I recently was caught cheating on a test. Here’s the story
As I am about to turn in my test, I turn around to get out of my desk and the person sitting right next to me does the same. I didn’t stand up but since I was already facing her, my eye caught a glance of his paper and I noticed that one of my answers was different. I went back and thought about my answer and realized that my answer was wrong so i changed it to the correct answer. Unfortunately for me, my teacher was watching me the whole time, and turned me into the office afterwards. I have always maintained an A in that class (AP Calc BC), and this was my first offense ever of cheating. I know I shouldn’t have done it and I sincerely regret those few seconds of stupidity. For that, I received a 0 on the test which dropped my final grade from an A to a C+. A few days later, I received my test back and found out that if I had just turned in my test, I still would have gotten an A on the test.
I am currently a junior and this year I have tried really hard to raise my grades up. I have always taken the hardest classes available to me. I had a pretty rough start Freshman/Sophomore year(3.6/3.5 gpa), but Junior year first trimester I got a 4.0 GPA. This event happened at the end of 2nd trimester and it is the only grade below an A that I received. For this Last trimester, my classes are relatively easier and thus I am certain I will get a 4.0 for the last trimester which will put me at around a 3.7 fresh-junior GPA. My Junior year transcript will look like AAAAA…C+…AAAA.
Will this event be extremely detrimental to my college admissions process? I am looking to apply to schools such as Cornell, Northwestern, etc.
I am extremely regretful of my actions, and I know I shouldn’t have done it (So please skip the lecture). But will this event completely kill my chances? (I have really good standardized test scores and extracurriculars)
If it goes on your behavioral record, yes it will kill your chances. If you just get a C+ it won’t kill your chances, but will ultimately affect it greatly.
As long as no disciplinary action (suspension, expulsion, etc) was enforced and your counselor doesn’t mention it on the counselor form, you should be fine. It word does get out though, it certainly will hurt you.
Normally, the big three offences that you should avoid are cheating, sexual harassment, and assault, for these are the ones that can globally hurt a university’s reputation.
The problem is that once you are caught cheating, your integrity becomes suspect. ALL of your grades are suspect. Whatever grades you had before are no longer credible. Most people would believe that you cheat all the time but only got caught once.
You can certainly recover from this. Do your best from now on with full integrity. Don’t worry about whether it will hurt you. Assume that it will and move on. So what. You’ve joined the ranks of the imperfect. Welcome to the club. It was a youthful mistake, but mistakes sometimes have consequences. Your life is not ruined by any means. You are still you. You will get in somewhere and you will start over plain and simple. There is more than one road in life. Good luck.
I disagree with @AnEpicIndian in post #3. Many applications (including, I believe, the Common App) REQUIRE candidates for admission to list ALL behavioral and/or academic integrity problems – REGARDLESS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL’S EVENTUAL DISCIPLINARY ACTION (if any). This means your are morally obligated to provide such information to colleges and universities, even if your secondary school essentially “gives you a pass.”
Furthermore, you REALLY do not want to ignore this requirement; you’re integrity is already appropriately suspect and, were you to not respond fully and honestly, this would likely be viewed as additional proof of your untrustworthiness. Whereas, an honest response will bolster the idea that this was a youthful, one-time problem, not a pattern of questionable ethics. Moreover, please understand that colleges and universities can ascertain an indication of this duplicity from “unlikely” sources (for example, a teacher’s recommendation or a Regional Admissions Officer’s conversations with faculty/administrators); your GC’s recommendation is far from the only potential documentation.
It’s interesting to me that post #3 specifically cites “cheating” as a major potential issue, yet it does not indicate that your applications should be scrupulously correct (even if your school takes no formal, adverse action).
Have you ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at any educational institution you have attended from the 9th grade (or the international equivalent) forward, whether related to academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct, that resulted in a disciplinary action? These actions could include, but are not limited to: probation, suspension, removal, dismissal, or expulsion from the institution.
I am making no judgment about disclosure, but if the incident doesn’t go into the record, I’m not sure that it is required to disclose it. However, you are correct - if the student asked the teacher in question for a recommendation , it might be mentioned in the recommendation and it is theoretically possible that the C+ could trigger a question about why the grade was so out-of proportion to the rest of the record.
And of course the C+ might well impact admissions decisions.