<p>@wildfactor re #17: I’m sure your parents are very proud of you . . . and of the values, the principles, and they ethics they instilled. </p>
<p>@toptier very judgmental…</p>
<p>It’s much better to take responsibility now and decide to have integrity from now on. While cheating on this smaller test may not completely derail your college plans, getting caught cheating in college will ruin your life. Any punishment that you may receive for cheating in high school will be small compared to the serious punishments dealt out in college, especially those with strict honor codes. </p>
<p>I agree with @kdiddy34 . Honestly, idc whwat you say, EVERYONE has cheated to this minor extent some time before in their academic career, its just that some of us are better than others at it. As to answer OP’s question, depending on your school, there may or may not be an indication that you cheated, you will want to check your school’s cheating policy. Also, talk to your counselor as it might affect the recommendation, and just admit that you did wrong and that it wont happen again. also you suck at cheating just sayin who writes answers on desks that’s just plain dumb.</p>
<p>Some of the responses on this thread make me depressed…</p>
<p>@alicksmeow (in #23): “EVERYONE (your caps) has cheated to this minor extent some time (sic) before in their (sic) academic career.”</p>
<p>I fear that cheating, dishonesty and illicit behavior are far more common among today’s high-schoolers and undergraduates than they were in earlier generations. That’s both terribly unfortunate and it suggests serious problems for our society in the future.</p>
<p>With that said, @alicksmeow, your quoted statement (above) is completely unsubstantiated and utterly inaccurate. I challenge you to present any documentation that validates your statement, indicating 100 percent of us have cheated academically. You have made a very bold assertion, and I await your proof of its veracity. It’s time for you to “put up or shut up” (to employ a long-used idiom). </p>
<p>@wildfactor (in #17): “That’s minor, I cheat on finals”</p>
<p>I fail to see how it’s “judgmental” to be critical of proudly self-proclaimed cheating or of the utter lack of values, principles and ethics that allows one to gain an illicit advantage on final examinations (your post #21 applies). You – not I – boastfully stated that you’ve repeatedly committed academic fraud. </p>
<p>I agree with @TopTier on 1-5 of post #3, but #6 might be unnecessary. If the OP approaches this issue forthrightly with his counselor, the issue might become moot.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t plan on it, but it could happen, especially if the OP follows TopTier’s steps 1-5.</p>
<p>@sherps: Yes, I entirely agree . . . unless the school or the school system has a regulation that, for example, makes any sort or academic dishonesty a “mandatory transcript notation” (it is my understanding that some have such policies). </p>
<p>@TopTier you gotta do what you gotta do. I obviously don’t cheat for fun, but to save myself from failing or even worse. I regret cheating 100% of the times I do it, but in order for me to get the grade, I have to get my hands dirty. No one is perfect and i’m sure you do some twisted crap if it involved your future. So yeah, your being judgmental… you don’t want to know why I did it, but instead to jump to conclusions. I posted “That’s minor, I cheat on finals” to reassure the OP that they could of done worst. </p>
<p>@bobkop at the end of the day, If you want to do the steps @TopTier listed for “cheating” on a quiz that is probably 11% or less of your Quarter/ Semester/ Trimester grade go ahead. You’ll be wasting your time on a minor situation that you can just easily say “sorry”. Your essay should not be about some quiz you cheated on, If you have a good relationship with your counselor and don’t normally cheat and get caught then your recommendation should be fine, and as long as the teacher you have isn’t your recommender- you should be fine. The next time you get in this situation go to your parents and friends, not here- because everyone on CC is very opinionated and closed minded and have strong personalities that are waiting to clash with yours. </p>
<p>Remember: Do you really want to write an apology essay to your top school to redeem your dignity on a online forum?</p>
<p>@wildfactor Why don’t you just study? Therefore, you won’t even have to worry about the possibility of possibly failing. And I personally, would rather fail a test than cheat. At least I would know my grade is a reflection of what I actually know rather than what someone else knows. And most of us on CC aren’t close-minded. I just don’t understand why you would sacrifice your academic integrity for one grade. But that’s just me, you are free to have your own opinion. </p>
<p>P.S. I hope you don’t plan on cheating your way through Harvard if you do attend. </p>
<p>No, it will not be on your transcript. Nothing really is but your grades. My D was suspended twice, once for smoking pot in bathroom…I know! Horrible choice she and friends made. Still got in to many top schools including University of Michigan and University of Chicago and a few others. </p>
<p>@TopTier While I agree with your advice to the OP, your attack on the future of society seemed a bit unwanted and over-the-top. The morals of these children stem from their parents or already present societal/cultural expectations. So instead of attacking the children, attack the parents as well.</p>
<p>With that said, some of the other high schoolers in this thread need to get a grip. There’s no such thing as a minor cheating infraction and a major one. Every time you cheat you knowingly run the risk of being caught and you know school policy. Many people do cheat, but when you get caught you need to take responsibility for the fact that you were told not to yet chose to anyway. Every time you cheat you mentally run this cost - benefit analysis of your options, getting caught is one of the costs. This is nobodys fault but your own. </p>
<p>Atlantic, people-including students-shouldn’t cheat because of “the risk of getting caught”. Nor is this any kind of “cost/benefit analysis” either. They shouldn’t cheat because it is wrong; they are defrauding themselves, the school, and the other students in the class that didn’t cheat.</p>
<p>And if parents’ attitudes are that it is ok unless/until you get caught, they should be ashamed of themselves too.</p>
<p>@glassculpture (re #31): You’re wrong; in some school systems – obviously not yours – such behavioral and ethical issues are mandatory “transcript notations.” We don’t know if the OP’s system does, or does not, report such things. </p>
<p>@TheAtlantic (post #32): Point taken, in general I agree with you (and I always have, I just didn’t include this in my posts to this thread). Specifically, your first paragraph is certainly correct, with regard to parental teaching, leadership. ethical values, and influence. However, this does not entirely absolve youngsters (as you suggested); they retain some responsibility (e.g., my parents were thieves is hardly a defense for an offspring’s felonious conduct).</p>
<p>Wildfactor - “you gotta do what you gotta do. I obviously don’t cheat for fun, but to save myself from failing or even worse. I regret cheating 100% of the times I do it, but in order for me to get the grade, I have to get my hands dirty. No one is perfect and i’m sure you do some twisted crap if it involved your future.”</p>
<p>Do you honestly think it gets easier at college, especially at a top-tier college? If you have to cheat in High School, it is going to get a lot worse in college, and even worse trying to hide faults in your relationships and once you start your professional career.</p>
<p>@TopTier Thanks</p>
<p>@ColdinMinny where did I say people shouldn’t find it morally wrong to cheat? I simply said that they assume the risks.</p>
<p>@wildfactor in #29: “You gotta do what you gotta do. I obviously don’t cheat for fun, but to save myself from failing or even worse. I regret cheating 100% of the times I do it, but in order for me to get the grade, I have to get my hands dirty. No one is perfect and i’m sure you do some twisted crap if it involved your future. So yeah, your (sic) being judgmental… you don’t want to know why I did it, but instead to jump to conclusions. I posted “That’s minor, I cheat on finals” to reassure the OP that they could of (sic) done worst.”</p>
<ol>
<li> I don’t “do some twisted crap;” I never have, because it’s plainly wrong and because – in the long run – it’s also self-defeating.</li>
<li> It absolutely doesn’t matter why you “did it” (or do it). It’s simply morally corrupt and, unless your dishonesty is absolutely required (in criminal law, that’s called the “necessity” defense, and it ONLY applies in extreme situations, such as saving innocent life), there is NO valid excuse or rationalization – NONE whatsoever. If your logic were correct, then some years from now it would be acceptable and understandable to murder a competitor for your next job promotion . . . after all, “you gotta do what you gotta do.”</li>
<li> What do those grades you’ve illicitly received provide? Let’s presume – no guarantee – all your cheating gains admission to a better college. You’re probably not intellectually or scholastically equipped to compete at the more-selective university’s level; after all, if you were, your repeated dishonesty would have been unnecessary. So, you may “flunk out” and/or you may continue to cheat (much more likely, since you’ve already rationalized such immoral behavior AND its habitual) and perhaps be expelled for academic fraud. Now your life becomes really be compromised. How likely is a student expelled for academic dishonesty to be admitted to another institution? How likely is he to get a decent job (employers often require your transcript, too)? </li>
<li> Finally, you are also wrong to believe that you “reassure(d) the OP that they (sic) could have done worse.” What you’ve actually done is supported the OP to continued dishonesty . . . behavior you clearly stated you regret “100% of the times I do it.” Therefore, in fact, you are encouraging the OP to do things you ALWAYS are sorry you did. Some help that is. Fundamentally, cheating is cheating, whether it’s on an inconsequential quiz or on a final examination. Is stealing $1,000 less immoral than theft of $10,000? </li>
</ol>
<p>Wake up, kid. Serial dishonesty is flagrant immorality and – also important – it frequently leads to disaster. If you believe I am incorrect, please consider where Bernie Madoff will spend this year’s – and every year’s, for the rest of his life – Christmas holidays.</p>
<p>THANK YOU @alicksmeow , someone understands what I’m saying.</p>
<p>Honestly @TopTier, I can respect your opinion, but I find it a little bit out of touch with reality.</p>
<p>Franz Boas once said: "“The behavior of an individual is determined not by his racial affiliation, but by the character of his ancestry and his cultural environment.”</p>
<p>My parents are law-abiding citizens to the fullest and deplore cheating and in fact are very similar to you in mindset.</p>
<p>However, I’ve been brought up in a culture that views this particular type of cheating as a minor infraction. And honestly, I view it as a very minor infraction. My peers and I who are all top x% in their class and have ceiling-high ACT/SAT scores have had it drilled in our heads that school is a large competition. We are all short on time and patience as 15-18 year olds and even with a great deal of studying, which may I add, few of us have time for, it is immensely difficult to succeed to the extent we are expected to in an environment that values grades as indicators of success. </p>
<p>What’s the way out? Attempting to obtain an advantage. Or in layman’s terms: cheating.
To me there is blatant cheating and indirect cheating, both of which happen in schools, and believe me when I say this, the vast majority of schools. Do I have “proof” as you seek? No. But I do possess the knowledge required to make that inference. Blatant cheating involves things like pulling out a phone in class and googling the answers, copying a paper off the internet, etc. These things I can agree are just dumb and deplorable because you get caught quite often. Indirect cheating is simply asking a friend for what was on the test, asking for questions on the test, etc. It’s honestly not a big deal. You act like asking my friend what was on a test is an offense punishable by being reported to a guidance counselor. In my school we pass around old tests that teachers have handed back and haven’t changed in years. In one specific case, our school found out and did nothing. Literally, nothing. I can tell you this fact, out of the 105 kids in all 4 of this teachers’ classes, there are exactly four people who never had the old tests. None of those four students got an A in his class, and they’re all going to local colleges, while many of the cheating students have gone to Ivy League schools, and in two cases, Duke University. </p>
<p>So I commend your desire for honesty and strict interpretation of the academic laws of high school, but however, you’d be a fool to not think that the majority of high school and college students cheat in school. Again, I respect you, but what OP did is a very very minor infraction, and I hope he/she doesn’t have to face any major consequences.</p>