General Will a misdemeanor interfere with state licensing?

[lord999]

Hello there,

I received a misdemeanor for a fraud a couple years ago. Although the behavior it self happened a long time ago, I was only sentenced the past couple of years (probation, no jail time).

I am incredibly remorseful for my actions, and how they have impacted the people around me and those involved. The fraudulent activity had escalated due to a traumatic situation, and my desperation to hide it. My grades suffered greatly as a result, and I received institutional actions that relate to the misdemeanor.

Since then, I've drastically changed. I've improved my grades, earned a good MCAT score, have worked years in a hospital handling sensitive patient information, solid letters of recommendations, and am in a SMP. I have spoken in person with a couple medical school admissions members, who have told me that it is not impossible for me to become a doctor, and guided me on how I can improve my application. I even received an interview invitation during the last admissions cycle.

I know that most admissions committees are concerned about a student's ability to get a medical license after they graduate, which is why many people with criminal histories don't get into school. I have read many state medical license applications, and they ask for full disclosure and a written statement for any past criminal behavior.

I was just wondering, do applicants with criminal histories like mine get second chances in admissions?

Thank you, in advance.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Please don't post the nature of the offense here, but much of it does depend on your ability to represent your growth to others. That said, fraud is always considered moral turpitude (it's the one offense that is), and a Board does not have to consider a license request from someone with a conviction for an offense of moral turpitude. You really are going to have to represent yourself decently (even to the point of retaining counsel) to get a hearing in some states, and I am aware that my original state (AZ) forces an interview to determine the nature of the conviction and whether or not it has an impact on patient safety for moral turpitude issues in a background. It's been my experience with AZ that they tend to grant license requests provided that the behavior was in the past and behavior has been upstanding since then, but with some fairly mild monitoring conditions if warranted. But if AZ catches you omitting the conviction from an application (and they do check due to a scandal in its past), not only will they deny the license, they usually go after the applicant with the AG office for perjuring on the application.

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