I’m a senior and long story short, my grade for advanced physics from last year is being changed to reflect a W/F because of accusations of cheating. We are appealing it but I just wanted to get some opinions on whether you thing my college, the single 1 that I applied to early decision and got accepted, will revoke my admission when they see that my 11th grade physics class changed from a 96 to a Withdraw/Fail. I am taking AP Physics C this year and all my grades are pretty good still and I plan to keep them that way through the year. Also, I dont know if its important information, but I have not gotten any great scholarships or grants or aid or anything that they would confiscate.
Why is a grade from last year changing now? If this did happen you need to notify your EA school as well as other schools you have applied and sent your transcript to. Talk to your guidance counselor immediately.
I would go talk to my guidence counselor and come up with a plan. Don’t do this on your own. It is complicated because you need to decide what message you will convey if you do contact the school. That involves the complexity of the accusation, your stance on what happened, and any remediation you are being forced to engage in or you are willing to engage in to make the situation right. Your guidence counselor os someone from the high school should be involved in the discussion with you and making a plan.
You need to answer the basic question: did you actually cheat at all?
If the answer is no, get your guidance counselor/principal/teachers all behind you and stop this wrong accusation. If you did, indeed, cheat, then a) shame on you and b) talk to your GC.
I didn’t cheat. But kids got caught cheating this year and have accused me of giving them the things they cheated off of. They still havent shown me any proof but apparently the school can convict and suspend without proof. Its completely BS but thats whats happened. The thing is I applied ED to ONE Ivy League and got in so i have no other acceptances. They arent being notified and my rec letters are all the same, just that grade from last year is being changed to reflect a W/F. I have all 5s on APs and all my grades are great for senior year. Too late to apply to even my safety schools so I dont know what to do
The school will receive the final transcript. Any discrepancy between your application and final transcript may raise a red flag. You better take a proactive approach.
First try to get it overturned. Be sure the school understands the ramifications to you. Get your parents involved now if they are not already and if necessary a lawyer. IMO I don’t see how a grade from last year can be changed at this point. If you think it will be overturned before your final transcript I don’t think I would contact the college. If it isn’t changed from W/F then you need to be proactive and put out your story before the college sees your final transcript.
^ I think this is good advice, including possibly consulting a lawyer - particularly if you truly did not assist anyone cheating in any way and there is no clear evidence that you did. This is a penalty that could impact your future, and such a severe measure should require some clear proof that you were actually involved.
On your other post you wrote “I had given some kid some files last year and the kids are blaming me. the school has no proof or evidence but is suspending me and changing my grade for physics last year from a 96 to a W/F.”
This makes it sound like you gave test materials to students.
You may have given someone your old tests but you did not force them to use them. They made that choice all on their own. Why would any teacher give the same exam two years in a row anyway? I agree with the advice to contact a lawyer if necessary. To fail you in a course you got an A in because someone else was caught cheating seems utterly unfair to me.
@lslmom that’s still aiding students cheat. If I gave someone my essay and he copied it, I didn’t force them to copy it, but I enabled him. I still would and should be punished alongside the person who copied my essay.
No!!! do not do that. Do not call a lawyer! But nobody should be speculating about how fair or unfair the situation is because we don’t know. Kids do cheat. If a bunch of students say they got the material from Student A, then perhaps they did. But we don’t know. But this I do know:
The student needs to consider whether or not the accusation is true. Not whether or not they have enough evidence. That is irrelevant. This is not a court and this is not a murder trial. Students have responsibility for conducting themselves in a way that does not result in others cheating from them, them cheating or doing things that lead to the perception of cheating. But none of that really matters. The issue that the student needs to consider is whether or not the accusations are true.
If the accusations are true, then there are certain things that will make the situation better and certain things that will make the situation worse. Worse is to make others prove the accusations. Worse is to call a lawyer. You’ll never know what was conveyed to the college by the high school even if they don’t rescind the offer. I’d not play that game.
Rather, think long and hard about why people would think cheating was such a huge deal. What happens when researchers fabricate study findings, for example. Or when someone who has cheated is put into an influential job, for example. What happens when people take credit for the work done by others. Try to develop an understanding of the full scope of problems caused by cheating.
Then, go and talk to your guidence counselor about the accusations. Find out about the academic dishonesty process in the high school. See if you can talk with the person or people who are in charge of the academic dishonesty process,. Tell the truth. Try to convey why what happened happened. What pressures did you feel that lead you to do what you did? Try to be genuine and considerate. Understand that you put the teachers and the administrators in a really lousy position. They can’t allow cheating to go unchecked but nobody likes to have to accuse anyone or take any action that can be painful for a student. But they can’t simply allow it and they can’t ignore it. So as it is crappy for you it is also crappy for them. They are people just like your own parents. Imagine how they’d feel having to deal with cheating and deal with the potential punishment and related pains. Because they are human, they also don’t want you to have to pay too big a price for a stupid kid thing. But if you are not repent-full they will feel less badly about the situation and they are more likely to feel that a slap on the wrist isn’t enough.
If you are not guilty you need to evaluate how it is that people are accusing you. Then you should explain that to your guidence counselor. Convey and own your contributions to the perceptions. If you really don’t think you contributed in any way, tell that to the counselor and express your confusion about why others would be implicating you. But don’t do that if you know how and don’t do that if the accusations are true.
The best thing you can do is to be thoughtful. Being thoughtful will elicit support from those involved. But being defensive and dishonest will do the opposite. Good luck. All students do stupid things at some point. If the accusations are true then this is your stupid thing, Get it behind you and learn from it. If the accusations are not true then this is someone else’s stupid thing and you still have yours coming at some point. Good luck!
@anxiousenior1 I disagree. Old exams are very useful as study guides. Most AP and SAT study guides consist of sample questions, some that have appeared on old exams. The student still needs to understand how to solve the problem. It only becomes an issue when the teacher is too lazy to make a new test each year.