Do I Still Have a Chance with My Academic Misconduct

[Taian Chen]

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I am now a junior year in a UC. I am planning to apply for med school on my fourth year. I made a stupid mistake on Spring 20 in my humanity writing course. The final exam was two take-home essays that restrict you cite course material sources only. I was copying/paste the materials from a website that interprets the book material, with one of my essay a similarity rate 15%. I was sanctioned by institutional action. Even if it is not on my official transcript, but it is on my school incidence file. May I ask how I can remedy this? I am having a GPA of 3.7, and now I am working on MCAT. Is there still possibility that some medical school wants me? I am considering to become a peer educator in my school academic integrity office. May extracurriclar activities demonstrate my maturity? How can I show my app to med school that I am trustworthy, and this is a mistake I learned from it.

 

[JimKimSlim]

You’re taking the right action by trying to join the academic integrity office. Everyone makes mistakes, and I think most people get away with a good explanation.

However, if you’re an ORM with an IA, I think it’s especially more important that you have high stats (I believe 3.70 is below the median for ORM matriculants). I would say the best thing you can do is to ace that MCAT while devising a good explanation for that IA.

 

[LunaOri]

I predict that you will need to put more distance between yourself and this IA. One year will not be enough. "Cutting and pasting" is plagiarism.

 

[Goro]

I predict that you will need to put more distance between yourself and this IA. One year will not be enough. "Cutting and pasting" is plagiarism.

I agree with my wise colleague.

Continue with being a peer educator.

 

[Taian Chen]

You’re taking the right action by trying to join the academic integrity office. Everyone makes mistakes, and I think most people get away with a good explanation.

However, if you’re an ORM with an IA, I think it’s especially more important that you have high stats (I believe 3.70 is below the median for ORM matriculants). I would say the best thing you can do is to ace that MCAT while devising a good explanation for that IA.

Thank you so much for the good advice!

 

[Taian Chen]

I predict that you will need to put more distance between yourself and this IA. One year will not be enough. "Cutting and pasting" is plagiarism.

Thank you! How many years do you think will be a good distance?May I ask.

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

I am now a junior year in a UC. I am planning to apply for med school on my fourth year. I made a stupid mistake on Spring 20 in my humanity writing course. The final exam was two take-home essays that restrict you cite course material sources only. I was copying/paste the materials from a website that interprets the book material, with one of my essay a similarity rate 15%. I was sanctioned by institutional action. Even if it is not on my official transcript, but it is on my school incidence file. May I ask how I can remedy this? I am having a GPA of 3.7, and now I am working on MCAT. Is there still possibility that some medical school wants me? I am considering to become a peer educator in my school academic integrity office. May extracurriclar activities demonstrate my maturity? How can I show my app to med school that I am trustworthy, and this is a mistake I learned from it.

I'm not sure you've fully grasped the significance of your plagiarism. You literally cut and paste material written by someone else and passed it off as your own. I really don't understand your "similarity rate of 15%" statement. It's not relevant. I agree that you will need time to overcome this with actions that demonstrate you have learned your lesson. Even that won't be enough for some schools as plagiarism is one of the more serious offenses addressed by an IA.

 

[JimKimSlim]

I'm not sure you've fully grasped the significance of your plagiarism. You literally cut and paste material written by someone else and passed it off as your own. I really don't understand your "similarity rate of 15%" statement. It's not relevant. I agree that you will need time to overcome this with actions that demonstrate you have learned your lesson. Even that won't be enough for some schools as plagiarism is one of the more serious offenses addressed by an IA.

I didn’t want to be the one to say what @Putkernerinthehall said... It will be an uphill battle and instant rejection for some schools. However, it’s still doable. Again, an excellent MCAT score will certainly help but it won’t solve all your issues.

 

[Taian Chen]

I'm not sure you've fully grasped the significance of your plagiarism. You literally cut and paste material written by someone else and passed it off as your own. I really don't understand your "similarity rate of 15%" statement. It's not relevant. I agree that you will need time to overcome this with actions that demonstrate you have learned your lesson. Even that won't be enough for some schools as plagiarism is one of the more serious offenses addressed by an IA.

Thank you so much for your reply. This IA indeed makes me feel ashamed and remorseful. I have taken the academic integrity seminar, and noticed how severe my incidence is. I am not trying to find excuses for myself. I only wonder how I can go over this? How many years do that take? 2 years? 3 years? 10 years are too long for me.

 

[Taian Chen]

I didn’t want to be the one to say what @Putkernerinthehall said... It will be an uphill battle and instant rejection for some schools. However, it’s still doable. Again, an excellent MCAT score will certainly help but it won’t solve all your issues.

Thank you so much, I realized it can be an uphill battle for me.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

I got my acceptance 9 years after my IA. The oft-cited rule of thumb here is about 5 years and I can confirm that it took me about that long to understand the gravity of my mistakes and be able to talk about it with total acceptance, without sounding like I was making excuses for myself. It's good that you're taking steps but part of the process is time.

 

[candbgirl]

According to your OP it hasn’t even been a year since this happened and you “are considering to become a peer educator in my school academic integrity office” so you really haven’t done anything to prove you’ve learned and grown from this incident. I also agree with @Putkernerinthehall . You haven’t really grasped the severity of a plagiarism IA. Keep working on your application, continue your ECs, get to work in the academic integrity office, keep up your grades and study for the MCAT. But understand it will be a few years before you will want to try applying. Nobody can tell you how long. And as always, there are no guarantees even for stellar applicants so have a backup plan.

 

[Taian Chen]

According to your OP it hasn’t even been a year since this happened and you “are considering to become a peer educator in my school academic integrity office” so you really haven’t done anything to prove you’ve learned and grown from this incident. I also agree with @Putkernerinthehall . You haven’t really grasped the severity of a plagiarism IA. Keep working on your application, continue your ECs, get to work in the academic integrity office, keep up your grades and study for the MCAT. But understand it will be a few years before you will want to try applying. Nobody can tell you how long. And as always, there are no guarantees even for stellar applicants so have a backup plan.

Thank you, this is the best advice I had in this thread. I do need the time to prove my maturity.

 

[Taian Chen]

I got my acceptance 9 years after my IA. The oft-cited rule of thumb here is about 5 years and I can confirm that it took me about that long to understand the gravity of my mistakes and be able to talk about it with total acceptance, without sounding like I was making excuses for myself. It's good that you're taking steps but part of the process is time.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

[Taian Chen]

Minimum of 3 years IMO where you continue to display maturity and integrity. With that said, aim to take the MCAT around 2024 since most schools have a 3 year expiration period and in case you need to reapply

Thank you!