given a misdemeanor. When I was 17 I was cited for under age drinking and given a summary citation.</p>

<p>Now I am 20 and ready to apply to medical school next year. I have a current GPA of 4.0 so academically I am on track.</p>

<p>I know that on the AMCAS application there is a question about misdemeanors and felonies. I can check no for that question because my underage drinking citation was only a summary and my shoplifting misdemeanor occured when I was a minor.</p>

<p>I am curious about seconday application. I know some ask you if you have been ever convicted of any crime. Does this include crimes convicted off as a juvenile? Also, for the shoplifting case after a 6 month probationary phase, the charges were dismissed or withdrawn. So does that mean that I do not have to bring this up in my application? The underage drinking was adjudicated (state of pennsylvania). Is there a difference between adjudication and conviction?</p>

<p>Are there any med schools that only ask about convictions if you were not a minor? </p>

<p>Also last week my RA caught me and a friends drinking beer in the dorms. So now I have recieved an institutional action. This only exists on my disciplinary record and not on an my transcript. Should I still mention it on my AMCAS?</p>

<p>Generally, what kind of position does an underage and an institutional action for drinking put me in. My grades are good, I have research, clinical experience, I am going abroad for a semester. </p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>I am under the impression that all felonies and misdemeanors must be listed on AMCAS, regardless of your age at the time. There are exceptions for specific types of misdemeanors for residents of CA, OR, and IL, and they are listed in the [AMCAS</a> instructions](<a href=“http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2008amcasinstructionsrevised.pdf]AMCAS”>http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2008amcasinstructionsrevised.pdf).</p>

<p>I don’t know if you have to report things on your disciplinary action, and my gut instinct is that you don’t. But I could be wrong, so you ought to check. You may run into a problem if your school takes your entire record into account when writing a committee letter for your med school applications. They would be entirely within their rights to mention the institutional action in their letter, which would certainly put a red flag on your application.</p>

3

<p>Well if the shoplifting was withdrawn, then there was no conviction.</p>

<p>The underage drinking citation, at 17, was a summary citation and not a misdemeanor so I could answer no for that question.</p>

<p>The secondaries however ask about crimes as well. But they are more general.
I doubt the committee letter will include the institutional action but if I put it on my aplication adcoms will see it.</p>

<p>So how serious is it to have an underage as a juvenile and a institutional action as an undergrad?</p>