stupid mistake

<p>i did the stupidest thing. i've had straight A's but just a while ago i was caught plagiarizing and got a 0 on a huge assignment. now i'm probably going to get a D in the class and it's the end of my junior year too. i know i have no chance at ivy league anymore but will i still have a chance at colleges like duke and johns hopkins? please help</p>

<p>will it be a D for the year or just the quarter/semester? Because if its only a quarter grade than your final average will definitely be higher than a D and colleges (I think) only see your final average.</p>

<p>If colleges are aware of your D grades (i.e. if the D shows on your transcript) and plagiarism, both will hurt you big time at probably most top 50 colleges in the country.</p>

<p>One year, I lost my lab notebook out of carelessness 4th quarter (I found it only the year after!) for chem and got a 77 for that quarter.</p>

<p>Okay, so my record of 2 acceptances out of 9 isn't that great, but you do have a fighting chance. (I made many slip-ups in the application process that you'll probably avoid.)</p>

<p>this was for a semester course, so i will probably get a D for the semester (C if i'm extremely lucky)...you have to realize i am a really good student i was just really lazy this one time and it happened to be on a big assignment. i've had excellent grades up to this point and great standardized test scores, etc. </p>

<p>i obviously will not do something like this again, but i'm gonna have a hard time explaining to colleges.. i would just hate having this one incident ruin my future</p>

<p>It won't ruin your future ... just dampen four years of your life. That doesn't sound very assuring, but don't worry, graduate schools don't care about your high school GPA or your HS record and at most you'll just have to work an extra four years in academia to get the qualifications you want. Not your life. ;) </p>

<p>But on the other hand, I don't know how it came into your mind to plagiarise. See, whenever I have mental block for a paper and get overwhelmed by too many things, I procrastinate -- and accept a late score. That characterised my rather lacklustre junior year. I know I can't plagiarise because teachers are already familiar with my writing voice and it would be really suspicious to suddenly hand a paper in with another voice. (Not that I'd want to, since it would ruin my goal of trying to demonstrate an immigrant point of view on some issues, which is underrepresented at my school's affluent-dominated AP programme.) </p>

<p>So if you even thought you could get away with it, that's not a good sign -- either you've underestimated the distinctiveness of your writing voice or you don't have sufficient distinctiveness in that writing voice.</p>

<p>i'm hoping for a C since that is not as bad...</p>

<p>but does anyone know if there is some place on the application that asks about this sort of stuff? i know i shouldn't try to hide this, but if it's not asked do i really have to tell? i hope i don't end up going to some lame community college, thanks</p>

<p>sure you can tell them on the app that you plagiarized, but then you would DEFINITELY get rejected. colleges might think that youre honest, but still, there are a ton of other kids who have similar stats to you and have not cheated.</p>

<p>keep in mind your conselour would also likely be compelled to mention it in her rec. </p>

<p>As far as being a one-time thing, I think another poster on CC (don't remember who) said it best: the number of moral and ethical lines you have to mentally cross to cheat (let alone blatently plagerize) is so great, that I have a very hard time writing it off as a one-time simple mistake..</p>

<p>Here's some advice from experts on how to handle disciplinary actions.
College</a> experts discuss high school suspensions</p>

<p>i know at my school the counselor wouldnt know if we plagiarized. its only the teacher that knows, and we get a 0 on the assignment. the teacher might report it to the counselor if we plagiarized more than once, but if its just once then no.</p>

<p>im guessing thats how it is for you?</p>

<p>do you think it would be possible for me to attend a safety school freshman year and then transfer? i'm considering that right now...</p>

<p>I think if you can write an essay (perhaps in the "additional info" section) detailing your mistake, you might be able to overcome this blemish.</p>

<p>But again, it must not be superficial. It's probably something you can't do now -- you will need lots of introspection on why you did what you did.</p>

<p>Honestly, what'll hurt you the most was that you were dishonest.. As it hurts your character impression... Colleges really won't be too moved by a D in a elective course... if your teacher doesn't report your cheating, it still will be kinda bad, but won't ruin your chances at the Ivies. </p>

<p>If peopel find out, possibly write the officers something, and talk to your counselor on what to do. (If the counselor never hears about you cheating, don't mention it.)</p>

<p>thanks for all the input</p>

<p>i'm not going to apply to any ivy leagues (mainly because i feel i don't deserve to go to any) but i still want to try for some other good schools</p>

<p>That's another attitude you should change.</p>

<p>Screw the USNWR rankings. The Ivies aren't a league (haha) above say, Chicago or JHU. Personally I've come to think Chicago tops them all (well, it seems to be the school that is the least cog-in-the-machine).</p>

<p>Again, you need to do some introspection. What compelled you to think that you could take someone else's work because you were temporarily stricken with laziness? That to me, shows no pride in your work or your writing. You probably need to spend some time developing your writing voice too. </p>

<p>The biggest obstacle to me is not procrastinating (:D) -- but in the very least if you develop an identity in your writing, you will be horrified at the thought of plagiarising. Why? Because if you submit a plagiarised work, it won't be you. </p>

<p>You also need to look beyond the grade. If every piece of writing you produce shows a side of you, would you want to submit a work that misrepresents you, and destroys the very opportunity you were trying to use to convey a frequently overlooked perspective?</p>

<p>i dont like how everyone is portraying cheating as something that one must cross a "huge moral boundary" in order to commit.</p>

<p>im sure the OP was just damn tired at 3 in the morning and wanted to get an essay over with, so he plagiarized. there is nothing much for him to learn, really. im sure he is a good student (given his previous grades), so its not like this one experience defines his whole academic career. what he will learn, though, is not to do it ever again because you can get caught way too easily for it.</p>

<p>the only problem is that colleges wont accept you if they find out you plagiarized. i mean, how can a college willingly accept a cheater when there are so many people to replace you? obviously you know you are a good person at heart, but still, colleges really have no way of truly knowing that expect by examining your record.</p>

<p>i would definitely advise you to ask your teacher not to tell your counselor. bad grade = partially affects your application, plagiarizing on record = destroys your app.</p>

<p>and no, dont feel like you dont "deserve" to apply to the ivies. cheating is just another mistake that can be fixed, and im sure most ivy league students have cheated in one form or another.</p>

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im sure the OP was just damn tired at 3 in the morning and wanted to get an essay over with, so he plagiarized

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<p>Wow. "So he plagiarised"?</p>

<p>I resent busywork too -- which is why I turn my busywork into something else -- you know, a paper full of insights that actually impress your teacher (to give you good recs).</p>

<p>If you hand in a crass essay from some stupid site ....</p>

<p>Can't you drop that class? In my school, if you get D or fail at the last moment, you can drop that class and you can take it next year again.</p>

<p>lol since when does plagiarizing entail ripping an entire essay off a "stupid site." the OP just could have used a bit too much information from wikipedia or another site(which is what he probably did), resulting in being caught for plagiarism.</p>

<p>there are so many factors that would influence one to plagiarize and so many ways to plagiarize (intentionally or accidentally) that its just plain wrong to label the OP as a mad cheater. </p>

<p>he just messed up one time. thats all...there is nothing to "examine" and nothing much to learn except not to do it again. </p>

<p>there is no benefit either in telling adcoms that you "learned" something from cheating and that you will never do it again.</p>