Will a suspension ruin my chances at a top grad school?

Graduate School
1

I would appreciate if all comments were directed towards answering the above question. Please be respectful and don’t send any comments questioning my admission, as this suspension resulted from an honest mistake and the past few months have been very difficult for my family and I.

I started classes at a top 10 private research university in Fall 2014, and during winter break, a professor contacted me and my school’s student conduct office because she had some “concerns” regarding suspected plagiarism on an open-notes final exam. I had accumulated information from class and online sources to prepare myself for the final exam, which I thought was acceptable. I would every now and then copy from Wikipedia or Google terms, court cases, events, etc. that I had missed due to an absence. I used everything for my final exam, and because about 1/4 of the exam was taken from online and not cited, this was deemed plagiarism. I did not mean to plagiarize at all and I would have shared my sources/notes with my professor had she asked me, but I had never been asked to cite an open-notes exam before so I was surprised that this was required. I was suspended for one semester, as the Board understood this was a mistake but my school’s policy is strict with regards to plagiarized material. The school makes no distinction between intentional or unintentional plagiarism, and only looks at the assignment submitted and evaluates how the sources were used.

I have to submit an application for readmission, and even if I am allowed to re-enroll, I can no longer study abroad or participate in a program where my disciplinary status is considered for admission. I will remain on probation for the rest of my undergraduate career.

I am trying to stay positive, as my counselor assures me that I can still succeed and can successfully move past this mistake. I want to try very hard to succeed when I return to prove that I am an honest student and can succeed without cheating, as I always have. However, I am worried about my prospects for graduate school.

I have the grades, aptitude, and skills to get into a top graduate school, and I know I can get great GRE scores and stellar recommendations if I work hard in class. Still, how will this suspension look on my application? Are my chances for a top graduate program in Philosophy or English ruined because of this mistake?

I will write a succinct addendum covering this error, and my academic record will discuss the reason for my suspension as well as a write-up of what I did to atone for this error (reading citation guides, submitting an essay reflecting on what I learned, the contents of my return application, etc.). I am worried that I can no longer go to the graduate school of my dreams because of my suspension. Are my dreams ruined, or is there still hope?

2

Many (most?) schools don’t make distinctions between intentional and unintentional plagiarism, because there’s no reliable way to assess a student’s intent. Most professors also have to question whether students really believed it was okay to copy verbatim from online sources (cited or not). I’m not sure what your professor told you, so I could be wrong, but I’m willing to bet it’s the copying from online sources that raised concern moreso than the lack of citations.

CAN a suspension for academic dishonesty (which is usually the category in which plagiarism resides) ruin your chances at a top graduate school? Yes, of course.

WILL it? There’s no way to tell; we can’t predict the future. Different programs, and even different professors at different programs, will view this differently. Some programs/professors may never want to admit students who have plagiarized material, particularly since you are angling for academic programs in which proper citation and writing in your own words are highly valued. Others will take your explanation into account and the fact that this happened your freshman year, when you were younger, and will hope that you have matured and developed more along the way.

Your recommendations will be a really big deal in this case. You’ll want at least one recommender who knows you really well to address it in his or her recommendation letter, assuring his/her colleagues that your suspension was due to a youthful indiscretion and that you’ve sensed learned the error of your ways and are an exceptional performer. A note like that from a top professor who is well-known in the field (very common at top 10 universities) will go a long way, so make sure you are cultivating those relationships for recommendations.

Respectfully, though, when you write that addendum you need to own that you made a mistake and state that you learned from it. I don’t see that in the explanation that you gave above - it seems that you are focused on providing your reasoning for doing it and trying to minimize how bad the offense was. I’m only mentioning this becaue it’s important to your admission, because if you do that in an addendum, it will only serve to annoy the professors - and, more importantly, you won’t demonstrate that you learned and grew from the incident, that you understand the gravity and relevance of it when embarking on a career where the currency is your writings and being properly credited for them, and that you won’t do it again. You’ve got a couple years, so when the sting wears off revisit this and think about how you will frame it so that you take responsibility for what you did and write in a way conveying that you understand how bad this is.

Other than that, just make sure that the rest of your application is SO competitive that your programs will want to overlook the suspension. If you’re an exceptional applicant, more people are going to want to say “This student is so good we’re willing to take a chance.” If you’re a borderline applicant they can always choose to go with someone else. It’s harder to turn you down if you’re exceptional. That means keeping your grades up, writing a really phenonemenal writing sample, and doing scholarship in your field that shows you are a rising undergrad star (your professors in your field of choice can help you with that).

Good luck.

3

@juillet Thank you for your response. I found your thoughts to be incredibly helpful and understanding. I do intend to keep my addendum brief but substantive, taking full responsibility for the mistake while also making clear that I have learned from this error. I have always understood the importance of academic honesty when completing assignments, and considering I do want to pursue the career of an academic, I surely want to credit other scholars in my field when I use their work, and also expect my work to be credited when used elsewhere. I am annoyed (the “sting” as you mentioned) by this ordeal, particularly because I am fastidious when it comes to adhering to stated guidelines for papers, exams, etc., but my professor respectfully did not delineate what could be used in our notes and what could not. I did read Charles Lipson’s Doing Honest Work in College, which I found very helpful. It’s always best to err on the side of caution and take precautions with your work regardless of whether your professor is explicit or not. What’s done is done. I did not intend to deceive my professor, but I take responsibility for what I did because while I thought I was completing the exam correctly, I was not, and the conduct office was understanding of this. They were very friendly and believed that I could succeed in all of my endeavors given my record of success. Whether they were just telling me what I want to hear is what bothers me, which lead me to bring my inquiry hear. Everyone makes mistakes, I guess. I just hope that my graduate program of choice understands this.

4

This reminds me of a thread a while ago where the OP thought making up missed class notes via the Internet to study for a test was cheating…maybe they meant this?

Wow, it would never have occured to me to cite on a test either. Tough lesson to learn. Very tough consequence IMO under the circumstance (test, not a paper). Would it be plag if you had copied down what prof said word for word and regurgitated it? I think that was over the top…

I hope it won’t be too much of a hinderence. I’m honestly not sure though. Good luck.

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@HRSMom I did think a suspension was too severe of a consequence for what was ultimately an honest mistake, but I did get the vibe that the professor did not like me throughout the semester and was all to happy to run to the student conduct office and allege that I knowingly plagiarized and deserved a tough sanction. When I initially spoke with a dean in the office, she seemed almost…unwilling? to believe what I told her, like almost refusing to hear out my thoughts because she could only see me as an entitled brat who was trying to cover his tracks. I was honest about the entire thing, and that I felt my professor should have been more explicit with her expectations for the exam and that citing an exam had never crossed my mind. She actually “offered” me a two-semester suspension, and tried to scare me into taking it by saying that if I appealed this, I would face a stiffer penalty. The board lowered it to one semester, as I guess they were too afraid to give me a fair penalty in fear of angering the dean. Oh well, what’s done is done, and I guess there is a little satisfaction in knowing that the dean saw she was wrong in giving me a two-semester suspension. I know I am an honest student with a lot of promise, and I’m happy with that. I just hope this hiccup in my career won’t hurt me too badly, as I know what I did and I take responsibility for all my actions. I make mistakes, same as everyone else, whether they’re willing to admit it or not.

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Yes, because you’re supposed to write answers in your own words, not someone else’s.

However, I wouldn’t have thought to write citations on an exam either, and I’ve only seen one exam where the professor expected that. I was a TA for her class, and I thought that was unreasonably difficult given the level of the class. I can’t remember citations off the top of my head ever…unless I’d written then down in my notes, but even then, I don’t think I could write down every citation I might need on the day of the exam. Even on papers, I never referred students who simply forgot to cite things; that’s technically plagiarism, but it’s such a mild form of it that I don’t think it deserves to go on a student’s educational record. Normally I’d just have a chat with them and let them know that they need to start citing their work, and give them examples of how to do that.

It’s different if a student actually copies words verbatim (I mean copies and pastes entire sentences or passages) from Wikipedia or online sources - I’ve had a couple of students do that, mostly on research papers they were assigned and had weeks to do on a computer. Sometimes they simply thought I wouldn’t notice (ha!). Other times they said they were genuinely surprised they weren’t allowed to do that, although I was skeptical. I’d say about 30% of the students in the latter group actually did cite their sources - they thought copying and pasting was okay as long as the cited. (It’s not.)

Anyway, OP, many people have recovered from things far worse than this, so I think you should be ok in the long-term.

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Juillet says:

Given this was an open book exam, it sounds like the OP did basically cut and paste but in his own handwriting. It doesn’t sound like he is accused of citing a few unattributed facts. A quarter of his entire written exam came from uncited online sources.

OP, you didn’t say whether you were going to be seeking an MA or PhD, but one way to distance yourself from this incident would be to apply for a MA program, excel there, and then apply to a PhD program using your MA professors as references.

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If 1/4 of the exam was plagiarized and the university felt it necessary to suspend you and put you on probation for the next 3 years, yes this may affect you. Not only do you have the documentation, but you also have a reputation among faculty. And unfortunately, although you obviously feel this faculty member was unfair, personal vested in your downfall, and too strict, her colleagues most likely respect her. You haven’t seemed to take responsibility for your plagiarism (in the way that you simultaneously explain how it wasn’t that big of a deal then bash the faculty, Board, and dean for their injustice and inability to generate what you felt was a “fair” sentence). That will come across to people in the department who know what happened. I’m only cautioning you about how you present this to people. It matters a great deal.

Also, you’ve only completed 1 semester of school. You have no idea if you’ll have good enough grades and experiences to get into what you consider a top graduate school. Get through junior year and reevaluate… college gets harder and grades usually take a nose dive junior fall.

But if worse comes to worst, get a master’s degree to cover up your mistakes in undergrad.

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I was uncertain whether this is what the OP was saying in his original post - it’s a bit unclear from the post. If this is the case, quite frankly I would not say that’s an honest mistake. I would say that is a serious case of plagiarism, and a one-semester suspension is not too harsh. And being unwilling to believe a student who says they didn’t know that wasn’t acceptable is pretty much a common reaction from professors and deans faced with this kind of situation (trust me, they hear it ALL the time.)

BUT I’m not sure if that’s what OP meant.

I do agree with the advice that an MA will help put some distance between the undergrad mistakes and the PhD. Many competitive English and philosophy PhD hopefuls get MAs anyway, because those fields are so competitive and because there is significant language work that needs to be done.

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I would consider enrolling at a different school for college.

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Most colleges will require you to confirm (via a letter) that you are in good standing at your original school before you transfer, and usually a suspension puts you on not-good standing with a college.

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I have read all of your responses and I have not found them to be very valuable (e.g. @HappyAlumnus - why would I leave such a prestigious school?!). I am confident that I can succeed despite this setback and will continue to excel in my studies despite this mistake. Thanks for your honest thoughts.

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Good luck to you.