@user_706041 -As I’m sure you realize, college admission officials consider cheating to be a VERY serious offense, and you could pay dearly for your mistake by losing your place at UCI.
College folks do seem to be granting extra leniency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this largely applies to drops in grades and not to academic dishonesty.
BUT … if you are quick to disclose your cheating to UCI and to express extreme remorse, you might have a chance to keep your spot there. Explain that the anxiety caused by the pandemic seems to have led you to a place where you acted very much unlike yourself and went against your own personal values. Add that, looking back, you can’t believe you did this.
If the pandemic has caused unusual stress for you in particular, be sure to say so, but without trying to remove any of the responsibility for the cheating from your shoulders.
What do I mean by “unusual stress?” Well, I’ve heard of students whose parents have lost jobs which has led to anger and fear at home; some of these students have taken on extra jobs themselves that cut into study time. There are also students who have little or no Internet access or who are sharing computers with several family members or who have no quiet place to study. There are even some students who are caring for siblings because their parents caught the virus or are working constantly at frontline jobs.
COVID-19 has had a major impact on almost all of us, but some people are definitely suffering more than others. So if this is you–and if this affected your studies–it’s fine to say so. But, again, be sure to clearly admit your guilt and your remorse without a line-up of excuses.
You should also tell UCI admission officials what you are willing to do to try to make up for your poor judgment. This could include retaking the class in the summer, as you’ve already suggested. You can also propose that you will check in weekly with a dean or advisor in the fall to prove that you are staying on track academically, and you can offer to do community service for the university.
Emphasize that, not only is this a first offense but also that you can barely recognize the person who committed it because it is not the “real” you.
Finally, conclude by saying that you have already learned a lot from this episode about the person you want to be and about how you need to learn to respond more ethically to pressure.
You do have a chance of retaining your spot at UCI. Frankly, the decision may be based in part on whether UCI has extra places to fill or is already over-enrolled. A few years ago, this university got some bad press when they rescinded an unusually large number of acceptances due mostly to grades, and then it came to light that the school had made some poor enrollment decisions and had admitted too many students. So maybe you will get lucky and this will be the year that UCI actually needs MORE students. On the other hand, because many students who would otherwise go away to college have decided to stay in CA due to the pandemic, it’s possible that UCI will be overenrolled again. Thus, luck may end up being in your favor or could work against you here. I have no way of knowing.
In any case, if UCI does revoke your place, it may feel like the end of the world but it is not. You may decide to take a year off and then reapply to college for the following fall, fully disclosing why you opted for the gap year. You can also apply to less selective or open-admission colleges. To find those that meet many of your preferences, try the College Board’s “Big Future” search: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search
On the left-hand menu, click on “Test Scores and Selectivity” and then choose colleges that are “Less Selective” or offer “Open Admission.” These are the places that will probably be most forgiving of your cheating incident.
You can also check out the National Association for College Admissions Counseling’s “College Openings Updates” at https://www.nacacnet.org/news–publications/Research/CollegeOpenings/ This is a list of colleges and universities nationwide that are still seeking applicants. Be sure to note whether there are vacancies for transfers and not just for freshmen. The list also will tell you if housing and financial aid are still available. Often they are.
Meanwhile, try not to feel as if you’ve made an insurmountable error–one that you can’t come back from. Yes, the cheating was a stupid choice, but everyone makes stupid choices somewhere along the line. And by the time you get to be my age, you will realize that many of these were far, far worse than yours and did have serious consequences. In your case, however, even if UCI does rescind your acceptance, you can move on and find other options–perhaps even one that will some day seem as if it were meant to be all along. Keep in mind these wise words of Alexander Graham Bell, who said:
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
If Alexander Graham Bell were alive today and saw his first smartphone, he’d probably have a heart attack. 
But I’m sure he would still agree that we must look beyond closed doors in search of open ones.
Good luck, and please let us know how this turns out because your situation, albeit painful for you, can be helpful to others in your shoes in the future.
