For context, I’m currently a dual enrollment student at another USG system school. On 1 essay, I was lazy and cited wrong sources and the teacher caught me. Some of you guys may clown me, but I did not know that this was grounds for plagiarism. This was my first offense ever for something like this and she made a faculty adjudication form. I know I am in the wrong, but I am worried that this will get me rescinded from the school. Technically I got a 0 and a “Stated disapproval or a warning issued to the student” but I genuinely don’t know what to do now. Even though it is a stated dissaproval, apparently it is recorded in USG files. I am worried that GT will see this and rescind me. I feel so stupid right now and I currently have a bad grade in the class because of the 0 from the essay and I probably will have to drop the class to save my grade. How will I explain to GT about how I have gotten an academic dishonesty thing and how I need to drop my course. PMs are always open as I really really need advice. I’m so deeply regretful about my actions but I don’t know if that’s enough to save me.
So what did you do, were the citations not relevant to the text, or did you cite the wrong source? While these both are clumsy and are bad practice, the only things that is considered plagiarism is using material without an attribution.
I mean, if I had seen that, I would have dinged you a lot of points, since it indicates that you did really read the source material or that you didn’t read it well enough to realize that it doesn’t support your text.
However, what would be considered plagiarism is if the bad citation indicates that you copied the text with the citation from another work, and you messed up the copying. Or if you used AI and it plagiarized material and used the wrong citation because AI sometimes does that.
However, simply citing a wrong source or citing a source that doesn’t actually support your text because you didn’t understand the source aren’t plagiarism.
What is the class and how bad will your grade likely be?
It’s possible that this was a fake citation (meaning a source that doesn’t exist, or one that does exist but doesn’t contain the information cited, or one that does exist but is so obscure that a student would never actually use it for research), which would indicate AI use. I’m only guessing, because that would be the only scenario I can imagine in which a bad citation could lead to a plagiarism charge.
The brave thing to do here would be to contact GT directly and take responsibility. That may well result in rescission. Or you can hope they don’t notice and spend the next four years (or longer) worrying that they notice down the road and you suffer consequences then. This record should be be sent to GT at semester’s end no matter what you do.
It’s March. Can you even drop the course this late in the semester?
I know it feels terrible right now, but in the long run you are better off trying to do the honorable thing and take responsibility for your actions. I recognize that there are plenty of examples of people in public life who have advanced or at least not been disadvantaged by doing the opposite, but if you have a healthy conscience you’re better off not cheating or hiding. I’m old now, and the mistakes of my youth that still wake me up at night are the ones I didn’t acknowledge and apologize for.
Need more details here, as mwolf asked. Is there an appeal process at the school?
What does this mean, exactly? Is it on your transcript? You have to know all the details before you can make any decisions.
Can you drop, or will this be a W? I assume you included this course in your GA Tech app? (Note that Ga Tech, like many schools, does not require DE transcripts at application time. Also, often students taking DE classes in 12th grade don’t know what classes they will take second semester, so these go unreported at the time of application.)