Hello Everybody:
I am currently attending my local community college [about to enter into my 2nd year], and majoring in Computer Engineering. I have been a good student all my life - graduated High School with a 4.2 GPA, and carried a 3.7 GPA for my first semester of college. However, this past Spring 2016 semester was by far the worst semester of my academic career - many of my teachers were horrible, including my Physics for Scientist & Engineers I, Calculus II, and Intro to Engineering teacher. I ended up dropping Physics, thus giving me my first "W" on my transcript. On the contrary, I decided to stay in Calculus II and Intro to Engineering classes, since they were passable.
However, the main focus of this post is directed towards my Calculus II class. Regardless of my horrible Calculus II teacher, I was still passing the class with a B. I had just taken my Calculus II final last Wednesday - however upon doing so, I chose to make the most stupidest, childish, and careless mistake anyone could make within their college career: cheating.
To make a long story short, me and my best friend decided to split up the work on the final - I would do the last half of the final since I understood the material on it better, and he would do the first half, for the same reason. Once we were done, we then copied each others work, under the impression that our instructor would not find out. However, two days after the final, my teacher emailed the both of us, saying how he noticed our tests were similar and came to the conclusion that we were cheating. As a consequence, he gave us both zeros on the final.
My best friend had a High A in the class before the final - and despite him receiving a zero on the final, he managed to pass the class with a C. On the other hand, my B dropped to a D, thus resulting me to now sign up for Calculus 2 over the summer, so that I can still qualify for Differential Equations this coming Fall 2016 semester and so that I would not fall behind in my academic transfer plan.
I honestly have never gotten a D in my life before - not even in elementary, middle, or high school. Lowest grade I have ever received was a C+ in my AP Calc class in High School [due to a horrible teacher once again]. I am not mad at my Calculus II teacher for giving me a zero on the final, since it was all my fault, due to my careless and poor choice in decisions. I guess what led to my friend and I cheating on this exam was pressure, since this exam was potentially capable of maintaining my friends A in the course, as well as capable of bringing my B to an A. The part that bothers me the most about this situation is that I understand the material taught in Calculus II. Its not as if I did not understood the course, thus resulting to the demise of my grade - it was just my stupidity and non-existent conscience during the final exam.
Anyways, back to the main topic. What I essentially want to know is will this one "D" on my transcript affect my chances of getting into a good UC/CSU? I will for sure pass Calculus II this summer with a B or an A, guaranteed. I also know that I will never cheat, nor receive a D in a college course ever again. The schools I plan to apply to are: San Jose State, Cal Poly SLO, Sac State, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Santa Barbara, for Computer Engineering. Along besides my question, does anybody have a similar story that occured to them such as mine? What did you do, and how did it affect your academic career/acceptance into UC's/CSU's for transfer? Any advice/info is appreciated, thanks!