Sorry about your accident. Hopefully you will recover fully soon.
As a high school teacher, I would suggest that you deeply reflect on this cheating experience and think through how this will affect your future learning. If you were in the private school I used to teach, your school record would show this violation; if you were in the big public district I current reach, likely your exam score would be voided and that’s it. Either way, if you were my student, I would suggest that you write about this incident in your application as a learning/growth experience.
As a reference point, there was a student who was expelled from a magnet program (highly selective by merit) in the middle of sophomore year. He finished that year in the district alternative learning center, and went to home campus (zoned by address) for the remaining two years. He was a changed person. This kid is currently attending NYU.
takeaway: is cheating a big mistake? of course. Is it going to ruin your life? depends on what you get out of it.
Just want to note that the UC’s and other colleges have a protocol for cheating for undergrads that requires education first and foremost, Maybe this is an indicator of how a sophomore cheating in high school might be viewed: in need of some education and clarification of values.
Perhaps someone will correct me…but I thought the application info should reflect things that make a college want to accept a student, not doubt that they should.
A couple anecdotal examples from my kids highly regarded public school. We knew of a kid who got caught in an ongoing racket of getting into teacher office after hours (had gotten hold of a master key) and selling exams to students before the test. Got briefly suspended, but that’s all. Still ended up at a high regarded college. Many other examples of students caught cheating who received brief suspensions. The school basically seems afraid of more serious consequences because of the wrath of these kids parents… Another student was arrested for a road rage incident where he forced a car over and physically beat up the other driver. He was a senior and 18 but was a class officer. No consequence at school and still was allowed to be a speaker at graduation.
All that said, in these cases its up to a local school where parents often have substantial influence and where schools are reluctant to interfere with kids prospects regardless of their actions. The College Board may be quite different. Though I like others wonder how they would know to notify colleges if you don’t ask to send tests there.
The CB won’t reach out to colleges on their own. They don’t want to deal with the potential litigation.
Agreed, I was thinking the same thing on the litigation risk.
The OP won’t be automatically disqualified from all colleges. Frankly, unless his guidance counselor notes the academic dishonesty, I don’t see how colleges will know, assuming the OP does not submit anything from College Board.
OP, hope you’re better. Be glad you have learned this now. Cheating in college is very, very serious. Really, do not risk four years of college by trying it again.
For other users, please note: you don’t HAVE to take an AP exam. Especially not if you are injured or ill, or completely unprepared. You can just not go to the exam. Call in sick if you have to. AP exams are not necessary for entry to any US college.
In my opinion, a student honestly admits a mistake and elaborates on how they have learned from it is positive. Based on my limited experience, cheating is very common in high school, especially in the competitive (many times cutthroat) environment. I wouldn’t hold it against this student if I read a sincere and deep reflection. Just my opinion.
I agree that colleges don’t require AP test scores, but some HSs do in order to get the AP designation on the transcript. (not sure about OP’s HS rules…if the test were required, would the HS have made an exception due to the accident)
For OP, at some colleges this incident when reported will preclude acceptance regardless how well it’s addressed, at other schools it won’t matter. A good start to ID colleges where it may matter is the common app list I linked above.
Going by the first post, it may be a non-issue entirely for the OP if UCs don’t require disclosure (not sure about the CSUs?).
At our school they are mandatory, students pay for the exam the second week of school. Skipping the exam could affect the grade in the class.
man it really amazes me how many kids who get caught cheating end up at selective colleges. kind of pisses me off, to be honest. one can only imagine how many kids there are at selective schools who were NOT caught cheating. shows how messed up the whole system is- high schools won’t ruin their stats or risk angering parents by holding the kid responsible.
I feel bad for the OP and I understand how their mental state with this injury affected their judgement. And I do believe people deserve a 2nd chance and they should find a way into a solid college. but maybe not a top tier one.
Are you suggesting they do this even if it doesn’t show up on school records?! that seems incredibly incredibly risky
agreed.
This comment gives me the feeling that you think writing about this incident is a way to explain or to seek forgiveness, which is completely not what I meant. Reflecting and writing about it should show how the student has grown from this one mistake - if the growth has really happened.
Two of my current juniors were caught cheating this semester and put in suspension. We’ve had lengthy conversations about achievements, integrity, value systems, respect, etc., and will continue to have more next year. They will be in college soon. I hope they don’t repeat this mistake in college. If I were a college admission officer, I would feel safer about these two kids than some others whom I suspect have cheated and likely would continue taking shortcuts in college (such as using chatGPT for assignments).
I think this shows the bias towards your own kids, respectuflly.
If are talking about selective admissions, tons of kids have no history nor inclination to cheating. Actions speak louder than words. I am not sure evidence that the kids who never cheated are MORE likely to start cheating because they haven’t before.
I do wish your kids all the best!
This is my feeling. Selective colleges are often called rejective colleges for a reason - they sometimes seem to be looking more for a reason to reject, rather than to accept, because they get so many exceptional applicants with not nearly enough space for them all. I wouldn’t give them any reason to doubt you, which is why topics like cheating (or mental illness, as another example), need to be treated very carefully.That doesn’t mean you can never write about them if you have a very compelling story that ends strong, but you need to be very, very careful as the topic could backfire and become the reason you end up in the reject pile.
Thank you for pointing it out, that’s why I wrote “if you were my student…” in the first place.
Please understand that I hold nothing against “evidence that the kids who never cheated”. I only compare those who have learned from cheating (caught or not) against those whom I would suspect of cheating (high course grades but low standard testing scores, grade gap between two highly correlated classes, sudden spike in grades/test scores, exaggerated description of EC activities/accomplishments, etc.).
I’m super sorry about your accident, and I hope you feel better now about that.
As for your AP Exam, it makes sense that the proctor will be contacting College Board. So apparently, according to my CS teacher, there’s this thing called blacklisting where College Board will try to not let you get accepted to colleges. So think of this just like a red flag. It’s not going to go on your transcript I hope, but I think it really just depends on your school.
This won’t keep you out of college, but it’ll definitely cause colleges to think twice (before accepting you, hopefully). They don’t want a cheater on their premises - it’ll damage their reputation. But, please, please don’t worry and stress about it too much. It’s just one AP Exam, and you got caught. Learn from it. You still have a bright future - just don’t ever do it again.
I hope you will get out of this somehow - ask your counselor btw. And I wish you the best!!
There’s no such thing.
According to my husband’s eighth grade teacher, Sister Mary Clarence, every transgression he ever made would go on his permanent record and keep him out of a good HS, college, and grad program. That was a lie, too.