Caught Cheating on Midterms. Will this affect admissions?

lookingforward
Mon, 05 Feb 2018 16:03:28 +0000

OP, you’re digging yourself into a hole with the attempts to explain. That’s what some posters here are picking up on.

With a 3.78, you’ve obviously gotten grades below A, which will matter. And the fact your UW is 4.01 suggests some of that was in honors or AP (because the W bump is so small.) That already puts your apps to super reaches at risk.

And I agree with @Wilson98 that for a surprise C-, adcoms will look to the GC for some understanding (maybe they call or email, but more likely, they simply take ten seconds to see if the GC already submitted something in your defense.) BUT, that’s when an academically strong and otherwise compelling candidate has a flub. Not for borderline or meh.

And while seniors think the “competition” is about admissions, for colleges Stanford, Penn, Cornell, and maybe Berkeley, adcoms are very well aware the real challenge is once admitted, what happens under the pressure of a very high bar, among peers qualified at a very high level.

If this is how you react to pressure, your best bet for college success, the years that form your future skills, may be a less stressful college environment. Tippy tops are no cakewalk. It’s not just getting in that works any magic.