<p>Well although I beilive academic integrity is important, i think school systems can be a little harsh…let me give an example: a senior at my school has a perfect GPA (str8 As from Freshman year with many AP classes), she was a star student, as she was involved in many extracuricular activities incl. several honor societies. Unfortunatly she did forge some tutoring hours that she needed for an honor society. Although I do not necessarily condone her actions, I feel the punishment she received was harsh: suspension. I think a more positive punishment would be to remove her from the honor society and force her to do some community service (maybe saturday school and a strong lecture). However the schools decision to suspend her, hurt her future academically and is quite disapointing…maybe its jsut me but schools need to chill out. At my school kids are often suspended longer for cheating than assulting other kids, which makes no sense to me. because assulting another student is 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000X worse than cheating, but thats just my 2 cents, lemme know wat u guys think</p>
<p>cheating should not be condoned, and a severe punishment is neccessary for maintenance, but if your school treats cheating worse than assualt, perhaps you should have picked another school.</p>
<p>Cheating affects the entire learning environment, whereas a case of assault is an isolated incident.</p>
<p>People aren’t suddenly going to start taking liberties to beat the snuff out of each other, but they’ll have a much higher incentive to cheat if discipline regarding integrity is lax.</p>
<p>assult is in no way isolated…1 kid gets picked on…then next day he/she can take it out on others and the vicous cycle continues.</p>
<p>cheating is also not as clearly defined as many of us would like it to be.</p>
<p>another issue (that does not make cheating better) should be considered, i have been in a class where 20 out of the 26 ppl cheated on quizes…the teacher not knowing thought the quizes were easy(although they were extremely difficult) forced those of us that got low scores (cause we did not cheat) to go through special remidiation. Alhough this does not justify cheating, it does provide a powerful incentive…i know jsut becuase everyone is doing doesn’t mean its right or acceptable, but it (regardless of wat n e of u say) encourage such behavior</p>
<p>kwu talks about a community of learning, but he seems to think that everyone should go through school completely alone without help from anywhere. If a teacher gives answers that doesn’t mean the school doesn’t take cheating seriously, it means that that particular teacher felt those problems were too difficult and decided the kids shouldn’t be left on their own.</p>
<p>Also, all but one of the take home tests I’ve ever recieved were given out with the understanding that kids would help one another. Any teacher who thinks otherwise when giving out a test is either kidding themselves, or is just tempting the kids (and maybe, in a sadistic way, WANTS to catch kids for cheating so they can prove some preconcieved notion they have about kids’ morality- I doubt that though).</p>
<p>Cheating on things like mid-terms, finals and standardized tests is obviously very serious, but on things like homework, who really cares, it’s not like someone else having their homework effects the credit you recieve for it. I’m not encouraging cheating, but I don’t cover up my tests or hide my homework or anything. If someone cheats thats their perogative, and they may or may not face consequences. (By the way, I don’t think that anyone should have their application rescinded for being caught cheating once. That is a serious, long-term consequence for a momentary lapse of judgement at 17 or 18, a lapse that was probably caused by the pressure placed on students by parents, counselors and the whole college admissions process.)</p>
<p>People who get angered by cheating are upset because they judge themselve based on the results of others. If I do well on a test I’m happy, it doesn’t matter if other people do just as well or better- even if they recieved those results through cheating.</p>
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I agree that assualt is obviously more serious…um who wouldn’t…</p>
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and i agree with that too.</p>
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<p>…who looks at students’ tests to see what page they’re on? Unless they’re one of those pain-in-the-ass kids who asks you what you got on your SAT as a means of saying “hello”.</p>
<p>Well if you feel like your running out of time, you might want to see how far others are…for example my math tests are usually 2 parts (calc and non calc) and the parts are color coded…so i sometimes take a look around the class to see wat color paper students are writing on (i know its a little diff, but same idea.</p>
<p>^lol no, tat’s exactly what i was taking about, i guess</p>
<p>“kwu talks about a community of learning, but he seems to think that everyone should go through school completely alone without help from anywhere.”</p>
<p>What the **** is this ****?</p>
<p>Don’t put words in my mouth.</p>
<p>Never once in this topic did I say, either directly or indirectly, that helping one another with homework assignments and problem sets is a bad thing.</p>
<p>will he have to kiss columbia goodbye…mm…depends on the teacher/couselor!</p>
<p>BREAKING NEWS
He got away with it. What a lying cheater…r-b m</p>
<p>people always say that cheaters will eventually all get caught or get their comeupance, but its just something to make themselves feel better</p>
<p>I’m willing to bet that the school will keep mum about this. I do not think the teacher will be so stringent as to report this, in all considerations, minor offense, especially if it has happened for the first time. If, however, the behavior continues, he or she will feel obligated to report it to the councilor.<br>
Unless the original poster or other witnesses go out and report the incident to a newspaper, i don’t see how columbia would find out about this, I think there is a very small risk in the school being blacklisted. </p>
<p>Just a note. I do not condone plagiarism at all, I am just stating what I think will be the likely course of events to take place. Cheating is a horrible offense, especially in a community where academics are of the utmost importance. I sincerely hope that person will not repeat his or her actions at Columbia, because they will most definitely catch and expel him or her from school.</p>
<p>okay, i’m going to get flamed, but I honestly don’t think one infraction should get him rescinded from columbia…AND every top school in the country since apps are almost all completed already. should this ONE, and probably only, cheating offense have such a life-changing consequence? if he was reported, he will probably be going to community college next year.</p>
<p>Peach Chardonnay: I would disagree with you. Here’s why: he’s a cheater. Now, he may have only done this once, but chances are that he has done this more than once. If he’s doing it after he got accepted, it would be ridiculous to assume that he has never done this before. If he was getting the grades he needed for Columbia without cheating, why cheat? Most schools are pretty relaxed about senior year grades(“Just don’t get any Ds”), so there does not appear to be an incentive to start cheating now. </p>
<p>The only plausible explanation to me is that he would not be able to keep with Columbia’s lax minimum requirements for admission without cheating due to the fact that his grades were heavily inflated by cheating in his prior high school carer.</p>
<p>Now, there’s no proof for what I said above, but any level-headed person would agree with this. Having no incentive to start now, with him cheating now, implies that he had an incentive to CONTINUE cheating.</p>
<p>Should he get his acceptance rescinded? I say yes, because it is apparent he has little to no academic integrity. In high school, this is one thing, but in college and in later life, it’s another. If this kid plagiarized a paper in college and got caught, he would be expelled and have a lot of trouble gaining acceptance to any decent college(unless your friend is a “threatened” URM…*). The kid is going to have to learn somewhere down the line. If not in high school than in college. If not in college, than in the real world. Each time the consequences get more dire(with a rescinded acceptance, you can go to another okay school, get a degree and a job; with a plagiarism in college you’ll go to a mediocre school get a degree and a job; cheating at work, and you’ll have trouble finding a job). It’s better for him to learn now when the consequences aren’t so dire.</p>
<ul>
<li>Reference to Columbia</li>
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<p>^You’re right, in that blatantly knowingly cheating like he did with his takehome test was definitely WRONG and should be punished (which he wasn’t). If a student had never cheated before (which would be hard to prove) but suffered one breakdown due to stress and was not thinking right, that type of infraction should not warrant being reported. However it seems as if this guy was copying answers off a test right in front of a teacher…how ■■■■■■■■. It’s obvious he has no morals at all, since it’s his senior year so how much stress could he be under? It seems as if he just wanted to be overly lazy. I don’t know what I would have done if I was a guidance counselor, but schools would also like their students to attend top colleges so they can brag about it (I know my school does). So if there is no serious chance of repercussion for the school, it would probably hide this incident of cheating. The school is, in essence, as morally correct as the cheater. </p>
<p>hmm…but would you report him? All you have to do is send an email and some proof to Columbia. There are many examples of people having been kicked out of college becuase of an anonymous tip. This guy does seem like a loser but I personally wouldn’t make that call or send that email.</p>
<p>Best case scenario: he hadn’t cheated before and earned his way to Columbia. And he takes this “scare” as a warning against ever cheating again.</p>
<p>kwu, seriously - lay off narcissa. jeez, if she really is a horrible person, and stupid to boot, she won’t get accepted. </p>
<p>I don’t cheat but not necessarily for moral reasons; I don’t cheat because I am more confidence in my intelligence than I am in other people’s. If you are confident in yourself and your abilities, you really shouldn’t care so much Narcissa’s comments. In my experience, students who cheat never were competitive enough or intelligent enough to have a shot at the Ivies anyways.</p>
<p>Some people reeeeally need to take the stick out of their bums. </p>
<p>I don’t cheat (mainly because I’m a horribly nervous test-taker as it is and see this as added stress thats really not needed if you study) but a lot of people do. And thats their deal. I don’t feel morally superior that I don’t cheat. I may get a little schadenfreude if I see one get caught in an exam but thats about it.</p>
<p>Its their business and certainly not ground for others to feel superior about to such a ridiculous extent.</p>