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Liaison

AACPMAS Professional Standards of Applicant Conduct

In accordance with the ideals and principles of the podiatric medical profession, applicants to the Schools and Colleges of Podiatric Medicine must conduct themselves in a professional manner that demonstrates responsibility, diligence, integrity, honesty, and respect. Specifically, applicants must, at a minimum, abide by the following Professional Standards of Applicant Conduct (“Standards”) when applying, and participating in the application processes and procedures relating to, podiatric medical education programs:

  1. Act with responsibility and diligence. Applicants understand that they are solely responsible and accountable for reviewing, understanding and complying with all podiatric medical school and program application rules and requirements, including those set by AACPMAS, AACPM, and any other related programs. It is the applicant's responsibility to provide all information requested, meet deadlines, and follow the admissions process for each podiatric medical program to which they apply. Applicants also are responsible for promptly correcting any errors or omissions in their file, and for responding to all notifications in a timely manner in accordance with stated due dates and deadlines. If an applicant has a question about the admissions process after exhausting all available online and printed resources, the applicant should contact AACPMAS or the appropriate podiatric medical program's admissions office directly for clarification.
     
  2. Act with honesty and integrity. Applicants must accurately represent themselves during the admissions process, including providing accurate, honest, and complete information in all aspects of the admissions process, including in all documents and when otherwise communicating information to staff at AACPM, schools, and other programs.
     
    1. Applicants must draft their own personal statements, and may not copy or plagiarize personal statements or any portion of the applications of others.
    2. Applicants must accurately represent academic and professional achievements without exaggeration or misrepresentation.
    3. Applicants must identify themselves correctly at all times, and may not inquire about an application or any other program status claiming to be someone else.
       
  3. Communicate respectfully. Applicants must use the highest professional courtesy when interacting with staff, program representatives, other applicants and the public. Applicants may not defame the competence, knowledge, qualifications, or services of faculty, staff and other applicants involved in the admissions process. Applicants may not imply in word, gesture, or deed that an application has been poorly managed, or the applicant was mistreated by a staff member, program representative, or another applicant without tangible evidence. Applicants may not use offensive language, or make threatening comments.
     
    1. Applicants may consult the podiatric medical program’s admissions staff to learn how they may correct deficiencies in their application or academic performance or seek to learn more about admissions criteria for schools to which they may apply, but must remain respectful of decisions made by those involved in the admissions process.

Violation Policy

AACPMAS will report violations of these Standards to the American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine (AACPM), who will confirm if a violation has occurred and whether sanctions should be imposed. Sanctions may include, but are not limited to:

  • Revocation of an application
  • Sharing documented conduct violations with the AACPMAS participating program(s) to which the applicant has applied to
  • Sharing documented conduct violations with all AACPMAS participating programs
  • Sharing documented conduct violations with other podiatric medical admissions committees
  • Sharing documented conduct violations with other health professions
  • Loss of privilege of applying to or entering the podiatric medical profession

Any applicant found to have violated these Standards risks losing the privilege of applying to or entering the podiatric medical profession. Documented conduct violations may be communicated to all AACPMAS participating programs as well as other health profession education associations and admissions committees. Once an applicant receives written notification that they have violated the Standards and the proposed sanctions, the applicant will be provided an opportunity to appeal the decision prior to sanctions being imposed. Such appeal must be submitted in writing to AACPM within 10 business days of the notification to the applicant of the determined violation and proposed sanctions. The appeal will be reviewed by a panel comprised of the Student Admissions Officer (SAO) SAO Chair, SAO Chair-elect, AACPM Executive Director and Director of Application Services at Liaison International. The appeal panel may:

  • Confirm or overturn the finding of a violation
  • Revise the violation found
  • Confirm, revise, or repeal some or all of the sanctions

Upon reaching the decision, the appeal panel will send its decision to the applicant by email and certified US mail. In the event the applicant wants to pursue a secondary appeal, they may resubmit their appeal with any additional supporting documentation. The secondary appeal will be reviewed by the entire Student Admissions Officer (SAO) Council, AACPM Executive Director and Director of Application Services at Liaison International. This panel may either uphold or reverse the original decision regarding the violation found and the sanctions to be imposed. The decision of the second review panel will be final. Any reversal of the violation will be communicated to all parties that may have been previously notified.

Standards review and revision

These Standards were reviewed and approved by the AACPM Board of Directors on July 10, 2019. These Standards will be monitored for relevance and effectiveness and may be updated from time to time by the AACPM Board.

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