<p>I'm a junior in high school with a 4.6 GPA, all AP/honors courses, and many extracurriculars that I'm highly involved in.</p>
<p>Today I decided to risk it all by cheating off another student's test.</p>
<p>It was possibly the dumbest decision ever, mostly because it was an English test and English is my best class (especially because I was doing really well on that test besides the two answers I didn't know) -- when he confronted me about it, my teacher said he was appalled because I was one of his best students and he would never dream of me doing something like this. He called the faculty advisor for my school's honor council and I admitted to them that I had done it. I'll be going before that honor council eventually and they will find me guilty becuase I admitted to it already.</p>
<p>So I get a zero on the test and three hours detention; I could live with it if it weren't for the fact that it's going to kill my fourth quarter average (my best class will become my worst class now, fantastic) and go on my otherwise spotless permanent record.</p>
<p>So my question is...how severely will this affect my chances of getting into a good college?</p>
<p>I would say pretty heavily, because academic dishonesty and cheating is a universal: No-no, but perhaps Tokenadult or Northstarmom will weigh in.</p>
<p>Yes, it will affect your chances. Most colleges have strict honor codes–academic integrity is hugely important. </p>
<p>Your best bet, IMO, is to talk to the teacher and see if he’ll work out something with the honor council (ie the bad grade but nothing on your record) that keeps your permanent record clean. An academic snafu is much, much easier to work with than a matter of integrity.</p>
<p>However, don’t most colleges give an opportunity for the applicant to explain any disciplinary action taken against them? For example, if I explained what I learned, that I had never cheated before, and hadn’t cheated since then, and I had teacher recommendations that emphasized how I had learned from the incident and never repeated the same offense again…does that ameliorate the offense in any way? Don’t colleges like to see students learning from their mistakes and temporary lapses in judgment?</p>
<p>I understand that it’ll obviously still be there, but doesn’t the fact that I’ve never done it before, felt sorry for/learned from my mistake, and will never do it again help at all?</p>
<p>@ geeps20: I had two questions unanswered and about a minute left in class. I panicked and had a lapse in judgment.</p>
<p>Correct me if I’m wrong, but detentions DON"T go on your college record. So, as long as you have a cool GC who won’t put it in your recs, then I don’t know how a college would find out</p>
<p>I would seriously just work things out with your teacher and ask that it not be mentioned in your letter of recs or your record…I don’t think colleges would want to know that you cheated, even if you did “improve and change.”</p>
<p>^ That’s what I thought, too. Maybe the OP’s school operates differently? Even if it doesn’t go on the disciplinary record, I would be worried about my GC finding out and including it in my rec letter. . .</p>
<p>To be honest, I assumed it would go on the record but I don’t know for sure as I haven’t met with the honor council faculty advisor. </p>
<p>I talked to the (student) president of the HC and she said she honestly doesn’t know if it goes on your record, and one of my friends who recently had a violation said she had no idea. So I figured that if it was going on the permanent record, they would tell you…after all, aren’t you entitled to know when disciplinary action goes on your record? </p>
<p>I know my school has a “strike” system and it goes like this:
Zero on the work + 3 hours detention
Suspension for a day with a zero on all the work missed.
Expulsion.</p>
<p>I know the latter would obviously go on your record, but maybe the first doesn’t. Either way, I just won’t get a reccomendation from those two teachers (though I was planning on getting one from my English teacher; fat chance of that now). If my college advisor found out, I could see him leaving it out because he’s just cool like that.</p>
<p>No it will not affect your college chances except for that you can’t say that you are part of your school’s honor council. That’s it. Secondary school’s are not allowed to report behavior and academic dishonesty reports. Trust me, I know. We’re still kids and we make dumb decisions and mine stopped my from being part of my NHS, but I still got into great schools like UNC and CMU.</p>
<p>Have you spoken to your parents? They will be dissappointed, but you need them on your side. The GPA is a problem, but if it goes on your record it can be much worse.</p>
<p>With all due respect, I dont agree with Mrdskill.</p>
Teachers “gossip” and everything gets passed through the grapevine. “Oh, did you hear? So-and-so did this. It was really surprising”. “Oh my, did he really? :/”</p>
<p>Just try to salvage what is left of your reputation, grade, and integrity. Find out if it will go on your permanent record.</p>
<p>If it goes on your permanent record, then the best colleges aren’t going to accept you. Outside of felonies like murder, rape or armed robbery, the worst actions to have colleges know about involve cheating or plagiarism.</p>
<p>Colleges value academic achievement and academic integrity highly. In fact, at many colleges, any incident of cheating or plagiarism may cause one to flunk a course.</p>
<p>There’s no acceptable explanation for cheating. Saying, “I never did it before” isn’t going to help because colleges and others assume that cheaters also are liars. After all, what serial cheater is going to say, “I did this a lot. This was the first time I got caught”?</p>
<p>If the incident isn’t on your permanent record, it won’t hurt you as much, but don’t ask the teacher involved for a recc because the teacher will have to comment on your integrity.</p>
<p>If the GC has heard about the incident – through the normal discussions that faculty have about students – the GC also will include that incident in the mandatory integrity/character rating most colleges ask GCs to do as part of their mandatory reports on students.</p>
<p>The schools that are least likely to care about your cheating are public schools since they make decisions mainly on stats and state of residence.</p>