Dismissed for plagiarism

cosmicfish
Mon, 05 Aug 2013 11:42:09 +0000

OP: This will follow you until you leave this field of study or complete a terminal degree. They will not advertise the reason why you left the program, but they WILL tell anyone who asks with a need to know. Since any OTHER program will ask them, this will be something that every such program will find out about.

The first thing I would do is talk to your department. Find out if there is any process for re-entry - often, after X years you can apply to re-enter, although you will need to convince them that you have changed and will not do such a thing again. Even if there is not, you may have a professor or two who is on your side and can speak to the circumstances. If neither of these is true then you are probably done getting this degree in the US.

The second thing I would do is to talk to some other schools PRIOR to applying. Explain the situation, refer them to that professor at your old department who can vouch for you (assuming you have one), and ask them if they would consider you or if your application would be wasted paper. Don’t ask them for an admission decision (as that is a competitive issue) but simply if you qualify for admission.

The third thing I would do is figure out something useful to do for the months or years it may take to resolve this. You will need to show them some indication that you are a hard-working, dedicated, ethical individual, and incidentally probably need an income while this is all going on.

Good luck! I was dismissed from my undergrad for grades, but was re-admitted 6 years later and finished strong. Yours is a more difficult case, but I would not say you are sunk quite yet.