<p>When I was in grad school in a university town, there was a wealthy doctor’s wife who basically subcontracted her doctoral dissertation out to a bunch of different people. She hired 2-3 people to collect her data, a few more to input and format her data, a few more to analyze it and a couple more to write up her results. She apparently convinced each team that she had done or planned on doing all the rest of it herself, but there was some compelling reason she couldn’t complete that particular step. She was also very careful to hire people from different departments (not hers) who didn’t know one another. She paid well enough that the participants were apparently willing to overlook their doubts and suspicions. I suspect that there are probably a lot of these types of situations out there – and these days it would be easier than ever. (Hire a local to collect your data, somebody in India to input it, somebody in China to analyze it, ship the whole thing to somebody in PHiladelphia to write it up. ) I imagine that at some point, all of this will come to light when someone wins a dissertation prize (or a Pulitzer) for something that was actually a group project.</p>
<p>"Pre-meds have been notorious for decades for doing things like sabotaging classmates’ experiments to improve their own standing. "</p>
<p>-Yep. D’s shark was stolen in a middle of dissection in Anatomy lab. She was not the only one. So what? Did she initiate investigation,formal complaints and whole whining procedure? Nope. Just got another shark and not only caught up to everybody but ssurpassed them. As I said before, going after others is futile, hard work is always a winner. And she was - she had two practices dissecting shark, while cheatters had one. Next time she will know that she can do it and do it better and faster than others. It just has brought her confidence to higher level. Works every time. However, this was the only incidence in her 4 year of UG. Did it help cheatters to gain acceptance to Med. School? I do not think so, not a tiny bit. They still have to get their high GPA, decent MCAT, nice application essays, go to interviews (if invited) and be ready to discuss all their experiences openly and truthfully (including points out of their essays).</p>
<p>Interesting. If your daughter is victimized by a crime, should she report it to the police? Let’s say someone stole her ATM card and she has a small bank account.</p>
<p>^This is not the crime. Of course everybody knew what has happened, she needed to get a new shark, she had to explained how her old one walked away (I quarantee, she did NOT eat it or disgarded it, she needed to do it all over, so it was not in her interest to misplace her shark). No ATM cards in posession. We are discussing school cheating here, not common criminal activities. Apparently stuff like this going on at schools, so they do not get police involved at this level.
Some people as suggested by this whole thread, will go around whining about their predicament, others will not waste time, just work a little harder and do what needs to be done and learn more than others in a process. I am surprized that you have never heard about "sabotaging classmates’ experiments to improve their own standing. " that is going on. I was replying to somebody else’s post, apparently others are aware of it.</p>
<p>Yes, I recognize it is not currently classified as a crime.</p>
<p>Just wondering whether you would use the same logic, though – let’s say someone swiped her ATM card and stole her money. She bravely worked extra hours at her job and not only made back the amount lost but made even more, impressed her boss and got a promotion, instead of whining about it, etc… The thief on the other hand continued his way and eventually got caught and was sent to jail.</p>
<p>Seems like the same logic works.</p>
<p>
Where’s the sense of community and honor? Why don’t students have one anothers’ backs and a sense of jointly participating in something greater than “self”? My god, if it doesn’t exist within our medical schools, of all places - where students are, presumably, learning how to be responsible for others’ lives - then where are we headed as a society?</p>
<p>I’m seriously concerned about this growing trend to be concerned about one’s self, as if nobody else matters. What we do, as well as what we don’t do, individually, affects others, and, sooner or later, affects us all.</p>
<p>^No, the same logic does not apply to different wrongs: "sabotaging classmates’ experiments to improve their own standing. " vs. common criminal activity. By the same tolken, if one was determined to be cheating on MCAT, police would not be involved, the person would be escorted out of exam. In both cases, in my D’s actual case and imaginary MCAT cheating case, the cheater did not achieve the goal of “stealing” (shark or MCAT score). Although shark was physically stolen, in actuality it was replaced and incidences like these are covered by tuition payments, I am sure.</p>
<p>Exactly the same is going on with writing essays. Kids who use somebody to write their essays eventually are faced with writing them at many instances at college. Even science lab reports are easier for good experienced writers. Kids who are not used to writing, who avoided it at any cost, will have harder time when it really counts. There is whole tons of writing going on at college (and I am talking from prospective of science major, there are much more in other majors as I can imagine). Not having writing experience will hurt tons and will be real punishment. Not getting to college of choice is a very small price to pay in comparison to inability to sustain requiremnts at college of your choice. The last cost more $$ and time.</p>
<p>
I understand your point, and it may in fact indeed be a crime. A crime against whomever owned the shark I suppose - the school or the student. But in this case I think DAP’s D handled it correctly. She told her instructor what happened, and then carried on. It’s up to the school at that point.</p>
<p>What do you think the police reaction would be to reporting something like this?</p>
<p>“where students are, presumably, learning how to be responsible for others’ lives - then where are we headed as a society?”</p>
<p>-I am holding to my opinion that the hard workers are rewarded at the end and the cheaters are punished by their own actions automatically. Both groups will get where they deserve to be. But again, as has been mentioned, my family exist in different reality, but we like our reality a lot.</p>
<p>Agreed; not necessarily criticizing the daughter’s course of action as a practical matter.</p>
<p>Having trouble, though, dismissing the whole moral situation as merely a matter of whining, without pointing out that the same argument applies to other situations that many people would find objectionable. Trying to look for some consistency here, since the logic is identical.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if the essays that Dante writes are owned by Dante, the company, or the student? What would prevent Dante from posting an essay in an anonymous blog where profs could google the text?</p>
<p>^
He would probably get fired. Also, why would he do that? What does he gain from exposing his “clients”?</p>
<p>^^^
Usually, the company retains copyright. (Dante being employed and writing for hire.)The main thing keeping an essay mill from re-selling or publishing a paper is the desire to remain in business for the long haul. 
Reputations get around. It’s a “buyer beware” market, though. When [Duke</a> Prof Dan Ariely bought essays](<a href=“http://danariely.com/2010/09/15/new-school-year-plagiarism-and-essay-mills/]Duke”>http://danariely.com/2010/09/15/new-school-year-plagiarism-and-essay-mills/), he actually complained to one company because of the crappy quality. Ariely said the essay mill then threatened to contact the dean at Duke and report him for buying the paper.</p>
<p>And I thought this practice was rare… One of my classmates got his acceptance to Dartmouth rescinded when it came to light that he’d been writing other people’s essays and lab reports for money. He’s an otherwise excellent student, and this really hit him hard. Would it be too much to forward this article to him?</p>
<p>Ed Dante (aka Dave Tomar) recently wrote a book about his academic ghostwriting career:</p>
<p>[The</a> Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat: Dave Tomar: 9781608197231: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608197239/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1608197239&linkCode=as2&tag=hubp0dc7f-20]The”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608197239/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1608197239&linkCode=as2&tag=hubp0dc7f-20)</p>
<p>I’ve read parts of the book, and it’s very shocking.</p>