<p>You guys should ease up. People who post stuff like that are looking for reassuring advice. I know it's easier to find flaws and stuff but be supportive.</p>
<p>Supportive comments won't necessarily help on college apps. Better the tough love now than later.</p>
<p>I have personally never known anyone who has cheated directly -- not in my circle of friends anyway -- and in my school (a pretty large one), cheating is only heard of in the "lower ranks". </p>
<p>What I want to know is, along with adcoms, most likely -- is whether the "sorry" is genuine.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but even after your lengthy explanation, galoisien...</p>
<p>who the **** compares rape to stealing an English quiz?!!!??</p>
<p>I actually agree with you for the other stuff ('specially the whole "the sorry has to be genuine," etc. etc.)</p>
<p>op didnt make a bad choice.. its his character flaw.</p>
<p>wow...again with the character
galoisien, I don't know about you, but encouragement, motivation, and optimism have gotten me pretty far. And please don't generalize and say that NONE of the people you hang out with, cheats. If you're going to make a point, at least pick something more plausible</p>
<p>
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who the **** compares rape to stealing an English quiz?!!!??
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</p>
<p>In terms of <em>magnitude</em>, the two aren't comparable.</p>
<p>But I'm not talking about magnitude here. I'm talking about situations when a single incident shows a character flaw. To me, rape and cheating are both examples of such kinds of incidents because they are "antisocial crimes".</p>
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And please don't generalize and say that NONE of the people you hang out with, cheats. If you're going to make a point, at least pick something more plausible
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<p>I wasn't making a rigourous argument -- I was saying that the sheer majority of students have faced stressful situations before. They don't cheat. (To elaborate, I said that in my school, cheating incidents are only heard of among "lower-tier" students.)</p>
<p>no, you also said you have never known any of your friends to cheat, which is unlikely. And dude, stop using "lower-tier" and "lower-rank", that's just as insulting as saying a country is third-world or something. Besides, they're students, not colleges where you can just say top tier, second tier, blah blah blah.</p>
<p>Sorry, this is turning out to be an argument. Get over it, people do make bad choices.</p>
<p>this conversation is getting nasty, but stealing a quiz even with an explanation will still not look good, no matter how you look at it.</p>
<p>Also know that "stress" induced by academics in HS is nothing in comparison to what you will experience in college (assuming you want to stay competitive). What would you have done if you couldn't handle the academic stress in college, and were given the same opportunity?</p>
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you also said you have never known any of your friends to cheat, which is unlikely.
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<p>Unlikely? It's true. It's the same in Singapore.</p>
<p>What happened to respect for principles these days?</p>
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Get over it, people do make bad choices.
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<p>An antisocial act (in the psychological and moral sense of the word) is not merely "a bad choice" -- it reflects a flaw in character.</p>
<p>A psychologist would never diagnose someone with an antisocial personality disorder because he stole a quiz off a desk because he was in a high-stress situation.</p>
<p>The judgment centers in the brain are not even fully formed until an individual's mid-twenties, so let's give this kid half a break! I think the "crime" of stealing the quiz is more closely analogous to stealing an item from a store. The thief isn't thinking clearly about anyone else's loss (the teacher, fellow students, the store owner and their shareholders--they are all impersonal and not present to the offender), but about what the kid thinks he needs/wants at the time. Taking a quiz is clearly wrong, wrong, wrong, but for a kid with daring who has gotten away with smaller crimes in the past without consequences, this sort of self-centered, foolish, and destructive event can occur and the wake up moment is justifiably harsh.</p>
<p>Colleges are in the business of educating students and if they found a student, who had erred so profoundly in the past, who now showed that serious lessons had been learned they might be willing to accept that student as one who had an experience that was unique among others. It all will depend on the sincere reflection this episode has brought the OP. It is not enough to write words and polish the PR. Whether colleges accept you or not, it is really more important that you take this breach of moral behavior and truly grow from it. I hope you do. Sometimes the worst thing that ever happened to you leads you to amazing insight and true growth.</p>
<p>SUSPENSION....dude, why.. Your teacher is a bit harsh though.</p>
<p>My response to this entire post: No one is perfect.</p>
<p>Galoisien: Are you going to UVA? If you are, that's my state flagship and I have many friends there so you might not like it but many UVA ugrad students do cheat in some way while they are there. Perhaps not the big kind, but it is pretty easy to get away some stuff there. </p>
<p>I'm guessing a lot of your UVA classmates need serious character change? No, they are just kids who are enjoying college and having a good time. They aren't rapists and they don't sit in their basements planning evil deeds. They go to frat parties, go to their sport games, party, have fun, and are very bright. </p>
<p>Chill.</p>
<p>"just as many ethical barriers must be jumped." - Comparing the ethical barriers between raping someone and stealing a quiz is asinine. The biggest difference is that taking an inanimate object like the quiz is not comparable to forcefully holding down another human being and committing a very intimate/emotional act against their will and horror for a much more extended period of time.</p>
<p>I don't mean to hijack his thread, but I understand academic integrity is very serious in the admissions process. What about a discipline offense? I was suspended in mid-soph year for smoking cigarettes with a junior. Would this drastically hurt my chances? I don't smoke anymore, and I can play it off as a stage, because it was. The junior got into several schools and is going to boston u, but I'm looking at more competitive schools.</p>
<p>^You'll prob. be fine. My buddy back in HS was suspended for fighting and he got into UVA. Each school is different though but I doubt it would hurt your chances that much. The big things schools look for are academic dishonesty and cheating/plagiarism.</p>
<p>I know of a couple of kids that were suspended for cheating at my son's school. They had to report this on their common application with an explanation. Otherwise, these kids were strong students, will strong teacher recs (from teachers that busted them). They were reported to handle their hearing in front of the disciplinary committee at their school very well.</p>
<p>Both got into their top choice colleges---so, based on that experience I would say if this is truly a one time event that is handled with remorse, regret, and maturity it will not hurt your admissions chances</p>
<p>galoisien</p>
<p>it's not about principles, I do not condone or tolerate cheating. However, I'm not dumb enough to deny that there are always some people around me who cheat, it's just something that you have to realize. I truly feel sorry for you when you get to college. If you're only going to make friends with people who never cheat or make a mistake in their entire life, your circle of friends will be very very small.</p>
<p>Please don't push your own interpretation into an argument, if the OP only cheated once and is very regretful, then that is not a character flaw, it is a lapse in judgment. Until you can find a scientific opinion (mr. psychology) with regards to whether or not such action, in all particular cases, is a character flaw, then there really is no point in continuing our discussion.</p>
<p>Oh, and btw, stop arguing by quoting me. If you can't argue against the entire message, just stop. Don't keep trying to find something you can argue against.</p>
<p>i only feel sorry for the op's parents who raised such a child</p>