<p>I think it would be better if the person would rather talk to the guy/girl doing wrong and have that person make his/her choice.</p>
<p>I wonder, what standard of proof would be required for someone to ethically accuse someone else of cheating?</p>
<p>Although lying is wrong, I think that it is very dangerous to turn someone in since your identity could easily be tracked. Honestly, you need to really leave cases like these alone, and have the guidance department take care of it. Your role as a student is to excel in what you do best, not to act as a policeman, especially if you are the same class level as the person in question. I have to agree with Executive to a certain degree, but Northstarmom also has a very good point as well.</p>
<p>so should i try to tell the college or should i let the college find out for itself?</p>
<p>Collegeboy, how would you prove that someone lied on their applications? Seriously. Have you seen the actual application? A person can say one thing and have the truth be another thing entirely. Unless you’ve actually seen the application, you should butt out. Here’s a scenario in my family: I have a daughter who is in an IB program and does well. She has a classmate in the same program who also does well. Nice girl. The nice girl has a mother who’s out of her mind. The woman physically attacked my husband when my daugher received high school admissions and accolates that her daughter didn’t. I know in my bones that if this woman finds out where my daughter applies, she will be calling colleges and messing with my daughter’s applications. There is serious history of this type of behavior and it scares me very much. My point is this: unless you can prove without a shadow of a doubt that something unethical happened, SHUT UP and mind your own business. And I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most students don’t see other students’ actual applications. This is a serious matter and you should focus on your own business and not someone else’s. You can do real damage with accusations. what if it turns out that the person lied for reasons of their own or something was misunderstood, but that their application is completely on the up and up and you caused them trouble? Do you get to go back and say “Oops, never mind?” I just don’t see any good coming out of interfering in something that is not your business.</p>
<p>I agree with zoosermom. It’s virtually impossible for any student to be certain that another student lied on their college app. Even if the student is claiming to have lied on their app, they may be pulling everyone’s leg.</p>
<p>Of course, when it comes to cheating in high school, that’s a different situation. If, for instance, someone brags that they have stolen an advance copy of a teacher’s test or if you literally see someone with a crib cheat, then, yes, do turn them in to the teacher, but don’t turn them in to the college. The college would not likely believe you. Why should they?</p>
<p>The teacher, however, is in a position to investigate. The college, though, can’t verify whether or not a student cheated in class. The college could ask the GC whether the student has ever been suspended or expelled for cheating, but if nothing like that happened, or if there’s no record of such actions, the student could have cheated on every test, but the college will never know that for certain.</p>
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<p>In the Commonwealth system (e.g. Singapore), there are these students called “prefects.”</p>
<p>Let’s compare tolerance for cheating to the American tolerance for drug abuse. </p>
<p>In the American high school system I notice a huge tolerance of drug use by other students, and I have somewhat assimilated into this practice too (although initially shocked). </p>
<p>Semi-close friends talking about how they took a test while high on reefers? Turn blind eye.
Kids showing off their cigs at the back of the bus? Turn blind eye.
Underclassmen <em>selling</em> cigs in a fine arts class? Turn blind eye.
Same underclassmen verbally abusing a freshman who threatened to turn them in? Especially alarming, but turn blind eye.</p>
<p>Guess what happens when peers discover fellow peers sniffing crack cocaine in the bathroom? Uh-huh. That’s right. Inaction. A week later we hear those peers had been killed in a car crash after being chased by police for having drawn firearms in a parking lot fight. Ho-hum.</p>
<p>In Singaporean schools, blatant substance abuse is rare; even in the equivalent of inner-city schools (“neighbourhood schools”) gang intimidation/violence may be common, and they are rapidly broken up by prefects, then teachers, but illegal substances are hardly ever brought into the schools.</p>
<p>Which is superior? The American high school system of student inaction, or the Commonwealth secondary school system of active and intervening prefects?</p>
<p>You tell me.</p>
<p>People can make major mistakes. For example, they’ll ethically breach by lying, and then brag about it to their friends. Or someone else.</p>
<p>If you have enough of a reason to go through the trouble of emailing an admissions office, I’m sure they’d look into any reasonable person. If you were to go “Jane Smith says she loves kittens! She DOESN’T!!!1!!1eleventy”, I’m sure that any college would trash it. </p>
<p>However, if you sent in a letter saying “Jane Smith isn’t the president of XYZ club, the adult advisor Mrs. Whats-her-face can vouch for this (her email is <a href="mailto:mwhatsherface@school.k12.st.us”>mwhatsherface@school.k12.st.us</a>), I’m sure that they’d drop a line to check into that.</p>
<p>Facebook pages could get a lot of students into trouble, and that’s pretty easy. Screenshot -> Email, done, and students are not careful about what they post. And it’s not a random accusation; you can often see the pictures.</p>
<p>All-in-all, random accusations might be disregarded, but it’s very possible for someone to lie on their app and then brag about it.</p>
<p>Some people need to get their own lives…</p>
<p>Coopjust: I’m of the understanding that random emails from unknown people are pretty much ignored by admissions officers; the only official (i.e., counted, filed, whatever) communication must be in writing and from the guidance counselor to the college.</p>
<p>Facebook pages can easily be forged/Photoshopped.</p>
<p>There are things that are possible, but that doesn’t make them probable.</p>