<p>Thank you for all of your responses! I definitely don’t support cheating, but I know that the girl who did cheat is still very smart and deserves to be in the Top 10. She might have been desperate and did it as a one-time thing, or she might have done it through all of high school, but the truth is, we CC’s all feel pressured to succeed, to accomplish the highest goals possible, and the girl caved in to it. She made a mistake, one that could hurt others in her grade, but she’s human and she’ll keep making mistakes like we sadly will. I won’t look up to her for cheating, but I won’t look down on her, either. Her life is her life, and my life is mine. I’ve decided to let it go (allusion intended) and work on bringing my own class rank up. I don’t think ill of the girl, either. I know she really wants to go to Princeton like I do, and I wish her the best. If she gets in and struggles to keep up, well, there’s nothing I can do about that. All I can do at this point is work hard to fulfill my own dreams. Thanks for the support again, you guys are awesome! Virtual hug for each of you :)</p>
<p>Cheaters come with all different IQs, GPAs, and work ethics. I was a co-valedictorian and two of the other girls I know for a fact never cheated (we were besties). There were a couple others that were too smart to need to cheat (one took 14 APs and passed all of them with 4s and 5s, and hardly took any of the corresponding classes, nor did he really self-study that much). And then some probably cheated. So…its only as common as in all the other levels of students, IMO.</p>
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What do you mean? Top 10 is just about grades (and some schools consider course rigor), not intelligence or personal merit. </p>
<p>Our school is a mix. The very top kids don’t cheat, the next level does, then some honest kids, then some cheaters right at that magic 7% get into UT mark. It varies from year to year. S! year, not much cheating, much collaboration. By that I mean the top kids were friends and helped each other instead of undercutting each other. S2 year is a cheater year.</p>
<p>@halcyonheather Hmm…you have a point. I know Top 10 is all about grades, but the senior girl is still smart, IMO. What I mean is, if she’s at the top of the class, then she doesn’t necessarily not belong there, if you know what I mean. Or maybe she just shouldn’t be there. I don’t know. I’m not really defending her, but I’m taking about the same workload she has, and it’s fairly tough. So she must have worked hard for the most part, unless she found a way to cheat through everything. Anyway, I still think she did a terrible thing, but I don’t want to be unfair to her by undermining her intelligence. I don’t want to be unfair to anyone, really. I’m just looking at both sides of the issue. But if you think she shouldn’t be in the Top 10, then that’s fine. I just think that I don’t know enough to make a judgment. Like study groups, are those considered cheating? I heard the girl was in those a lot, and I don’t know if she copied or anything. Anyway. I’ll agree with you for the most part.</p>
<p>@Marrissa No, that’s not really cheating, but is it fair for the other kids who don’t collaborate with their friends and work alone? Something to ponder about…</p>