I think there are big differences in how honor codes are enforced. When I was at W&L in the 90s we had kids expelled for all kinds of “minor” infractions. Using a fake ID (that’s lying), swiping in your friend on your unlimited meal card (that’s stealing). It could certainly be argued that the school went overboard, although all honor code violations were decided on by a student committee, but it was a serious thing.
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The studies indicate student adherence isn’t high.
Really? Most don’t have an honor code in the way, say, W&L does. Anyone can leave phone, laptop, backpack anywhere and it doesn’t get stolen. Kids schedule finals for when it’s best for them. This sort of thing does not happen at any of the other – excellent – universities I am familiar with. (Harvard, Stanford, Emory, SMU, University of Rochester)
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My kid taught at a large state university and always changed the test between sections. I assumed everyone did. Some high school teachers are lazy on this, in our experience, causing rampant lunchtime cheating conversations.
I think the best programs have steps in terms of consequences. Some students need to be educated so a first step should be an education program in whatever form, about what cheating is, what plagiarism means, and what will happen if it happens again.
Then the consequences vary from F’s, suspension and dismissal. The Ivies seemed especially strict but I would think many LAC’s would be too.
I don’t know how you choose a school on this basis. Many have honor codes of one sort or the other. I think my kids just did what they did (honest I believe!) without regard to others. Education isn’t a race, or it shouldn’t be. There are so many other criteria. You said money is okay, but size, location, academic majors and curricula, and “vibe.”
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Davidson has a real honor code that is an ingrained part of the campus culture w/self scheduled exams similar to W&L. With regards to use of generative AI, many Davidson professors have issued guidelines on its use. The use of ChatGTP is for the most part permitted but any work produced by ChatGTP must be cited just like any other source material.
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I think that’s a great way to handle ChatGTP etc. It can certainly be a helpful tool for research and outlines.
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William and Mary has a student administered honor code that dates back to 1736 and is central to the campus culture. Incoming students all take a pledge at the beginning of freshman year. Like other colleges, individual professors are providing guidelines on permissable use of ChatGPT. The honor council publishes outcomes of cases at the end of each semester. My freshman is a double major in physics and econ and is not aware of any cheating going on in his classes.
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Chat GPT is really of limited use, at least in my discipline (history). Just to play around with it, I’ve asked it to generate sources for bibliographies – it has given me lists of books that are tangentially related to the topic, often overlapping lists for different questions, and not entirely the kinds of sources I was looking for (primary sources when I was asking for secondary, etc.). Same with outlines and such: generic, not original, not the product of actual research, not tailored to research questions.
Bottom line: using Chat GPT gets you out of doing the hard work of thinking through and organizing a paper – but not terribly well. Is this useful? I’m sure the tool will get more sophisticated, but right now, students are better off skipping it.
As far as a general culture of academic integrity is concerned, there may be some schools where such a culture exists, but generally, it comes down to individual departments and professors establishing policies and strategies to keep cheating at a minimum. How do they design research projects? Are in-class exams making a comeback? Do faculty use plagiarism detection (and AI detection)? Is there a cutthroat student culture (college-wide or at the departmental level) that would promote cheating even among high-achieving students? I think the answers to these questions will vary across departments and individual faculty at most universities, regardless of school culture.
Maybe look at Notre Dame.
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I think academic integrity extends to other parts of life as well - some schools make this an integral part of the campus and the students believe in it and live it both in class and out. It can be disappointing once in the real world to realize not every college or person supports it.
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Let’s not lose focus on the OP’s essential question:
OT posts include how HS teachers construct exams, the effectiveness of ChatGPT in detecting plagiarism, the benefits of AI, as examples. Such posts are subject to removal.
Perhaps it also matters that some students have more or less incentive to cheat.
Top academic achievers have less incentive to cheat if they can get good grades honestly without unrealistic effort. Some hooked students may not feel the need to cheat if their path in life is already bought (D and perhaps some L in the ALDC taxonomy), so gentlemen B or C grades are fine for them.
But would students on the margin of an actual or perceived grade or GPA threshold needed for some competitive goal like admission to major or professional school have more of an incentive to cheat?
Perhaps the mix of students and incentives matters in terms of whether cheating is common and how strict the rules have to be against it.
I’m asking about school culture. Isn’t that an acceptable inquiry?
In a related topic, for example, on some campuses of all types of schools, students are seen speaking with each other, interacting, etc. On others, they are seen walking alone looking at their phones and devices.
Peer pressure to do your own work can exist independent of councils and threat of dismissal. I’ve been at two universities where cheating was not condoned or acceptable. One had a council, one did not. Both are on DS’s list. It’s the others on his list that I don’t know enough about, which is why I asked. I’m glad I did- I see people speaking up for several of them here!
Your questions are fine. Some of the responses are not.
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Are there really any in say the top 200-300 that do this so poorly that it has an impact on the students that don’t cheat? To impact your grades, you would have to have large numbers doing it and the grading would have to be relative.
I am certainly not saying that cheating doesn’t happen at William & Mary (or at colleges like Davidson that have a similar honor system) There are always going to be cheaters. I only said that my kid has not witnessed or been aware of any cheating. Of course it happens, which is why I linked the info about the honor council outcomes.
This stands in sharp contrast to my older sons experience as an engineering student at an SEC school. He felt cheating was widespread and nothing was done about it. Extremely different campus cultures
Edited to add: undoubtedly certain groups of students may have more incentive to cheat. At my engineering kids’ school many students were on merit scholarships that they would lose (and could not earn back) if they dipped below a 3.0. I have no doubt that played in to the prevalence of cheating.
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This really doesn’t surprise me but it is helpful. Thanks for attaching it.
I’ve kept my DS at this one particular high school because cheating is not condoned or ignored. He’s learned citation skills (in text and MLA), how to credit when paraphrasing, how to select reliable sources, how to do his own brainstorming and organizing, how to collaborate and how not to, etc. I really hope he can get accepted to a college/program where he can keep all that going now that it’s habit.
This is certainly news to me.
My daughter had her (expensive) graphing calculator stolen out of her backpack (along with some other items) while she was studying in the library when she was a student at University of Rochester. (I remember it because the circumstances were especially annoying since I had to overnight ship her a new one because she had an exam coming up where she needed the calculator.)
Also all her exams were scheduled and all sections of math/science classes took the exam at the same time. (She experienced scheduled exams both as a student and as a TA/grader for the math dept.)
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You may want to read this New York Times article in its entirety:
Irrespective of the article’s title, I believe one or more colleges received favorable mentions.
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No firsthand knowledge, but I have read from posters here on CC that St. Olaf (MN) seems to have a strong honor code, as exemplified by students leaving their belongings unattended outside of the cafeteria with no worries about theft. Presumably, if the honor code works well for theft it would be promising for it to work well with academics.
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