I received an institutional action from my school for sharing a few files with a friend in a chemistry lab course. This course is not a required pre-med course. These excel files are part of the weekly 'lab report' assignment due after every lab. This was such a dumb mistake. They were super anxious and so I felt bad for them and was trying to justify it in the moment thinking I could just help them understand the homework. I shared my excel files that are based on data you get yourself, so they could not just copy my work. What they could copy was my format and the equations I used to get my answers. This doesn't matter, it's cheating because I shared information with them. I didn't get a grade change since I was not benefitting because I took this class Fall 2020. Since I took the class before, and they were taking it Spring 2021, they asked me for help. I received honor probation for 2 years and have to take a decision making course. It's not on my transcript but of course I will report it on the AMCAS and AACOMAS systems. The case is almost finished. I admitted guilt and am just waiting for the official document stating my sanctions. My plan was to apply this cycle, but now I am not sure what to do. It looks really bad for an application because this happened just as I plan on applying.
I am a junior double majoring in applied mathematics and chemistry. I scored a 522 (131/128/132/131) on the MCAT and have a 3.94 GPA (B in intro bio 2 as a freshman, and a B in an upper level math course this semester). I have great extracurriculars including non-clinical volunteering, I'm an Orgo TA, tons of shadowing, co-captain on the school cross country team, I'm also on the school track and field team. I don't have any research experience since sports takes up a lot of my time throughout the year. I talked to my pre-med advisor and he says I still have a chance at mid to lower tier schools this year considering the rest of my application is good. But it's iffy considering there is no time distance between this incident and me submitting the application. Still he said if he were me he would give it a shot this cycle. I'm going to ask my coach to write me a recommendation and want her to emphasize my character since she has known me for so long. I have a LOR from the professor I TA for as well.
I'm not sure what to do. Is it a waste to apply this cycle? If I don't get in now will I have to completely rewrite my application next time I apply? How long should I wait? Do I explain what happened as well as what I learned in the space provided on the primary applications or is there another space for explaining what I learned/selling myself as better?
Thank you so much for reading this and any help is greatly appreciated. I'm not sure what exactly I can share related to the case which is why I have not attached any files.
