Hi all,
I graduated this spring and plan on applying broadly to DO schools very soon. Last fall in an English course I received an academic IA. It was for a small 10pt assignment which had us practice looking for sources on a topic of our choice. It was introduced during class and was due at midnight the same day. I procrastinated and completely underestimated how long it would take so I barely finished it on time. This course completely allows using AI for finding sources and a bunch of other things, so I used a mix of google scholar and chatgpt to find sources, but some sources from the AI were “faked" or “hallucinated”. At the time, I didn’t realize this is something AIs can do, let alone, do this quite often. Rushing to get it done I also foolishly submitted everything without checking it. Several weeks later, my prof asked me what happened on canvas. I genuinely had no idea because I couldn’t recall the details of what I did exactly. But after looking at the sources they appeared extremely similar to existing ones so I didn’t think much of it, and assumed that I made mistakes on the citations from rushing so that’s what I told her. After a few messages on canvas of her basically thinking that I was being dishonest, she ended up reporting me for plagiarism and falsification/fabrication of sources. I freaked out so I spent hours going through my google search and chatgpt history and finally realized what had happened. Although the situation was entirely inadvertent, I never tried fighting it because in the end, I am responsible for the work I turn in and have no excuses. I received a 0 on the assignment and ended up with an A- in the course.
Of course, I should’ve checked my work and NEVER procrastinated, and I take full accountability for everything. It was a super dumb mistake and I regret it every single day. I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me how bad this will look for med school apps, and the best way to explain it. I requested my academic record from my university, and it only shows the charges, sanctions, and dates for the case. So I’m kind of confused on how much detail I should provide on my apps. Do med schools have access to more information that includes all the details on the case, because if not, how are they supposed to verify everything even after waiving FERPA? I would really appreciate any advice as I am a little lost on how to go forward with this.
I graduated this spring and plan on applying broadly to DO schools very soon. Last fall in an English course I received an academic IA. It was for a small 10pt assignment which had us practice looking for sources on a topic of our choice. It was introduced during class and was due at midnight the same day. I procrastinated and completely underestimated how long it would take so I barely finished it on time. This course completely allows using AI for finding sources and a bunch of other things, so I used a mix of google scholar and chatgpt to find sources, but some sources from the AI were “faked" or “hallucinated”. At the time, I didn’t realize this is something AIs can do, let alone, do this quite often. Rushing to get it done I also foolishly submitted everything without checking it. Several weeks later, my prof asked me what happened on canvas. I genuinely had no idea because I couldn’t recall the details of what I did exactly. But after looking at the sources they appeared extremely similar to existing ones so I didn’t think much of it, and assumed that I made mistakes on the citations from rushing so that’s what I told her. After a few messages on canvas of her basically thinking that I was being dishonest, she ended up reporting me for plagiarism and falsification/fabrication of sources. I freaked out so I spent hours going through my google search and chatgpt history and finally realized what had happened. Although the situation was entirely inadvertent, I never tried fighting it because in the end, I am responsible for the work I turn in and have no excuses. I received a 0 on the assignment and ended up with an A- in the course.
Of course, I should’ve checked my work and NEVER procrastinated, and I take full accountability for everything. It was a super dumb mistake and I regret it every single day. I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me how bad this will look for med school apps, and the best way to explain it. I requested my academic record from my university, and it only shows the charges, sanctions, and dates for the case. So I’m kind of confused on how much detail I should provide on my apps. Do med schools have access to more information that includes all the details on the case, because if not, how are they supposed to verify everything even after waiving FERPA? I would really appreciate any advice as I am a little lost on how to go forward with this.
