<p>hi, I am a senior who plans to attend Emory this fall, and I just found out that I got into a potentially big big trouble. </p>
<p>I am having a low grade in spanish and I somewhat wrote 2 spanish idioms on the desk before this quiz. I never looked at the idioms because I remembered and wrote them on the quiz as soon as I got the quiz, but my spanish teacher saw me. </p>
<p>I talked with her after this, and she mentioned that this was an academic dishonesty and she honest enough to tell this to the Discipline Council. </p>
<p>My advisor, my spanish teacher, and language department head said that this will not go into discipline council yet, but we will have a meeting and the department head has the right to decide where she wants to take me from there. </p>
<p>They all said that they didn't want me to ruin my academic career, but in the worst case, suspension, am I so screwed?? I know acadmic dishonesty is the worst suspension case, but WILL I BE RESCINDED FROM EMORY? </p>
<p>I am very very afraid. I can't tell my parents because they are worried enough about my low spanish grades. If I do get suspended, I think I will just have to live my life all over again. </p>
<p>I need advices - how I should react, tell what to the colleges etc. Please!!</p>
<p>Is this your first offense? For first offenses around here, I think the discipline is a "0" on the work. Maybe athletic ineligibility, too. Suspension sounds kinda stiff for a first offense. Check your student handbook to see for sure.</p>
<p>No matter what, as a parent, I'd want to know. And I'd want to hear from my kid, not from the teacher or VP or someone else. </p>
<p>As for Emory, sorry, I have no wisdom to share.</p>
<p>This depends on your high school and their policies but before you meet with them you might want to rethink your general attitude. Your post says "I somewhat wrote two idioms..."<br>
You didn't somewhat anything. You did write them on the desk and you did it because you were afraid you wouldn't remember them.<br>
Admitting you were wrong to do this will help with how the adults treat you.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am very very afraid. I can't tell my parents because they are worried enough about my low spanish grades. If I do get suspended, I think I will just have to live my life all over again.
[/quote]
You are right to be afraid. If the dept head decides to take action it goes on your record, Emory finds out, and there's a fair chance they rescind you. Cheating on tests -- colleges are funny about that kind of thing, take it kinda seriously ...</p>
<p>You need to tell your parents ASAP. I sense you're a gambler at heart. You gambled you wouldn't get caught by cheating on your Spanish test. Lost that bet. Now you're gambling nothing else is going to come of this and your parents won't find out. I hope you win this bet. However... Should you lose again they're going to find out, and they'll be even angrier you didn't tell them after it happened.</p>
<p>I see a pattern of constantly trying to minimize your actions and avoid responsibility. Sure you got caught writing on the desk but you didn't "cheat" because (according to you) you didn't look at it. You're almost a victim here! The consequences of cheating and getting caught are your parents being very mad at you, you're still trying to escape that one.</p>
<p>Here's some free advice -- you want to pretty much guarantee you get suspended, try that "I wrote it but I didn't look at it" stuff with the dept head. Anything other than "I cheated, I was wrong" is pretty much asking them to send you a message that you're still trying to avoid responsibility for your actions and that has got to change. The message will be sent via the suspension, and hasta la vista Emory.</p>
<p>Tell Your Parents! They Will Be Able To Help You,if You Do Not Tell Them You Will Only Make This Situation Worst. I'm A Parent And I Know That I Would Go Up To School With My Daughter/son And Try To Talk Things Over. Good Luck</p>
<p>What is the OP being punished for? For immediately writing the idioms on the quiz? Or for writing them on the desk? </p>
<p>If the former, then that seems unjust, because at times I've mugged for exams to the extent of cramming formulas literally last minute from the textbook into my head, trying to keep them in my short-term working memory, then putting my book away moments before I receive the test, then immediately regurgitating the formula onto my paper. I've mugged for a linear algebra exam on subspaces by memorising the eight axioms for a subspace as two components and forming a bizarre phrase with them that I repeat to myself before the exam and almost immediately put on my paper [before expanding for all eight axioms].</p>
<p>While I always felt guilty about this (it tells me I haven't mastered the material), speaking from a purely moral point of view, the OP's action seems almost equivalent to my last-resort strategy of exam-mugging (which I try to avoid but 3rd quarter was so stressful that at times I had no choice). The additional step of writing it on the desk is suppose what makes all the difference to the Discipline Council, but speaking from a purely moral (in a Kantian sort of way) view, repeating a mnemonic, idiom or a formula you haven't internalised to yourself just before the exam seems almost equivalent as far as testing what you learn. Both are basically attempts to desperately store information temporarily in working memory that hasn't really been committed to long-term memory, in a sort of buffer that will be shortly transferred onto the exam page. </p>
<p>I don't endorse either action, and the only reason why I have ever attempted doing what I do for the rare situations when I get desperate/overwhelmed for a particular exam, is that I know that the first strategy is something the school will be unable to punish you for. No one will ever call you out saying, "You cheat! That information wasn't really stored in your long-term memory, it was in your working memory! You were mouthing the elements of the formula seconds before the exam was passed to you!" </p>
<p>Yet why is the second action more morally reprehensible than the first? From a moral analysis point of view, it is unsatisfactory if the explanation is, "you can be punished for the second but not the first."
If A and B are categorically equivalent morally, but society has the means to punish you for B but not for A, by virtue of A and B being in the same moral category, B cannot be immoral while A is not; either A and B must both be immoral, or A and B must both be moral. For example, as long as you were speaking what you thought [i.e. your speech resembles your thought -- you weren't maliciously lying, wrongfully slandering someone on purpose, committing perjury, etc.], crimes that punish speech are categorically equivalent to "crimes of thought". But simply because society can punish you for speech [because what you said is admissible] doesn't mean that punishment for crimes of speech are just while punishments for crimes of thought are not.</p>
<p>They are morally different because the OP says he "somewhat" wrote the information on the desk "before the quiz". We don't know how long before the quiz. We don't know that it was "just before the quiz."</p>
<p>In your situation, galoisien, you are relying solely on your memory; you may mis-remember the formula or phrase, you may write it on your paper incorrectly, or any number of things, but you have no way to check whether your memory was correct. By writing it on the desk, the OP gave himself a way to verify his response and correct it if he had written it incorrectly on his quiz. One's memory, whether one has internalized the information or has really learned it, is what is being tested.</p>
<p>As for your "crimes of speech" vs. "crimes of thought" analogy, you're missing one key factor: the effect of speech on those who hear it. Aside from the issue of proof and how one "proves" a thought, speech has a greater impact than mere thought. Thought leads to speech leads to action (not always and not directly, but you get the point), and there is a continuum of degree and societal response. Or shall we then say that murdering someone is "morally the same" as speaking about murdering someone, which is "morally the same" as thinking about murdering someone?</p>
<p>Sun(etc), first off, if you cheated, you need to fess up and take the consquences. That's the mature thing to do.</p>
<p>That said, only a few schools actually ask about this type of stuff. Most rely on the final transcript, which, in all likihood, won't say anything about a suspension. That typically goes on the internal school record. You should ask your GC about whether or not Emory sends a questionnaire to the school, and how the school responds to those requests.</p>
<p>Learn a lesson from this. This is the type of thing that could get you tossed out of college.</p>
<p>I'll tell you what I've told my children and many others in similar situations: If you fall on your own sword, folks are much less likely to want to push one into you. I mean, if you take responsibility and beat yourself up, others won't want to beat you up as much! </p>
<p>Seriously, if you said it to me like you did here, I'd throw the book at you. The only possible opportunity you have to pull your you-know-what out of the fire, is to go to this meeting saying, "I am so sorry. I was wrong to write those phrases on my desk. I can not believe I did this. This is incredibly stupid. I have learned my lesson and will make sure I never do anything that could bring my integrity into question again as long as I live. Is there anything at all I can do to retrieve this situation? I can't believe I did something that could derail all I've worked for. Could you possibly have mercy on me and let me show you my repentance in a way that won't keep me from going to Emory this year? Could I do extra projects in Spanish? Could I do volunteer work at the school? I know I don't deserve your mercy, and I'm kicking myself, but is there any way I can make up for this?"</p>
<p>If you do that, you may have to do some extra work, but you will regain their respect and possibly save your hide. If you walk into there arrogant and refusing to accept responsibility, you are toast.</p>
<p>
[quote]
While I always felt guilty about this (it tells me I haven't mastered the material), speaking from a purely moral point of view, the OP's action seems almost equivalent to my last-resort strategy of exam-mugging (which I try to avoid but 3rd quarter was so stressful that at times I had no choice).
[/quote]
You can kid yourself with all this, or you can simply face the plain truth. The OP had the same option you did; he could have waited until the test was passed out and then scribbled down stuff out of his short-term memory to his hearts content. He chose not to do so. Tells you something about whether its really "almost equivalent" or not, doesn't it?
[quote]
That said, only a few schools actually ask about this type of stuff. Most rely on the final transcript, which, in all likihood, won't say anything about a suspension. That typically goes on the internal school record. You should ask your GC about whether or not Emory sends a questionnaire to the school, and how the school responds to those requests.
[/quote]
Emory has a honor code all students are expected to abide by, and they take cheating pretty seriously. In fact they say right on their web page for admitted students
[quote]
Acceptance is granted on condition that applicants continue to
maintain, either in high school or another college, at least as
high a level of scholarship, personal conduct, and curriculum
as that on which they were tentatively accepted. Failure to
maintain this level of academic achievement, curriculum,
and/or conduct could result in a revocation of admission
to Emory College.
<a href="http://www.emory.edu/ADMISSIONS/documents/accagree.pdf%5B/url%5D%5B/quote%5DBTW">http://www.emory.edu/ADMISSIONS/documents/accagree.pdf
[/quote]
BTW</a> the bold isn't something I added, it's in the original.</p>