<p>I think this post should be closed by the moderator. The OP has gotten very good advice from a lot of posters but instead of accepting it in the spirit it is being given, he continues to push back and be defensive. If this is how you react to problems in your life, I can see why you are in the state you are in now. You are now up to Option M. How ludicrous is that?!</p>
<p>At this point your parents, your lawyer and your therapist should be the ones giving you advice. Shopping on here for conflicting opinions (and picking and choosing the ones that suit you) are getting you no where. And, if you took as much time actually doing your own work as you have bantering back and forth on this forum, you would not have been in this position to begin with.</p>
<p>Go to Ombudsman office, say you’re on 2-year probation, indicate a 3rd offense will come to light within a couple weeks if it hasn’t already, confirm that it means direct expulsion, and ask what your best course of action is. Ask to whom you should come clean wrt the 3rd offense. Ask whether the university’s policy indicates cheating on your transcrips or not (such as F* or NC/C). State that you’re getting ready to leave the university and are looking for a job so that the ombudsman sees you’ve thought this through. You can go with or without parents, with or without a lawyer, it’s just a matter of time.
I wouldn’t bring your parents (you’re not a 7 year old sent to the principal’s office and based on what you said, they feel ashamed, so don’t put them through this.) You could bring your lawyer, or not. In any case, it’s over for you at this university, but you can still build your life back if you work, earn money, and get into another university. 10 years from now, if you’ve lived without cheating again, no one will care what happened when you were 22. You may even be able to go back to your university and get a graduate degree there. But first you need to move on. You made one mistake too many at this university, so you won’t graduate from there. You’ll work for a while, you’ll attend another university, you’ll complete a degree there, and you’ll start your career.
The faster you leave, the better for you. Another chapter in your life is starting. Don’t get stuck in limbo.
Just make sure everything is “clean” when you leave (no outstanding balance to pay to the registrar’s, no library book to return, etc.)</p>
<p>Why are any options of “wait to go to university officials until they call me” and / or “don’t own up to case #3” ANYWHERE on your list? This is the part that makes us suspicious that you haven’t fully accepted the gravity of what you did. You seem to hope that if you don’t take action, things will blow over. </p>
<p>“3. Also, I don’t know what it means that I haven’t “learned from previous incidences.” If remaining in the same class where I cheated and working hard to get an A doesn’t show any learning, then I don’t know how I can learn.”</p>
<p>You haven’t learned from previous incidents because you’re now on strike three. That’s why. </p>
<p>@Pizzagirl Then, I can talk about my integrity so far in this current semester. I can get character certificates from my professors considering that I have gone to all their office hours and always indicated whenever I don’t understand something.</p>
<p>“I can get character certificates from my professors considering that I have gone to all their office hours and always indicated whenever I don’t understand something”</p>
<p>Why would a professor give you a “character certificate” for doing what you’re supposed to be doing? In what way is saying you don’t understand something and going to a professor’s office hours a sign of character?</p>
<p>LostStudent, it doesn’t matter what else you’ve done. It’s like: you’re a great father, you go to temple/church/Mosque and you donate to charity, you help inner city kids with test-prep, and you’re one of the most efficient executives at your company, but you also forged a signature on a document once: you’re out. Your integrity will be defined by the forged signature until you’ve worked your way back up. Whatever else you’ve done no longer matters. You have to leave and start anew, prove yourself from the ground up at a new university.
BTW, going to office hours and asking questions isn’t evidence of integrity, it’s just being a responsible student, so don’t even think about bringing it up even if half your class never went to office hours or never did the reading.
Same thing with working seriously to get an A in the class: you cheated, that’s an F. It doesn’t matter whether you had an A or a C in the class. It doesn’t matter whether you worked hard and did well in the other classes you were taking.
You were given a chance, then another chance. Whatever possessed you to continue either didn’t believe in the penalty or wanted you to leave the school. Now, it’s done.
At some schools, you’ll get an F*, meaning anyone looking at your transcript will know you didn’t get an F for being lazy or not getting a tutor on time when you were struggling, but because you cheated. That’s the only thing you need to learn, as well as to whom you should go “own up” to the third crime. Owning up to it is more for you than for the university, BTW, it’ll be your first step toward taking responsibility - it won’t change anything that the university decides. </p>
<p>Look, you played outside the system. Now you want to “work the system.” But, youve been caught three times doing something most people never do once. Granted, people do these kinds of things, at times, which is why you were given not one but two chances. But, I don’t know what you want the outcome to be. You’ve done serious damage to yourself. It’s not irreparable, but it will take time for you to get back on your feet. </p>
<p>Start with yourself and your parents. Work with your therapist, and get a job and be the best _______________ you can be, regardless of the position you get. If it’s floor sweeper? Have integrity with that. You need to learn to respect yourself again, not desperately try to find another way around the rules everyone else is playing by.</p>
<p>Let me get this straight: you were appealing your punishment for your SECOND cheating episode, and you cheated AGAIN while the appeal was being processed, and now you want to SUE the college for not processing your appeal fast enough?</p>
<p>The same thing an earlier poster noted, with regard to his own replay, is also the case with mine higher up: the OP made some significant additions to his original story after I posted.</p>