<p>Alright, a few kids from my school will apply to top schools (Stanford, Berkeley). I am rank 7, but most of the kids above me copy homework regularly and even cheat on tests. These are the 5-AP class kids, the 4.7 GPA kids, the straight A kids. I've had my share of B's on my transcript, and I deserve to have them there, but those kids definitely deserve them more than I do. How can colleges know that the students with "higher academic achievement" than me cheat in every class? I know integrity and character is important to them, but how will they differentiate between who has character and who doesn't?</p>
<p>Colleges most likely won’t know that those kids cheated. The only thing that will give them an idea about character is a bad essay or recommendation (if they get caught). There really isn’t much you can do about their cheating.</p>
<p>they don’t, people say the recs are what differentiates the cheaters from the honest people, but they simply do not. Colleges do not know and that is a flaw in the admissions system.</p>
<p>I know several big time cheaters that got into ivies.</p>
<p>“I know integrity and character is important to them, but how will they differentiate between who has character and who doesn’t?”</p>
<p>They won’t. By the way, cheaters do have character as well, they aren’t soulless beings with black holes for hearts. Being ranked 7 is good enough- you don’t need to prove that ranks 1-6 are cheaters in order to look better than them.</p>
<p>Please don’t put any effort or energy into the cheaters. Do your best. Take challenging classes and ones that interest you. Delve into ECs that you love and rewrite your essays until you feel they are fabulous. Find colleges that will be a good fit for YOU that you can afford with no or minimal debt. Time spent on these kids is of no value. There will always be people who try to take shortcuts. Eventually they will get theirs and you will shine!</p>
<p>Seriouly, take FlMathMom’s advice. anytime spent tearing down other students – for whatever reason – is time that you’re not putting into yourself. Things like this will happen throughout your life; there will be times when you can step up and put a stop to it, and times when you just have to do the right thing and seek the best outcome for yourself. </p>
<p>If you’re really concerned about the ethics of cheating (and you don’t sound as if you are to me; would you be so mad if the cheaters were below you in the ranks?) you should report any instances that you personally observed (not rumors) to the teachers when you see it. If you won’t do that, then just forget about it, and regardless of what you do just make sure that the principle focus is on you and your achievements.</p>
<p>just report cheating whenever you see it…but don’t report based on hearsay because then your own character could be called into question by your teachers</p>
<p>It will catch up to them later in life because they will continue to cheat.</p>
<p>Do the best you can and don’t worry about everyone else.</p>
<p>Be the best person you can be. Don’t cheat cause other are. It doen’t help you.</p>
<p>dont tattle on them though like woodrow said. i mean, that is pretty lame. focus on yourself and they will lose in the end.</p>
<p>there shouldn’t be any stigma in telling the truth. when my father realized his competitor was breaking regulations, he reported them to the regulating agency. it was shrewd business, not “tattling.” And if someone were cheating their way past me in a class rank, then they deserve it.</p>
<p>the idea that they will “lose in the end” is a fallacy. there is no cosmic balancing act that doles out karmic punishments. cheaters often win in the end, so if you see them cheating, stop them.</p>
<p>Some colleges have honor codes that require students to report cheating. In HS, my son reported it once b/c it was so blatant. The teacher was not paying attention at all and the students were opening up books/notebooks on the floor to get answers. All of the students had to retake the test the next day. It was very obvious who cheated and who didn’t. Only the second grade counted. The teacher monitored the tests more effectively after that.</p>
<p>Focus on yourself. Be positive.</p>
<p>They (most likely) won’t be able to cheat on the SAT.</p>
<p>As WoodrowW said above–if you tolerate cheaters, they will just continue to succeed dishonestly. They continue cheating at the top colleges to gain entry into top professional schools, and voila, you have experienced cheaters practicing law, medicine and business. Lovely.</p>
<p>During exams at college, do you think the students who take four or five bathroom breaks during a 3 hour exam really have a bladder problem?? While plagairism is often caught and punished on the college level, other types of cheating go unnoticed.</p>
<p>If a cheater is caught and experiences the consequences at a young age, they are more likely to stop. You are doing society at large a favor by stopping the cheater.</p>
<p>There will be cheaters all throughout your life. There were cheaters in almost every class I took at SMC…ohh and when I took Stats @ UCLA Ext I swear like more than half he class seemed to be cheating.</p>
<p>Just learn to ignore it, don’t tell on them…most likely the professor will be more annoyed with you. Just move on</p>
<p>He’s still in high school, so I’d suspect the administration might be happy to stop the cheating.</p>
<p>[The</a> Emperor’s Club - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor’s_Club]The">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor’s_Club)</p>
<p>Watch this movie if you can. People can keep cheating their whole lives.</p>
<p>Can, and do cheat their whole lives. A few like Rajaratnam and Madoff eventually do their perp walks after scamming the folks who sat idly by in their early days of cheating.</p>
<p>Thank you for posting this topic, the same issue has tormented my son. Cheating now is rampant, and it almost seems as though the teachers don’t want to know. In many of my son’s classes the teachers hand out the same homework packets and issue the same tests year after year. The socially well connected kids all have copies of past tests and know exactly what to study. Is this cheating? Not really, but it is is a huge disadvantage for the out-crowd kids and the kids that think it is just plain wrong. Some of the teachers have begun to crack down on plagiarism using web-based screening, but the punishment amounts to a slap on the hand. My son’s school will end up with about 8 valedictorians and a huge number of runner-ups. Many certainly deserve their standings, but many others do not. It would be impossible to report all of the cheaters; I blame an apathetic administration and lazy teachers.</p>
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<p>Could be the after-effects of a caffeine-fueled all-nighter…</p>