A Boston University medical student who was arraigned on murder charges last week for allegedly killing two men had been arrested or convicted of violent crimes prior to applying to the school. Police believe that Daniel Mason broke into the apartment of the victims and shot them both at point blank range. In 1993, he was arrested for breaking into a girlfriend’s house and threatening to murder her. After entering medical school in 1994, Mason attacked one of the murder victims in a 1997 altercation and was ordered by a judge to pay the man $118,000 over 20 years. Just days before this arraignment, he was scheduled to begin a pediatrics rotation.
Why didn’t the BU School of Medicine know that it accepted a convicted felon into its program? Because the application, as it was designed then, did not include a question asking whether applicants have ever been convicted of a felony. Mason applied to the school using a standard application called the American Medical College Application Service, which asked applications to disclose information about instances of academic dishonesty but not about criminal history.
Of course, no one could have predicted this situation, but there’s a chance that it may have been avoided if the application included this pertinent question. While BU asks this question of its undergraduate applicants, the medical school didn’t include a supplement, like several other area schools, that questioned criminal background.
While former felons should not have to pay their debt to society for the rest of their lives, the medical admission staff would have had the chance to exercise some discretion in deciding to accept a an applicant with a troubling history. The situation becomes increasingly disturbing since Mason was going to work with children. The BU School of Medicine should have never put itself in this awkward position. If the application had asked the question, regardless of whether Mason answered honestly or was accepted into the program despite his background, the school would emerge unblemished. As it stands, the situation calls into question the screening and selection process of the school’s admission policy.
The creators of the AMCAS at the American Association of the Medical Colleges have designed a new version of the application for online applicants who will enter medical school in fall 2002. This change will hopefully help medical schools to make more informed decisions on what applicants they will choose to accept in their programs.
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