<p>Recently, I've been weighing whether a college has an honor code in my decision process.</p>
<p>Does anyone know whether one exists at WUSTL, and whether it is actually enforced/taken seriously?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any comments.</p>
<p>I’m not aware of any specific honor codes, except through individual schools (ie olin grad school and the law school).</p>
<p>There are, of course, academic integrity policies.<br>
[Undergraduate</a> Student Academic Integrity Policy | Policies & Procedures | Washington University in St. Louis](<a href=“http://www.wustl.edu/policies/undergraduate-academic-integrity.html]Undergraduate”>http://www.wustl.edu/policies/undergraduate-academic-integrity.html)</p>
<p>It’s not quite the same as a living, breathing honor code (I went to a high school with one, so I know the clear difference), but it may as well be the same. Just as with schools with honor codes, students will either follow it or not. If you get caught cheating, good luck not completely failing the class.</p>
<p>In my honest opinion, full-blown honor codes are a load of crock. While there are students who take them seriously, cheating/plagiarizing happens everywhere. </p>
<p>The one neg. to not having an honor code is the lack of trust… it’s one thing I really miss from high school. However, I completely understand how the chem department claims that they make copies of each test to ensure that regrade requests are actually legit. Also, I really couldn’t care less if a ta is monitoring kids taking a test since it’s not like I’m cheating anyway.</p>
<p>The honor code in my high school (where teachers didn’t have any problem completely leaving a room during a test for an hour) wouldn’t stand a chance working in a school with 6000 undergrads. If you honestly really want a school with one, your best bet is to go to a small, liberal arts school with a really small population.</p>
<p>One final note- while there isn’t an honor code at washu, each professor has their own policy. Many make it completely clear that they have no problems turning students in to the integrity board, where it’s handled on a case-by-case basis.</p>
<p>Yeah I don’t know much about honor codes but i’m pretty sure we don’t technically have one. Which isn’t to say professors won’t give you take-home midterm exams and trust you to not compare answers with others (they sometimes do, actually), but still. What we do have is an “academic integrity policy,” and it is taken very seriously. (as Johnson181 said, and that pretty much covers it)</p>