Dental School application withdrawal due to DWI

[alexchalyy]

My question is about Dental School Admissions. I applied to several Dental Schools this year and got into SUNY Buffalo Dental School in NY (I live in NY). However 2 days before orientation, my admission was withdrawn. The reason was I did not pass the background check. Four years ago, I was charged with DWI, but knowing that I wanted to pursue medical field and that might potentially affect my admission, I was advised to hire a lawyer. The lawyer reduced the charge to reckless driving. The dental school application asked whether I was ever charged with a misdemeanor or felony. I thought that charged meant charged and convicted. I also thought that reckless driving was a traffic violation and not a misdemeanor, so I put no. Later when, a background check was performed on me, both charged appeared (I also thought that only convictions showed up on the background check). I talked to one of the admission deans, and she said that I should write an explanatory e-mail. I wrote an apologetic e-mail explaining the whole situation. Everything, seemed to go well until 2 days before orientation, I got an admission withdrawal letter. The e-mail also said that the same letter (which I have not received to this day even though, I live relatively close to campus) was sent out but it does not appear that it came to me (how did they know that?). On the same day, I drove to Buffalo with my mother to talk to the dean. The dean told us that there is nothing that can be done, all spots are already filled up, and that we should reapply next year. My questions are about how should I reapply to school. Is it possible to clean the background? Would it help on reapplication? Should I mention the cleaned charges (if they can be cleaned)? What should I say on the new admission application when they will ask me why was I expelled from Buffalo? Any other advice would be nice too. Thank you very much.

[GaAtty]

The problem might be your lack of honesty, rather than the offense. One cannot very well claim to be smart enough to go to dental school and on the other hand, claim not to know the difference between the words "charged" and "convicted". After all, you presumably had plenty of time to look up the definitions or even consult an attorney. Now that you have learned not to be evasive, then you can do several things. You can try to get an expungement. Some states are easier than others on this. You can try to get a pardon, which also varies from state to state. But actually, you are convicted only of a misdemeanor and that usually doesn't cause a problem in applications to professional schools. The fact that you were charged with a felony but not convicted should not be a problem. Therefore, in your next application, you should be up front with stating a misdemeanor conviction but state that a felony CHARGE might show up on a background check, and be sure to emphasize that you have no felony conviction. You should also state that there have been no more occurrences of that kind of conduct since that time, and that you have paid all fines and all probation or penalties are over. It would not hurt at all to do some public service work between now and the next application, so that you can show that you are a good citizen. This generally means volunteer work of the type that looks good on a resume. Last, it never hurts to have letters of reference from persons with good standing in the community. It is good to have some from people who knew you before who can say they knew you before and after this event and this event does not change their opinion of you.
Law students have this problem with bar admission if they have episodes in their past which are unfavorable. You might want to ask an attorney in your state to help you with how to find and read some of the published cases in which individuals successfully got admitted to practice law after being denied because of convictions. You might look at In Re RMW, 486 F. Supp. 2d 518 (D. Md. 2007). Even though it relates to disbarred attorneys, it still makes a list of the things that a bar admission committee (in Maryland) looks at with regard to a conviction. I would suspect that other professional schools, including dental schools would use similar criteria, some of which are how long ago the offense was, the nature of the offense, whether (if an alcohol of drug problem) the problem has ceased to exist, whether the applicant accepts the wrongfulness of their conduct, etc.
It is clear to me that you have a habit of reading things too fast and not thinking about their meaning. Not only did you do this with regard to "conviction" v. "charged", you have done this with "expelled". It is clear to me that you were NOT expelled. A student who is never enrolled cannot be expelled. You were not accepted. Your acceptance was withdrawn. In fact, the school specifically stated that in their letter to you. You are jumping to the conclusion that "withdrawn acceptance" is the same as "expelled", even though the school went to an effort to make it so that you would not have to list what happened as being an expulsion.