- Joined
- May 7, 2021
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Hello, I will be applying next year with 2 misdemeanors. Several people here and IRL have told me that it won't kill my chances for med school, but some schools will definitely filter me out. I'm okay with that, but I definitely want to become a doctor.
The first and oldest is a DUI Cannabis about 15 years ago, I was in high school. The other is a Possession charge, will be about 10 years old.
That being said, everyone I've spoken to IRL has said that the biggest challenge will be successfully explaining / talking about BOTH misdemeanors, since I should have known better, and I agree. If I had only one, I could say "I learned my lesson" and own up to it and probably satisfy most adcoms. But since I have a second related charge, how should I talk about it? The question I imagine people will ask is "why didn't you learn your lesson the first time?"
My honest assessment of the DUI charge is that I was very immature and didn't recognize the seriousness of driving while high. To an extent, I had also fallen in with the wrong crowd. I swore off pot for several years. Honestly, the DUI was the best thing that ever happened to me, because I was on a fast road to nowhere when it happened, and afterwards I focused on school and trying to get into college. For the Paraphernalia though, I was in college - so many people I knew were using marijuana and not worried at all about getting caught, and it just felt like people didn't get in trouble for it. I stupidly started smoking again. I have no excuses for this and I take responsibility for this.
Truthfully, the biggest lesson I learned from these events was that I have to be very careful who I surround myself with, and I have been ever since. It's been a long time and since then I've done a lot - started and built a successful career, and done well in school.
Just looking for some ideas about how I can talk about this, as I reflect more on what happened and what lessons I learned.
Edit: I will have to report both of these.
The first and oldest is a DUI Cannabis about 15 years ago, I was in high school. The other is a Possession charge, will be about 10 years old.
That being said, everyone I've spoken to IRL has said that the biggest challenge will be successfully explaining / talking about BOTH misdemeanors, since I should have known better, and I agree. If I had only one, I could say "I learned my lesson" and own up to it and probably satisfy most adcoms. But since I have a second related charge, how should I talk about it? The question I imagine people will ask is "why didn't you learn your lesson the first time?"
My honest assessment of the DUI charge is that I was very immature and didn't recognize the seriousness of driving while high. To an extent, I had also fallen in with the wrong crowd. I swore off pot for several years. Honestly, the DUI was the best thing that ever happened to me, because I was on a fast road to nowhere when it happened, and afterwards I focused on school and trying to get into college. For the Paraphernalia though, I was in college - so many people I knew were using marijuana and not worried at all about getting caught, and it just felt like people didn't get in trouble for it. I stupidly started smoking again. I have no excuses for this and I take responsibility for this.
Truthfully, the biggest lesson I learned from these events was that I have to be very careful who I surround myself with, and I have been ever since. It's been a long time and since then I've done a lot - started and built a successful career, and done well in school.
Just looking for some ideas about how I can talk about this, as I reflect more on what happened and what lessons I learned.
Edit: I will have to report both of these.
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