Academic integrity question

[Jack Marcos]

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I was accused of plagiarism in my first year and after having a meeting with the dean, I was given a Letter of Reprimand and awarded a 0 on a 1% worth assignment. I was not issued anything on my transcript. The act of plagiarism was completely unintentional and I understand that is still my fault, and have learned a lot since then. In short what happened was, I went to the TA's office to ask a question about my lab report and I made the mistake of telling my partner I was going to see the TA, and my partner ended up coming with me. while asking questions on details of the report my partner was there and in doing so I believe this is how my report got flagged because some of the answers were too similar (I am assuming because we were both in the TA's office talking with the TA) After the fact I initially felt there was no way back to even get interviews at any medical school, but after looking around on the forum it seems it may be possible? I will be a competitive student MCAT wise and cGPA wise, along with volunteering and clinical experience, I am wondering if anyone has had any experience with a similar situation.

Any advice or opinions are appreciated!

 

[Listle]

I worked on a committee that issued "letters of reprimand" and heard cases such as this and determined responsibility + sanction. Based on what you have shared, I do not think this will prevent you from applying. There are two possibilities here that you can look into.

The first is that with my school, the formal letter of reprimand is not reflected on transcripts. It is a private record such that if you ever came before us again, we would know you had a prior letter of reprimand (i.e. pattern behavior) and issue a harsher sanction if found responsible. Find out with your school if they have a similar policy on the letter of reprimand.

If they do not, the school I attended had the ability to expunge records, either after a certain number of years or with good reason - this required a formal letter of apology and introspection that the committee reads and then makes a determination on. Your student affairs and judicial affairs office should be able to provide you with this information.

 

[Jack Marcos]

I worked on a committee that issued "letters of reprimand" and heard cases such as this and determined responsibility + sanction. Based on what you have shared, I do not think this will prevent you from applying. There are two possibilities here that you can look into.

The first is that with my school, the formal letter of reprimand is not reflected on transcripts. It is a private record such that if you ever came before us again, we would know you had a prior letter of reprimand (i.e. pattern behavior) and issue a harsher sanction if found responsible. Find out with your school if they have a similar policy on the letter of reprimand.

If they do not, the school I attended had the ability to expunge records, either after a certain number of years or with good reason - this required a formal letter of apology and introspection that the committee reads and then makes a determination on. Your student affairs and judicial affairs office should be able to provide you with this information.

Thank you for the reply, my school is like the first policy you stated, it is exactly that a warning basically if I something happened like this again, so it is not on my transcript unless I did something again, which will not happen. What would you suggest in this situation?

 

[Listle]

Thank you for the reply, my school is like the first policy you stated, it is exactly that a warning basically if I something happened like this again, so it is not on my transcript unless I did something again, which will not happen. What would you suggest in this situation?

I suggest you clarify with student affairs and judicial affairs that it is not on your transcript and instead an internal piece of information. Also ask whether they consider it to be an institutional action reportable to graduate institutions. (call or likely easier email)
If not reported as an IA and just an internal measure, don't worry about it and apply.

If your question here is whether you should report it even if your school doesn't, the answer is no. You know whether you've learned from your mistakes, and you know whether or not you have academic integrity. If you don't, then you should reconsider applying in the first place. Otherwise, there is nothing to explain, especially if it was a mix-up as you stated, only red flags to be raised by bringing this issue into your application.

 

[Goro]

I was accused of plagiarism in my first year and after having a meeting with the dean, I was given a Letter of Reprimand and awarded a 0 on a 1% worth assignment. I was not issued anything on my transcript. The act of plagiarism was completely unintentional and I understand that is still my fault, and have learned a lot since then. In short what happened was, I went to the TA's office to ask a question about my lab report and I made the mistake of telling my partner I was going to see the TA, and my partner ended up coming with me. while asking questions on details of the report my partner was there and in doing so I believe this is how my report got flagged because some of the answers were too similar (I am assuming because we were both in the TA's office talking with the TA) After the fact I initially felt there was no way back to even get interviews at any medical school, but after looking around on the forum it seems it may be possible? I will be a competitive student MCAT wise and cGPA wise, along with volunteering and clinical experience, I am wondering if anyone has had any experience with a similar situation.

Any advice or opinions are appreciated!

Own this and you should be OK.

 

[Jack Marcos]

I suggest you clarify with student affairs and judicial affairs that it is not on your transcript and instead an internal piece of information. Also ask whether they consider it to be an institutional action reportable to graduate institutions. (call or likely easier email)
If not reported as an IA and just an internal measure, don't worry about it and apply.

If your question here is whether you should report it even if your school doesn't, the answer is no. You know whether you've learned from your mistakes, and you know whether or not you have academic integrity. If you don't, then you should reconsider applying in the first place. Otherwise, there is nothing to explain, especially if it was a mix-up as you stated, only red flags to be raised by bringing this issue into your application.

thank you for the advice, I appreciate it

 

[LizzyM]

I suggest you clarify with student affairs and judicial affairs that it is not on your transcript and instead an internal piece of information. Also ask whether they consider it to be an institutional action reportable to graduate institutions. (call or likely easier email)
If not reported as an IA and just an internal measure, don't worry about it and apply.

If your question here is whether you should report it even if your school doesn't, the answer is no. You know whether you've learned from your mistakes, and you know whether or not you have academic integrity. If you don't, then you should reconsider applying in the first place. Otherwise, there is nothing to explain, especially if it was a mix-up as you stated, only red flags to be raised by bringing this issue into your application.

@Jack Marcos
Do not listen to the advice above. This is contrary to the AMCAS instructions and involves you in a fraudulent application if you knowingly withhold information that you are obligated to report.

If you have academic integrity you will know that you must report that you had a letter of repremand for academic misconduct that resulted in a 0 on a 1% assignment (i.e. small potatoes in the scheme of things and obviously not a major cheating scandal).

I generally don't hold out much hope for candidates with institutional actions involving academic misconduct but for a very small misdeed several years in the past, you may receive mercy, but you have to own up to the infraction and offer an explanation similar to what you wrote in your original post.

 

[Jack Marcos]

@Jack Marcos
Do not listen to the advice above. This is contrary to the AMCAS instructions and involves you in a fraudulent application if you knowingly withhold information that you are obligated to report.

If you have academic integrity you will know that you must report that you had a letter of repremand for academic misconduct that resulted in a 0 on a 1% assignment (i.e. small potatoes in the scheme of things and obviously not a major cheating scandal).

I generally don't hold out much hope for candidates with institutional actions involving academic misconduct but for a very small misdeed several years in the past, you may receive mercy, but you have to own up to the infraction and offer an explanation similar to what you wrote in your original post.

thank you for the response, like I said I will definitely ask my institution the exact details on the institutional action. I would never not report it it is indeed considered one. In your expertise do you think it would completely screen me out of interviews? Or if I explained the situation honestly would there be a small chance still?

 

[Jack Marcos]

There is literally an article written about this on sdn.

Reporting an Institutional Action | SDN

Last month, we discussed what constitutes an Institutional Action in the eyes of the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC). If you have one of

www.studentdoctor.net

thanks for the link, I’m just wondering what category would my case fall under? Since minor is more misconduct like drinking etc.
would it be possible to overcome this in your opinion?

 

[LizzyM]

A similarity on a single lab report early in your academic career is not a catastrophic cheating situation and I do think that it would not be a roadblock to admission.

 

[Listle]

@Jack Marcos
Do not listen to the advice above. This is contrary to the AMCAS instructions and involves you in a fraudulent application if you knowingly withhold information that you are obligated to report.

If you have academic integrity you will know that you must report that you had a letter of repremand for academic misconduct that resulted in a 0 on a 1% assignment (i.e. small potatoes in the scheme of things and obviously not a major cheating scandal).

I generally don't hold out much hope for candidates with institutional actions involving academic misconduct but for a very small misdeed several years in the past, you may receive mercy, but you have to own up to the infraction and offer an explanation similar to what you wrote in your original post.

There is a reason I said to verify whether it is an institutional action under the University policy and what they (the institution) consider it to be.

A formal letter of reprimand is not always an IA by the AAMCAS standards, they are often issued (from my experience) when a case isn't fully investigated or comes down to insufficient evidence as a means to cover bases. (i.e. 2 committee members think responsible, 2 committee members think not responsible and we cross our arms and stare at one another for 2 hours until we agree to just issue a reprimand with no intention for it to ever affect the student) For this reason, some schools will tell a student they have received a "formal reprimand" that is not intended to ever be disclosed to graduate schools. Speaking from experience, that is why we had that as an option - if we were unsure about culpability but wanted to ensure there was a trace of possible misconduct without jeopardizing the student's future.

With all due respect, it is often the professors choice about grading (giving a 0% on a project) or not, and it is the judicial affairs' choice on issuing reprimands, and it is not always the case the university intends for them to be treated as an unfavorable action due to misconduct, but instead an indication for records that a student might have been. All schools are different, I speak from an n=1 subset, obviously. It appears that has caused me to direct this student incorrectly or incompletely.

This student could choose to disclose. This student may have to disclose. However, I advised the student to clarify with their institution the exact nature of their "formal reprimand", not violate AMCAS instructions. I apologize if I in anyway misguided them towards a fraudulent application.

 

[LizzyM]

By making a statement about whether this is on the transcript or not, you are implying that if it is not on the transcript then it is not reportable. This is patently untrue and is clear in the AMCAS instructions, an IA is an IA even if it is not on the transcript. Don't throw in a lot of hedging about checking and maybe it wasn't an IA and a lot of stuff that can end up getting an applicant in a heap of heartache.

 

[Listle]

By making a statement about whether this is on the transcript or not, you are implying that if it is not on the transcript then it is not reportable. This is patently untrue and is clear in the AMCAS instructions, an IA is an IA even if it is not on the transcript. Don't throw in a lot of hedging about checking and maybe it wasn't an IA and a lot of stuff that can end up getting an applicant in a heap of heartache.

You are correct, I was incorrect about the "not on transcript not reportable" portion. My point was that there are actions taken by schools such as this that are not intended to be considered an IA because they are a method of recordkeeping so to speak. For us committee members who don't remember if we saw a student 3 years ago and the last time we couldn't decide so we went to the "go-to" reprimand because it scared the student straight one way or another and was intended to have no consequences on their academic future.

If a professor chose to give 0% because they thought it was cheating and the committee heard the case and determined no academic misconduct occurred, yet the professor believed it did and gave a 0%, quite frankly, that is not an IA. That is a professor who has determined what they saw and stuck to it when an objective (and ruling) board disagreed with evidence.
Professors have chosen to write these "letters of reprimand" and they carry no institutional weight, rarely we have had to issue reprimands to professors for doing so. Students have come to student/judicial affairs to ask for expungement or clarification on a letter we never issued them. So pardon my caution when it comes to "Formal Reprimands" on insignificant projects such as this one where a majority of these situations occurred.