Stuyvesant Cheating Scandal

Applying to College
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<p>I believe cheating is probably a more common occurrence at an uber-competitive high school than at an average high school. These students feel the pressure of scoring very high on the SAT/ACT. This is probably one good reason why adcoms place limited importance on these standardized tests. Once a certain score is achieved, competence for elite colleges has been established (SAT 2000/ACT 30). Admission is then based on other factors.</p>

<p>Just my two cents.</p>

<p><a href=“FOX 5 New York”>FOX 5 New York;

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<p>Nothing new under the sun. The recently deceased Gore Vidal says he was able to graduate from Exeter only because he cheated on every math exam. </p>

<p>Ted Kennedy was kicked out of Harvard for a year after he sent someone else to take a Spanish test. </p>

<p>[Boston</a> Globe front page: Ted Kennedy caught cheating at Harvard - Boston.com](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/specials/kennedy/day2_ted_cheats/]Boston”>http://www.boston.com/news/specials/kennedy/day2_ted_cheats/)</p>

<p>I heard rumors–apocryphal?–of pre-med students coughing on other students’ petri dishes to mess up their cultures.</p>

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<p>But do competitive high schools really produce better cheaters than your run-of-the-mill, average high school? I always imagined that, with each increase in student body quality, came an increase in cheating skills…</p>

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<p>[Dozens</a> of Stuyvesant HS students suspended for cheating | GothamSchools](<a href=“http://gothamschools.org/2012/09/07/dozens-of-stuyvesant-hs-students-suspended-for-cheating/]Dozens”>http://gothamschools.org/2012/09/07/dozens-of-stuyvesant-hs-students-suspended-for-cheating/)</p>

<p>66 kids are being suspended for varying amounts of time. IMO they completely deserve it. People outside of New York won’t understand how embarrassing it is that they cheated on the Spanish regents of all tests to choose from.</p>

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<p>They cheated to get a 100, not to get pass, csi. Still wasn’t smart to cheat but I wanted to clear that up</p>

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<p>At non-competitive high schools the mindset of the students is completely different. The majority of these students are happy as long as they pass the exam. No real need to cheat. I believe cheating increases the more competitive the school is. Every student is scratching and fighting to be highly ranked.</p>

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<p>I got a 96 on Japanese because of very stupid mistakes that I didn’t look over. Stuy kids getting a 100 still doesn’t sound very difficult.</p>

<p>ON SPANISH.</p>

<p>Do they really think that any college looks at regents?</p>

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<p>Of course not, but no kid (especially no stuy kid) wants a sub-90 score; to them, it’s worth cheating to make sure it doesn’t happen, which is the OP’s point. OP is observing that the more competitive an environment, the more cheaters there are going to be. Just look at Harvard.
Secondly, don’t compare yourself; not a lot of students care about foreign language in a school that’s focused on math and science. Looking at your past threads, you said you’re taking SAT Japanese and like half of your extracurriculars are focused on Japanese stuff, no duh you’re going to do better than people who don’t care about the subject. None of this is justification for cheating, but they did it because in their minds, “be the best” outweighs “don’t cheat” - NOT because “they had to cheat on Spanish to pass” or because “they think colleges care about regents”
@smileygerl, stuy doesn’t rank, but people generally want to do well anyway just because that’s the kind of environment it is. I agree with what you said.</p>