<p>Go to your counselor’s office. Ask her if you have any disciplinary/academic infractions on your record. If yes, you need to ask to have it removed.</p>
<p>Couldn’t the teacher look at the date/time you saved your essay at versus the date/time the other one was uploaded, and figure out the truth from there?</p>
<p>@Cody: logic doesn’t necessarily matter when it comes to teachers determining plagiarization, and there’s no way the teacher could know whether he’s computer savvy and able to change to date in the record. I have a friend who received a 0 on an in-class handwritten essay, because he “plagiarized from the internet.” Yet wrote it all in class. With the teacher watching.</p>
<p>Ok, I spoke with my counselor. He said that the black mark isn’t on my transcript, but it’s in the school’s database of all the broken rules committed by the school over the years, so it is recorded. When I apply to college, my counselor says that he must say yes if they ask explicitly whether I’ve had any of these honor codes in high school. However, here’s the catch. On the common app, it says disciplinary action (suspensions, etc.) due to these and mine didn’t result in any, so he told me that he would answer no on the common app. Am I safe? What is the best course of action next?</p>
<p>I’ve read this thread a few times and, cornetking, something strikes me as less than honest when I read your explanation as to what happened. Mind you, I’m not saying you’re lying, but as Northstarmom observes, something here doesn’t pass the smell test. I point this out only so you realize that (and like I said, I’m not accusing) if you are being less than honest here, that lack of honesty is being detected. Your explanation is not especially persuasive and might cause an application reader to think “BS” and hustle your papers into the reject pile.</p>
<p>Nobody likes a liar and if the admissions people THINK you’re lying, you’re cooked.</p>
<p>Now if you are truly being honest, you need to do a better job communicating what happened because it’s coming across like a poor attempt to minimize your conduct. Right now, the absolute best spin I can put on your story is that you gave your paper to someone else, they inserted plagiarized material, and then you passed the work as your own. Is that what happened? Or am I missing something?</p>
<p>Speihei, </p>
<p>Why would I lie on an online forum? What good will that do to me? I was especially naive in doing so, I’ll admit that. I made a mistake. I will admit that as well. I’m not looking for accusations as to whether this “story” is true or not. If you’re going to accuse me of spinning a false incident, please be my guest and not input anything.</p>
<p>How did your essay end up on turnitin? That’s the part that puzzles me.</p>
<p>Did you read my post? Your posts give the IMPRESSION that you’re not being up front about things. I’m not the only one who thinks so.</p>
<p>My post is intended to get you to be introspective about your explanation and communicate things a little better. I strongly suggest you take that point to heart if you intend to offer an explanation that will find its way into your admissions file.</p>
<p>I said that I wasn’t calling you a liar twice. I’ll say it a third time - I’m not calling you a liar. But you’ve got to clean up your writing lest others think so.</p>
<p>Okay,</p>
<p>I’m going to apologize and explain it again. The summer before my sophomore year of high school began, we had summer reading assignments in which we were required to type up an essay after reading the designated novels. In 9th grade, our teachers encouraged peer editing so I erroneously assumed that it was okay to exchange essays. However, all my peers were participating in this grand exchange of essays. Therefore, I thought to myself “I need to improve these” and began to have them edited by a few close friends. One day, this kid who I’m not particularly close with asked me if he could see my essay as he wanted to “help me improve mine” and asked me if I could edit his. I agreed and he used portions of my essay, not the entirety of it. I was not aware at all of his intentions and did not find out until after school began that turnitin.com indicated that my essay was around a 30% match to this other individual’s. At first, I could not come up with an answer to explain myself. I had forgotten that I exchanged papers with this person. We both got zeroes and the “honor code” black marks placed in the school’s database. It is not on my academic transcript. My counselor said that he wants the best for me and said that he will indicate no to the questions on the common app which inquire whether I have ever been SUSPENDED due to academic misbehavior (something along those lines). I was not suspended due to this incident so he would be truthful by answering no. What should I do now? What’s the best course of action to take after this? </p>
<p>Sorry for typing up an essay. :O</p>
<p>Now that explanation make a lot more sense. It also seems a lot less serious than I (and I’m guessing many others) thought.</p>
<p>So you’ve covered the counselor end of things. What the next step is, in my opinion, is finding out what schools may want more information than is requested by the common ap. and deal with those potential questions.</p>
<p>OK, so turnitin matched your essay with the other student’s essay, not with something from the internet – that makes more sense. I think you’re saying then that your only mistake was assuming that it was ok to share papers for editing.</p>
<p>(Cross-posted with speihei)</p>
<p>Again, sorry for the heated remarks, Speihei. I really want to shoot for the top tier schools, such as Princeton, my top choice. Which schools do you think will request more than the common app? My counselor is on my side by the way. Anymore suggestions?</p>
<p>Help please?</p>
<p>bump 10char.</p>
<p>What’s your issue? It’s not on your transcript, the colleges you apply to, including Princeton, will not know of this infraction. You are fine. Now, calm down and write your essays. :)</p>