<p>^^ and I disagree that a kid who makes a mistake in the 10th grade needs to have a consequence as severe as being eliminated from consideration for top schools.<br>
Do you live in Kansas by any chance?</p>
<p>“Eliminated from…top schools”? I didn’t say that, only HYPS.</p>
<p>Again, let me restate, the OP came here and now knows how to “spin” this application “blemish” thanks to the astonishing info highway provided by the WWW. He didn’t state his plan outright, it’s been molded and formed to have it’s best effect by the answers provided here.
There’s something very disingenuous about that to me and, honestly, it gives me pause. I may be wrong but, I won’t withhold my opinion just to be politically correct.</p>
<p>And no, I’m a very proud NY’er. I was prouder until NY voted H. Clinton to represent us in the US Senate</p>
<p>So it would be OK if MIT admitted this young felon? Or Williams? Just so he doesn’t contaminate HYPS?</p>
<p>“Felon”? Really? Guys, can we dial it back a little? I think the sarcasm is getting a little thick!</p>
<p>Last I checked, sarcasm wasn’t a TOS violation here.</p>
<p>Felon? Knife? It’s curious that you keep bringing in irrelevant elements to the topic at hand.</p>
<p>MIT? sure, whatever you like. How 'bout Columbia, Northwestern & CalTech, too?</p>
<p>My point is that there are lots of reasons a student might have to check the box. One CC parent contacted me after her resourceful son got suspended for selling alcohol outside the school dance. Another got in a food fight in the cafeteria and was suspended. A boarding student had a girl in his room. None of these things kept the students out of highly selective schools and I don’t believe the incident in question here will, either.</p>
<p>The reason there needs to be some strategy is because it is crucial to be consistent with what the school will report to the college.</p>
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<p>And sometimes they give it for none of those reasons, but because it all seems like game at which they happen to be good, and a friend is perhaps less good.</p>
<p>…cheating is still cheating. And teenagers are still teenagers.</p>
<p>Let’s quit trying to dissect/deconstruct/spin cheating as “its ok if I’m a giver” but “not if I’m a receiver.” </p>
<p>None of it is OK. Regardless of the motivation. Explaining motivations is simply offering up excuses. Give up the excuses, and take personal responsibility. And all of it is forgiveable. Once. Tell the story, tell it honestly, tell what was learned, and deal with it. Whatever comes.</p>
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<p>Did I say that? It just seems like we’re talking past each other by being excessively glib and facetious.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone here really thinks that academic dishonesty is as bad as committing a felony or that bringing a knife to school is similar at all to cheating on a test. Any such comparisons are obviously hyperbolic and are more insulting than illuminating. </p>
<p>I agree that this issue shouldn’t (and probably doesn’t) actually disqualify anyone from HYPS but I also think that it probably won’t help his chances. No, I don’t think that kids who get in trouble for academic dishonesty should be written off but it does look bad and if it’s on your record it will have to be mitigated in some way to ensure that, as you said earlier, the admissions people know that the kid has grown up from being the person who made that mistake.</p>
<p>BTW, I’m a Hoosier by birth and also went to IU. I respectfully decline to tell you what years!</p>
<p>I do agree there are “checked boxes” for minor infractions. However, I wouldn’t classify any type of academic dishonesty as minor.</p>
<p>I was also an adcom member many, many years ago at my SUNY university alma mater. Quite honestly, I don’t recall disciplinary/criminal history ever being an issue on any applications. Hmmm? Was it even reported back then?</p>
<p>So if I’ve got 25 perfectly fine candidates for a single slot (after having accepted my total geniuses, developmental admits, hockey goalie, and Senators’ sons and daughters), why shouldn’t I screen out those who are guilty of academic dishonesty? Chances are, if he got caught, he likely did it more than once, but even if not, when I’m swamped with great applicants, why wouldn’t I screen these out? I reject candidates by the minute for a lot less.</p>
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<p>Hah. What you want is for the kid to crawl and claim that he “now knows it was wrong” and all that stuff. What if the kid says that he helped a friend who needed help with what he saw as a fairly meaningless game of gotcha, and he’d do it again?</p>
<p>Folks on this thread might enjoy reading:</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Decline and Fall (9780316926072): Evelyn Waugh: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-Evelyn-Waugh/dp/0316926078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316656951&sr=8-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-Evelyn-Waugh/dp/0316926078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316656951&sr=8-1)</p>
<p>(It supposedly took place at my Oxford college.)</p>
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<p>That probably won’t turn out too well for him. Colleges tend to at least act very strict on cases of academic dishonesty. It’s one thing to give a terse, formal explanation (no crawling, no begging, just lay out the facts with a minimum of fat); it’s quite another thing to blow it off and say that you would do it again (presumably in college). Even if he had a good reason, they might compare him less favorably to students with similar resumes who didn’t react that way.</p>
<p>Maybe it is my college background at a school with a very exacting honor code (we will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate among us those who do). I agree some things done as a teen should be overlooked. But it is certainly in the college’s interest to ask for the info and to decide what to do with the info.</p>
<p>"What if the kid says that he helped a friend who needed help with what he saw as a fairly meaningless game of gotcha, and he’d do it again? "</p>
<p>Then I suggest said kid give more consideration to “insert County name here” Junior College…otherwise often known as “Harvard on the Loop.”</p>
<p>Because its really not going to reflect well on them.</p>
<p>He might even be talking himself into believing that giving information is not as bad as receiving it.</p>
<p>Tell that to folks involved in giving away state secrets…</p>
<p>ProudMomofS, I took a standardized test for a friend who is now circa 60±yr-old highly-paid medical specialist with medical degrees from two Ivies and a masters from MIT. Purely out of friendship, and no gain of any kind on my part. I was reliably able to score an average of 750+ per section on the GREs. (Pre-recentering) She wasn’t. I regarded it as a trick pony kind of thing.</p>
<p>So much for CC Jr. College.</p>
<p>Did you get caught? Did you admit to it on admissions? Did you say you’d do it again?</p>
<p>If the answer to all three of those is yes…honestly yes…then I’d be surprised.</p>
<p>Hubris about cheating is really unattractive–especially on 19 year olds who are asking for something. And on adults who are bragging about pulling something over on others.</p>
<p>My opinion. Your mileage may vary.</p>