Hello,
I am currently a freshman in high school. A few weeks ago I was caught sharing answers to homework with my friend. This counts as one cheating violation, and at my school you are allowed three before you are kicked out. My school is extremely difficult and competitive, but I have been valedictorian for the past 7 years at my old school. I am always a good student and I fully understand why cheating is unacceptable. But will this silly mistake made without thinking in freshman year really affect my college admissions? I’m really scared at the thought that I’ve messed it up this soon. Please help!
You’re a freshman and you made a mistake. Many students make this mistake or similar ones in high school. It’s what you do know that makes the difference. Don’t do it again. It MAY show up on your transcript, but you can’t worry about that now. What’s done is done.
Colleges are well aware that students make mistakes.
Now, continue being a good student. Do your best. Don’t cheat. You’ll be fine! Hopefully, you learned a lesson.
I had a friend with a 4.0 GPA and 36 ACT get rejected from everywhere and ended up going to a community college. The reason? He was caught freshmen year photocopying a Calc BC test and giving the answers to everyone in the class. Also, I made this entire thing up. You’ll be fine as long as you learned from it and don’t do it again
LOL @2coo4skoo your story was way too funny! Yeah they’re not gonna care if you cheated in freshman year. They probably won’t even know. I don’t think that your school would contact every college you applied to just to tell them you got a cheating violation in freshman year. You’re fine!!! 
I would not write this off completely. I may be inferring too much from your post but stating in the passive voice that you “were caught cheating” might imply that formerly you evaded detection better. So if the cheating was a pattern, you have some work to do.
I would be surprised if it stayed on your record. But talk to your guidance counselor and find out. Maybe there is some sort of “restitution” you could do to have it expunged.
Let me tell you the story of a kid I know who was a top athletic recruit. Harvard, Yale and all the big schools were drooling over him at the possibility of getting him as a recruit. Then the student was caught cheating. The coaches at Harvard, Yale and Princeton couldn’t get him past admissions. This is a true story.
Find out if this will be reportable to admissions offices (via your guidance counsellor). If yes, then reply back here to this thread and we can give you some advice on what to do to repair your image over the next 2+ years.
@CaliforniaSoul , it’s nice that you are enthusiastic, but please stop giving blithe answers to people when you really don’t know the ramifications of various actions. A counselor doesn’t individually alert colleges. Instead, the counselor sends out one letter of recommendation to every college, and it inlcudes information on disciplinary action. Every admissions offcier will look to see if there are disciplinary issues, so yes, they would know about it IF the counselor refers to it. OP, please don’t be freaked out over what I just wrote. Answers form some posters though can give false information. You are probably fine, but check with your GC to be sure. And be more careful in the future.
You’re a freshman! One small mistake your freshman year likely won’t make much of a difference. Obviously, cheating is a very serious issue but this seems like a momentary lack of judgement. Make sure from now on you don’t cheat and avoid situations where you might be pressured to cheat (i.e. watch out for “friends” that want to exchange answers etc). You have the rest of freshman year and two more schools years to rebuild your reputation and learn from your mistake. You haven’t “messed it all up” I promise. Just continue to work hard and obey the rules and you can make yourself into a great candidate for a college to look at someday. I don’t want to minimize what you did because you did do something wrong, but you shouldn’t be really scared that you’ve forever messed up your life. Just make sure you stay at one strike for cheating and improve your moral integrity. Also as an adult with life experience, I can’t stress enough that it’s better for you to give a set of problems or a test or whatever your best shot by studying the material effectively than to cheat. What if you cheated your way through geometry and then failed all the geometry problems on the SAT? As small as each piece of knowledge you learn is, it all builds on itself eventually. I really wish I had put more effort in my freshman year because I had to relearn a lot my sophomore year.