Academic Dishonesty

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Boronew

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Hello everyone.
I'm a pre-dental student at a small private school. I'm currently a senior, and I'm getting ready to apply to dental school once I graduate on May 2023.
As you have guessed by the title of this post, I made a huge and embarrassing mistake: academic dishonesty.

Let me explain what happened.
It happened during the Fall semester of my junior year. I was taking an introductory religion course at that time, and I genuinely enjoyed the class. There was a book review assignment. For the assignment, I just had to choose one book and write a book review about it. It was very simple, but due to my laziness, I started the assignment 3 days before the deadline. That was when I realized I had made a big mistake. The book that I chose to read wasn't available anymore. I started to feel great pressure from this. Maybe I was blinded by this pressure, so instead of emailing my professor about my situation, I searched for a summary and a book review. I found them, and I wrote my book review based on these two online sources. My professor noticed the similarity, and she told me this was plagiarism. In the end, I was given academic dishonesty with a penalty, which was a grade deduction to C+.

When my professor told me about this, I was very embarrassed and sorry because she trusted her students including myself, but I let her down and gave her disappointment. I couldn't believe I'd done such a shameful and wrongful action. I wanted to make up for my mistake, so I decided to take her next course in the Spring semester. I worked and studied as much as I could, and I was able to earn an A+ for that course. After that, I had a meeting with her, and we talked about what I've learned from her courses and from my mistake. We were able to see that I've changed ever since the incident. She decided to write me a letter of recommendation for my dental school, and I'm very thankful for it.

Even at this moment, I am very remorseful for my action, but I'm grateful for the lessons that I learned from it.

However, I believe reality is cruel and sometimes no-mercy. I'm certainly aware that having academic dishonesty on my application is a huge red flag. Is my chance to get into dental school gone? Do I have no chance at all?

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I won't say "no chance," but the recency bias doesn't help you. It may be one thing if you were a freshman who didn't know better.

Find out how this situation was documented with your student conduct office who may give you advice on how to write about this incident and how you learned from it.
 
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I won't say "no chance," but the recency bias doesn't help you. It may be one thing if you were a freshman who didn't know better.

Find out how this situation was documented with your student conduct office who may give you advice on how to write about this incident and how you learned from it.
I had something similar happen 6 years ago and I felt like it was the largest reason why this application season was very quiet. Do you think many would consider 6 years enough time to grow or would recency bias still qualify here?
 
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I had something similar happen 6 years ago and I felt like it was the largest reason why this application season was very quiet. Do you think many would consider 6 years enough time to grow or would recency bias still qualify here?
How was your situation different? We shouldn't completely generalize and compare. School lists are different. Committees will be different.
 
How was your situation different? We shouldn't completely generalize and compare. School lists are different. Committees will be different.
It was somewhat similar, plagiarism on a paper, though this involved not properly citing my sources and just quoting them directly. I was going through cancer treatment at the time and really stopped caring about school, it was my intention to go back and fix my paper but I was just burnt out. I was 100% at fault, no question. I took an F in the class and received a 6-month academic suspension. This was the last course needed for my BS so I had to take another course to complete and graduate. The F and academic suspension are both on my transcript.
 
Was any of this actually put on a transcript, or did you just get the C+?
 
Also OP: did the professor share a draft of the letter with you? If it brings up your academic dishonesty issue, even if it well-intentioned, some faculty could dismiss your application. "Jw really recovered after I found an example of Plagiarism..."

I would be extremely surprised if it was reported on your transcript. That's not the norm.
 
It was somewhat similar, plagiarism on a paper, though this involved not properly citing my sources and just quoting them directly. I was going through cancer treatment at the time and really stopped caring about school, it was my intention to go back and fix my paper but I was just burnt out. I was 100% at fault, no question. I took an F in the class and received a 6-month academic suspension. This was the last course needed for my BS so I had to take another course to complete and graduate. The F and academic suspension are both on my transcript.
In this case, this happened your last year? How long ago was this?
 
I had an academic dishonesty incident in 2020 as a sophomore, applied this year and got 6 interviews and 3 acceptances. Everyone makes mistakes, don't beat yourself up about it. Explain what happened in the AADSAS app and emphasize how you've learned and changed from it. The fact that the professor wrote you a letter of rec will prove to adcoms that you've learned and grown from this, and thats the only thing that matters to them. Relax, you will be fine
 
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I had an academic dishonesty incident in 2020 as a sophomore, applied this year and got 6 interviews and 3 acceptances. Everyone makes mistakes, don't beat yourself up about it. Explain what happened in the AADSAS app and emphasize how you've learned and changed from it. The fact that the professor wrote you a letter of rec will prove to adcoms that you've learned and grown from this, and thats the only thing that matters to them. Relax, you will be fine
Can I DM you to ask about your personal experience?
 
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I had an academic dishonesty incident in 2020 as a sophomore, applied this year and got 6 interviews and 3 acceptances. Everyone makes mistakes, don't beat yourself up about it. Explain what happened in the AADSAS app and emphasize how you've learned and changed from it. The fact that the professor wrote you a letter of rec will prove to adcoms that you've learned and grown from this, and thats the only thing that matters to them. Relax, you will be fine
Thank you for sharing your experience! It really helps :)!!
 
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Also OP: did the professor share a draft of the letter with you? If it brings up your academic dishonesty issue, even if it well-intentioned, some faculty could dismiss your application. "Jw really recovered after I found an example of Plagiarism..."

I would be extremely surprised if it was reported on your transcript. That's not the norm.
I see.. do you think it's not a good idea to get a letter of recommendation from her?
 
No time to be timid. Ask the prof if they are going to mention the incident in the LOR. If so, don't dissuade them. Politely decline the LOR and find another.
 
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I received academic dishonesty and they failed me, resulting with a F* on my transcript. I was able to remove the * (which means for cheating), but the F remained and I had to retake the course. I received an interview this cycle, but I am not entirely sure how much it affected my other choices. But honestly, I was worried as well but just gotta not beat yourself up as many people said and you definitely still have a shot.
 
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** Update **
I was fortunate enough to be accepted at a few dental schools this cycle.
I doubted myself for the last 2 years due to my academic infraction record. However, I learned a lesson from my mistake and owned up to it.
Thank you so much to everyone in this thread for giving me and helping me with support :)!

-Boronew
 
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** Update **
I was fortunate enough to be accepted at a few dental schools this cycle.
I doubted myself for the last 2 years due to my academic infraction record. However, I learned a lesson from my mistake and owned up to it.
Thank you so much to everyone in this thread for giving me and helping me with support :)!

-Boronew
Congrats, keep making sure to be humble and know and acknowledge when you’ve made a mistake. It will go a long way with patients if something happens. Welcome to the profession!
 
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