Quoted: personal life may lead to deferment of acceptance

[Law2Doc]

I was recently accepted to UCSF med school earlier this year, unfortunately early this summer i was charged with a DUI. I am hoping for the charges to be lessened to a misdemeanor offense and my second trial date is on july 17. Due to my pending case as well as extenuating financial problems, I have decided that it would be best for me to defer my acceptance for at least a year so that I may be able to accomodate to my personal problems first. I was hoping for some advice as to how to present my problem to UCSF so that i may be able to defer my acceptance until next fall. Is deferement a viable option for me? If I do get charged with a DUI will the school find out and kick me out?

Please help.

Whether you are able to defer depends a lot on UCSF's deferment policy. Some places only allow deferrals for certain reasons, or upon application made by a certain point in the application cycle. It is also difficult to address how a DUI conviction might affect your med student status, since a lot depends on the school, but since it might, legal advice from a local attorney (the one handling your DUI case?) would likely be warranted. Good luck.

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[MSmentor010]

Honestly, you may want to contact an attorney, but I would provide a statement to the school. Let them know what has happened, why it happened, what is going on with all of the court dates, how sorry you are, and that you would like a deferment so that you are able to focus on the problem at hand and get ready to start medical school next year. Let them know that you are focusing on the problem, and you know that you messed up. You just have to report it. I had a friend that had just gotten accepted to a medical school, and then he got charged with a DUI. He for some reason didn't think the school should know about it, and then they somehow found out. Well, they contacted him, brought it to his attention, and retracted his acceptance and pretty much said that he would not be able to attend any medical school due to his actions. They took what he did as lying since he had put on his application that he didn't have any charges. Then I guess they must have run a criminal check on him, and it showed them the charges filed. Whether or not it is lessened, it would be a good thing to tell them, and it will show them that you are responsible for your actions, mature, and mindful of your actions. You just need to work kind of fast before they find out. I think it only took the medical school that I referred to at the beginning, two months after his trial for them to find out. Then they told him if he would have told them about it, he would have still be able to enter the class. You can never tell if they were telling the truth in hindsight, but I definitely wouldn't chance your career on not telling them. Best of luck!

 

[All4MyDaughter]

I'll add that a good friend of mine was charged with DUI right before he started pharmacy school. I encouraged my friend to be forthright with his school about what had happened. They required my friend to participate in some alchohol abuse education activities with an organization that helps impaired pharmacists but otherwise he was allowed to matriculate normally.