Scared re-applicant- question about Institutional Action

[tysondoghb]

Hi all!

I applied this past year, and so far have been unsuccessful. I believe I will have to reapply. However, in my 2016 application, I, unfortunately and stupidly, reported an IA that I now know is not on my record, and I don't think it actually counts as an institutional action. I really don't want to report it again on my AMCAS when I re-apply, but am scared my AMCAS won't get verified and that schools I've previously applied to will see the discrepancy and not consider me.

Does anyone have any advice? Thanks for any help you can offer and for being such a helpful community!

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[mistafab]

I would go ahead and report it the second time. If it turns out not to be an institutional action, great - you lucked out. School's won't really care. If you get flagged as someone who might be frauding AMCAS (even if you are not) that is honestly not worth the headache and can tie you up in so much crap that it isn't even worth the slight advantage of submitting with no IA.

My 2 cents.

 

[ace_inhibitor111]

Verify first that it is not an IA. If it isn't, then tell the AAMC that you won't be putting it on your AMCAS because it is not an IA.... Schools tend to trust the AAMC so I wouldn't worry about them seeing the discrepancy. It's also a good strategy to NOT re-apply to all the same schools anyway.

 

[efle]

What kind of IA did you report? If it was something like caught with booze as a freshman, then I would look at the rest of the app for more likely culprits.

 

[tysondoghb]

It was an issue with a collaboration on take-home assignment that ended up being the fault of the professor who was then fired. I think I will contact AMCAS and see if I can omit it this time without being held-up in verification.

 

[efle]

ended up being the fault of the professor who was then fired

If this was true surely your university removed all record of the IA from your transcripts? For a situation as unique as yours I'd def call AMCAS and the university to figure out exactly what will be on your transcript/whether you need to report.

 

[tysondoghb]

No, it is not on my record or transcript at all. Last year, I was scared by the wording of the IA section and reported it, but later found out I did not need to. I did not find out until after I submitted my application that the professor had been fired because of it - I went to Stanford and their Office of Community Standards is notoriously disorganized. I am just not sure how to deal with it when I reapply, because I really would like it to be removed from my old AMCAS but I know that is not possible. I would prefer not to report it again this year, so I will contact AMCAS.

 

[efle]

Yeah call them, I imagine their advice will either be to leave it unreported or else to put down a description like "I erroneously received an IA from a professor whose employment was soon after terminated. The IA was removed from my record. Please contact the Stanford Office of XYZ if you would like to clarify/confirm etc"

Do let us know what they say !

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

How useful is AMCAS? They seem pretty useless in unique situations.

 

[tysondoghb]

I sent them an email, and they said:

If the grade appears as an IA on your official transcript this is how it will be verified. Please reach out to your school's registrar's office if this is a mistake to have the issue resolved. We will use the grade that appears on your transcript to verify your AMCAS application.

On my transcript, I just have a repeat for this course because I took it once more with a different professor. I sent them another email to ask if my applicaton will be held up due to a discrepancy between my two AMCAS apps, I'll update!

 

[Goro]

Unless you apply to completely different schools, it is likely that that your second try school will compare the latest app with the last.

When they see that you have omitted something like this, AMCAS will get notified, and you will get blackballed.

You can't take the risk of omitting things even if they're not on the record. You never know when an LOR writer will mention something about the transgression. I have seen this happen, and people get outright rejects due to that.

What was the nature of the IA? PM me if needed.

The wise @gyngyn and @gonnif can add to this.

Hi all!

I applied this past year, and so far have been unsuccessful. I believe I will have to reapply. However, in my 2016 application, I, unfortunately and stupidly, reported an IA that I now know is not on my record, and I don't think it actually counts as an institutional action. I really don't want to report it again on my AMCAS when I re-apply, but am scared my AMCAS won't get verified and that schools I've previously applied to will see the discrepancy and not consider me.

Does anyone have any advice? Thanks for any help you can offer and for being such a helpful community!

 

[sikedoctor64]

Yeah call them, I imagine their advice will either be to leave it unreported or else to put down a description like "I erroneously received an IA from a professor whose employment was soon after terminated. The IA was removed from my record. Please contact the Stanford Office of XYZ if you would like to clarify/confirm etc"

Do let us know what they say !

 

[sikedoctor64]

^ bump. What ended up happening?

 

[efle]

^ bump. What ended up happening?

Based on his post history, looks like he reapplied and was successfully admitted to a USMD in Spring 2018