Cheating IA

[Psychyouout24]

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To keep this short and sweet, my freshman year during an intro science class. Our professor held weekly quizzes online but were to be taken in class on the computer. I religiously came into class and took them weekly, but this particular week I was really sick and couldn’t get out of bed to take the quiz in person. It was stupid, in the grand scheme of the class the quiz was worth less than 1% of my grade and I knew all the material. I should’ve just taken the zero and skipped the quiz, but I took it from home to prevent taking a grade hit, which again I’m really embarassed about and hate how stupid of a mistake I made. I guess a lot of the class had been doing this so the professor found a way to figure who wasn’t in lecture during the quiz and essentially charged everyone with a Cheating IA. The penalty was a 0 on the quiz, and an IA on the schools internal record. I ended up with a B+ in the class. Didn’t have to withdraw and didn’t fail, but I admitted fault since there’s really no way to prove I didn’t use outside resources during the quiz and took the charge as is. I graduated and am taking some gap years before applying and I plan to be forthcoming with the IA on my app. I have decent stats and using some gaps to make them better, a good mcat and tons of research and clinical hours along with one publication and a leadership board position on a campus. I’m planning on applying to more service based schools since that’s my calling to the field so I’m not really worried about getting into the most prestigious school. Is there any advice anyone could give me. I’m already planning on taking 2 gaps to get clinical experience and retake some classes for a GPA boost. And I never had another incident since. Any advice?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

First, how did your IA get documented by your student conduct office? What policies regarding attendance and quizzes were broken in your actions, and how was it consistent with your institution's academic integrity policy? What was the sanction and punishment?

I agree, what you did was "stupid" (your words). You got a zero anyway, plus you got caught in an IA "dragnet" (my words). Was this a medical school prereq course?

 

[Psychyouout24]

Welcome to the forums.

First, how did your IA get documented by your student conduct office? What policies regarding attendance and quizzes were broken in your actions, and how was it consistent with your institution's academic integrity policy? What was the sanction and punishment?

I agree, what you did was "stupid" (your words). You got a zero anyway, plus you got caught in an IA "dragnet" (my words). Was this a medical school prereq course?

It is in my internal student record. No where on my transcript and must be requested to be seen. The policy that quizzes must be taken in person, unless instructed otherwise to prevent an unfair advantage and that’s the policy that was breached. I have no way of proving I didn’t use any materials, so the sanction says “cheating” and the punishment was a 0 on the quiz. No failure in course, grade reduction or anything further. And yes it was considered a pre req most take early in college for med school.

 

[chilly_md]

I graduated and am taking some gap years before applying and I plan to be forthcoming with the IA on my app. I have decent stats and using some gaps to make them better, a good mcat and tons of research and clinical hours along with one publication and a leadership board position on a campus. I’m planning on applying to more service based schools since that’s my calling to the field so I’m not really worried about getting into the most prestigious school. Is there any advice anyone could give me. I’m already planning on taking 2 gaps to get clinical experience and retake some classes for a GPA boost. And I never had another incident since. Any advice?

It appears you have read some existing threads so you know there isn't a need to reinvent the wheel really here. Since you did not mention anything specific for non-clinical volunteering, service to those less fortunate like at your local homeless shelter or soup kitchen is always helpful.

This recent thread is a good example of how applicants can write about the IA:

A

Thread 'Need Advice on IA Essay'

Jun 5, 2025

Hello all,

When I was young and stupid I made a mistake on 2 of my homework assignments. I was told after the end of the semester that I committed plagiarism and unauthorized collaboration.

Here is my IA essay. I'd like to know if I am taking responsibility for my mistake.

"As a freshman, I took my first computer science class in Spring 2018. I made a mistake with the integrity of my homework. I was cited for plagiarism and unauthorized collaboration. I was notified of both of these violations after the end of the semester, in May and June of 2018. I take full responsibility for not...

• AspiringPremed2025
• Replies: 12
• Forum: Pre-Medical (MD)

 

[RagingBolt34]

It is in my internal student record. No where on my transcript and must be requested to be seen. The policy that quizzes must be taken in person, unless instructed otherwise to prevent an unfair advantage and that’s the policy that was breached. I have no way of proving I didn’t use any materials, so the sanction says “cheating” and the punishment was a 0 on the quiz. No failure in course, grade reduction or anything further. And yes it was considered a pre req most take early in college for med school.

Hey man, I got a similar type of cheating IA in my sophmore year and I'm sitting on 4 MD interviews right now with very average stats so trust that your career isn't over despite what others may say. Gap years will definitely help as I had to take 1 to strengthen my app as well. My advice to you is that if you are ever questioned about the incident in an interview or need to write about it in an essay, avoid mentioning things like the fact that you were sick and decided not to go in on that one day or that you took the quiz from home but didn't use outside resources or other things like that. Unfortunately even if you really didn't use any outside help and took the quiz legitimately, my best advice would to be to just own up to the situation and recognize where you went wrong anyway as that is what medical schools will view as most mature.

 

[Psychyouout24]

Hey man, I got a similar type of cheating IA in my sophmore year and I'm sitting on 4 MD interviews right now with very average stats so trust that your career isn't over despite what others may say. Gap years will definitely help as I had to take 1 to strengthen my app as well. My advice to you is that if you are ever questioned about the incident in an interview or need to write about it in an essay, avoid mentioning things like the fact that you were sick and decided not to go in on that one day or that you took the quiz from home but didn't use outside resources or other things like that. Unfortunately even if you really didn't use any outside help and took the quiz legitimately, my best advice would to be to just own up to the situation and recognize where you went wrong anyway as that is what medical schools will view as most mature.

thank you for your comment! It gives me hope. I only went into detail for the sake of the post, so people giving advice can know what actually happened. I hope I didn’t come off as excusing it or anything like that. I will take your advice and not mention those things if asked about it. If you’ve done any interviews, have they come up and how did the second word the questions? I really appreciate you’re help

 

[RagingBolt34]

thank you for your comment! It gives me hope. I only went into detail for the sake of the post, so people giving advice can know what actually happened. I hope I didn’t come off as excusing it or anything like that. I will take your advice and not mention those things if asked about it. If you’ve done any interviews, have they come up and how did the second word the questions? I really appreciate you’re help

Yeah so it varies by med school for sure. This is my second app cycle and I had 3 interviews last year and have done 4 this year so a total of 7 interviews at all different schools. Out of all of those, only one med school brought it up in the interview, but for that school, they asked me a lot about it and we ended up talking about it for around 15 minutes. So definitely be prepared for it to come up even though I believe the chance is low. Tbh whenever they ask about it in a secondary I think it is just fine to copy and paste what you wrote about it in your primary as that is what I did. Typically, they just ask again in the secondary because for some schools, the people reading your secondary may not have access to your primary so they wouldn't have access to that info unless they ask the question again.

 

[Psychyouout24]

Yeah so it varies by med school for sure. This is my second app cycle and I had 3 interviews last year and have done 4 this year so a total of 7 interviews at all different schools. Out of all of those, only one med school brought it up in the interview, but for that school, they asked me a lot about it and we ended up talking about it for around 15 minutes. So definitely be prepared for it to come up even though I believe the chance is low. Tbh whenever they ask about it in a secondary I think it is just fine to copy and paste what you wrote about it in your primary as that is what I did. Typically, they just ask again in the secondary because for some schools, the people reading your secondary may not have access to your primary so they wouldn't have access to that info unless they ask the question again.

Thanks for the clarification! I’m definitely going to prepare for it to come up during interviews. I hope your cycle is successful and your future interviews go well!

 

[Goro]

Just keep your nose clean from now on and own your transgression. You'll be fine as most of us were young and stupid When We Were Young too.