<p>OK. So. I got caught cheating at school. It wasn't very serious. (Well actually, all forms of cheating are serious but yeah). And basically I turned in my friend's worksheet. I was working on it with him and we were checking over the answers during lunchtime (we had same answers since we worked on it together as our teacher encouraged us to). Well it was time to turn it in and my friend noticed it was in pencil when teacher wanted it in pen. My friend, who had the class in a later period, just told me to take his and turn it in. And I (being completely stupid and making a rash decision) did. I'd been totally out of my mind that week because I'd been seriously sick and was still fazed. Anyways, my teacher noticed and wrote me up. My counselor understood apparently but still had to talk about it in the midyear report. But she basically agreed to write a detailed letter talking about how I knew it was wrong and how I learned my lessons. I also really convinced my counselor not to do anything to my friend since that'd really be unfair for him and that punishment should stick to me. I also faxed in a letter explaining what had happened and what I had learned.</p>
<p>As decisions date gets closer I'm seriously worried. My counselor said that colleges would either not care about things of this level or that it wouldn't be very damaging (it wouldn't kill my chances). I've 3.8 uw gpa, hardest courseload all four years, 1000 community service hours, really good ec's, won national/international award, and published stuff in professional fields. I think my recommendations were also really good. How serious is this???</p>
<p>i mean for like top tier schools. Thanks</p>
<p>What does worrying about it accomplish?</p>
<p>Forget about it. You’ve done everything you can do. Knowing “how serious it is” won’t change anything.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’d be that serious. I mean, like Pancaked said, you’ve done all you can. You had some extenuating circumstances, and everyone makes mistakes. Don’t worry too much about it. Wish you best.</p>
<p>At my son’s school you would get a suspension for that and you would be required to write to your colleges telling them about it. One more violation and you would be dismissed (euphemism for expelled). Be glad you are not at a prep school. I am not certain how much it affects admissions. It is definitely a strike against you, especially at the most competitive schools, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a dealbreaker.</p>
<p>yeah. i would have gotten suspended but my counselor and the principal decided not to. The case is the same at my school. I really hope adcom see I made a stupid mistake and learned from it =(</p>
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<p>I personally go to a prep school, and once the school receive’s our money, they could care less what goes on. It’s actually quite sad. Even when kids are caught with drugs etc, the school really does nothing.</p>
<p>does my principal writing a letter of explanation of the situation and how I learned from it help at all? thanks</p>
<p>If your counselor has written a letter and you’ve faxed in a letter, I doubt a letter from the principal would help at all.</p>
<p>the best thing to do is to BEG your school to not put it in your record because if colleges especially good ones sees that you cheated, they don’t care if you are sorry and learned your lesson, they will start to doubt if your other grades also involves cheating. cheating is the worst offense that you can do because it tarnishes your credibility and pretty much ruins your chances at any top 25 schools</p>
<p>what I mean is does a letter from a school official help?</p>
<p>^i also thought that way but ppl i talked to (adcom among them) made me think otherwise. I’m just wondering I badly it will affect me.</p>
<p>BEG and do get that letter. any top 25 schools probably won’t accept you if they see that. the letter might help a little but the fact that you cheated pretty much kills your image in admissions</p>
<p>He’s already applied and is waiting for decisions.</p>
<p>I already got the letters sent. and the midyear report is already in if you haven’t read the OP. If I send in a letter and then a new midyear report that excludes the event goes to the colleges, they’d think it’s weird. Here’s a letter explaining something but there’s no indication of the event anywhere. As I said, it was a one-time really stupid mistake (caused by serious fatigue and long term illness). I had X-rays/ultrasounds the whole day before and took the entire week off. Wasn’t in my right mind. Darn. Adcom are humans too right? =(</p>
<p>ilikepizza, are you a senior?</p>
<p>Am I missing something? I don’t see why this is an issue at all. You were working on the assignment together, which was allowed, and you had the same answers. You turned in your friend’s sheet because it was in pen (couldn’t you have just quickly gone over your answers in pen?) - so that was a bit silly - but “cheating?” No.</p>
<p>Well apparently this is because it wasn’t MY individual sheet. =(
the counselor was “lenient” and understood hence no suspension. argh.</p>
<p>yes I’m a senior. wait if you didn’t have suspension, then they might not even have put that into your record</p>
<p>there IS no “record”. It’s information sent via midyear report saing there was a compromise in my integrity. I dont mean to sound rude or anything (i’m just really exasperated right now) but I don’t know if you know what youre talking about. sigh im just hoping for the best.</p>
<p>To me it sounds like your school is trying to come down hard on cheating in order to put a stop to it, but it sounds like they are going overboard. If the counselor honestly explains exactly what happened, I don’t think a college will be bothered by it. </p>
<p>On the other hand, when there is a low ratio of staff (or admissions people) to applications, it might be an early way of filtering out applications at the beginning. But maybe that part of the process happened before your mid-year report was sent.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this would be comforting or not, but a school that would discount you for this might not be the school you really want to go to? It sounds like your record is generally very strong and you would be an asset to any school. Good luck - you don’t have too long to wait!</p>
<p>just wondering. would this still be the case for places like HYPS? i have VERY solid rec letters (one from a stanford professor who is very well known and is known as a leader in his field) which can perhaps show that this was an unintentional stupid thing.</p>