<p>Hey, so I got a 4.25 average hs gpa, took 8 APs (scored almost all 5's), varsity swimmer, 250 hours of community service, and a 2100 sat score. But I got caught cheating sophomore year, and it is on record (Yeah I know that I am effing retarted). How do you think this going to affect my admissions to UCs?</p>
<p>If I were you I would try to contact an admissions officer in each of the schools you are applying to and ask them if there institution recognizes some sort of “statute of limitations” and will not hold something that happened your Sophomore year in high school against you in college admissions or whether they believe it deserves an academic “life sentence” that would result in them rejecting you despite your otherwise strong qualifications. A lot of how they may react could depend on the the specifics of the incident. Some things might be more forgivable than others.</p>
<p>Yeah the incident occurred when I turned in a worksheet that I copied from my classmate. Personally I think the teacher was way out of line because in reality we both did half the worksheet and swapped answers, which don’t get me wrong is bad, but it wasn’t a test or anything. Unfortunately, the disciplinary transcript doesn’t list the specifics so I could have hacked into the digital grade report for all they know.</p>
<p>The offense does not sound that egregious to me and I am surprised it is even on your disciplinary transcript. Since you are correct that colleges could easily imagine the incident to be far more serious than it was, I think if you get a chance to explain it on your applications you should confront it, give the specifics and make sure that the guidance counselor at your high school will confirm your account of the specifics if someone from the admissions office of a school you apply to contacts them.</p>
<p>Sounds like a good idea but I’m pretty sure UC’s don’t accept letters from counselors confirming academic integrity. But I’ll give it a shot anyways.</p>