Getting in to Vet School with an Honor Code Violation?

[FutureShelterVetHopeful]

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I am a non traditional student. I graduated with a BS in 2016 and am now going back to take my prerequisite courses. Unfortunately, my last semester of undergrad I received an honor code violation for 'plagiarism.' Truthfully, I did not realize at the time what I had done was against the honor code or considered cheating. I look back now and realize it was wrong. Essentially, I had an open note, open book, open classmate, open all resources homework assignment. So we were using the internet and came across a very similar homework assignment posted by a professor at a different university that taught us how to do the assignment. I was just happy that I was finally understanding I didn't even think twice about it since we were allowed to use any resources. However, the homework assignment involved coding. Due to this fact our code ended up being very similar to the example problem we found online and thus was plagiarism. At the time I honestly had no idea what coding was and I was unaware that it could be plagiarized. I saw it as a math problem that there was only one solution for, if that makes sense?

Regardless- I and half our classmates quickly learned that this was not the case as we all got turned in for an honor code violation. While I don't necessarily agree with how the situation was handled I learned quite a bit from the experience and it opened my eyes to a form of cheating I didn't even know existed. I have been much more aware of these things in my life. I completely accept responsibility for my actions and am not trying to shift blame.

Anyway, I am hoping to apply to VMCVM in 2 cycles ( applying Summer of 2020- thus 4 years since the incident) and am curious to know if anyone has gotten into veterinary school with a prior honor code violation or if this will completely disqualify me? Any input/suggestions/advice is appreciated.

 

[pp9]

I am a non traditional student. I graduated with a BS in 2016 and am now going back to take my prerequisite courses. Unfortunately, my last semester of undergrad I received an honor code violation for 'plagiarism.' Truthfully, I did not realize at the time what I had done was against the honor code or considered cheating. I look back now and realize it was wrong. Essentially, I had an open note, open book, open classmate, open all resources homework assignment. So we were using the internet and came across a very similar homework assignment posted by a professor at a different university that taught us how to do the assignment. I was just happy that I was finally understanding I didn't even think twice about it since we were allowed to use any resources. However, the homework assignment involved coding. Due to this fact our code ended up being very similar to the example problem we found online and thus was plagiarism. At the time I honestly had no idea what coding was and I was unaware that it could be plagiarized. I saw it as a math problem that there was only one solution for, if that makes sense?

Regardless- I and half our classmates quickly learned that this was not the case as we all got turned in for an honor code violation. While I don't necessarily agree with how the situation was handled I learned quite a bit from the experience and it opened my eyes to a form of cheating I didn't even know existed. I have been much more aware of these things in my life. I completely accept responsibility for my actions and am not trying to shift blame.

Anyway, I am hoping to apply to VMCVM in 2 cycles ( applying Summer of 2020- thus 4 years since the incident) and am curious to know if anyone has gotten into veterinary school with a prior honor code violation or if this will completely disqualify me? Any input/suggestions/advice is appreciated.

I don't know that it would completely disqualify you but it's definitely a red flag for sure, regardless of how you came about getting the violation. I've never noticed any school openly say 'Those with academic violations will not be considered' however.

The violation will definitely be on your transcript so I would expect it to come up in interviews, or potentially you could be contacted outside of an interiew to discuss it.

 

[that redhead]

I’d contact the schools you plan to apply to and ask them if this disqualifies you completely. Even if not, make sure your application is otherwise stellar and have very strong letters of rec attesting to your good character. Consider writing an explanation statement, but the whole “I didn’t know what plagiarism was” isn’t going to fly.

 

[flameshock]

Does this show up officially on your transcript in some way? I have to admit that this isn’t a situation I’m very familiar with.

 

[pp9]

Does this show up officially on your transcript in some way? I have to admit that this isn’t a situation I’m very familiar with.

I'd be truly surprised if it didn't..it's part of your academic record. An old transcript I have saved on my computer has a spot for 'Conduct Code' and it's blank. I assume all schools do the same.

I’d contact the schools you plan to apply to and ask them if this disqualifies you completely. Even if not, make sure your application is otherwise stellar and have very strong letters of rec attesting to your good character. Consider writing an explanation statement, but the whole “I didn’t know what plagiarism was” isn’t going to fly.

Agreed. It's going to be really hard to write an explanation, so definitely carefully consider it. Whether you write one or get asked about it in an interview, you went online and used someone else's homework/answer to do your own basically. The 'innocent mistake' thing won't get you far, whether or not you use the open-resource aspect as your reasoning.

 

[PrincessButterCup]

Anecdotal, but an old coworker of mine got into our IS school after being involved in attempted fraud (involving VMCAS and our boss), which the head of admissions was made aware of. If that guy got in . . .

There were no charges filled because the fraud was attempted and not comitted (he was caught in the act and prevented from going through with it), but it was a whole thing and if it had happened the year he applied instead of the year before I'm not sure if things would have been different for him. I'm still a little pissed off about that whole summer at the clinic.

 

[pp9]

Anecdotal, but an old coworker of mine got into our IS school after being involved in attempted fraud (involving VMCAS and our boss), which the head of admissions was made aware of. If that guy got in . . .

There were no charges filled because the fraud was attempted and not comitted (he was caught in the act and prevented from going through with it), but it was a whole thing and if it had happened the year he applied instead of the year before I'm not sure if things would have been different for him. I'm still a little pissed off about that whole summer at the clinic.

Did he get caught trying to lie on VMCAS?

I do have at least one classmate with an actual criminal record and I know someone else at another school with DUIs under her belt. I'm not sure if schools actually background check their accepted students, but my school explicitly states arrest records can't be used to determine admission (arrest =/= charges though? not sure).

 

[PrincessButterCup]

Did he get caught trying to lie on VMCAS?

I do have at least one classmate with an actual criminal record and I know someone else at another school with DUIs under her belt. I'm not sure if schools actually background check their accepted students, but my school explicitly states arrest records can't be used to determine admission (arrest =/= charges though? not sure).

He was trying to impersonate a veterinarian TO vmcas, to change another applicant's letter of rec.

If he'd actually sent the email he would have a criminal record. Amazing how lucky he ended up being in that situation.

 

[pp9]

He was trying to impersonate a veterinarian TO vmcas, to change another applicant's letter of rec.

If he'd actually sent the email he would have a criminal record. Amazing how lucky he ended up being in that situation.

Sounds like a lot of trouble to go through to (presumably) sabotage someone you don't like?

That's really unfortunate that he was accepted, that's pretty serious...

 

[battie]

He was trying to impersonate a veterinarian TO vmcas, to change another applicant's letter of rec.

If he'd actually sent the email he would have a criminal record. Amazing how lucky he ended up being in that situation.

Sounds like a lot of trouble to go through to (presumably) sabotage someone you don't like?

That's really unfortunate that he was accepted, that's pretty serious...

That person should not have kept their acceptance. Absolutely not. It's an insult to his classmates and the people whom he beat out for his spot.

 

[pp9]

That person should not have kept their acceptance. Absolutely not. It's an insult to his classmates and the people whom he beat out for his spot.

Maybe he knew the right people. I like to things like that don't happen, but 🙄

 

[PrincessButterCup]

Sounds like a lot of trouble to go through to (presumably) sabotage someone you don't like?

That's really unfortunate that he was accepted, that's pretty serious...

He was doing it at the request of the student who's VMCAS he was trying to change. (Long story, she asked someone for a LOR who she didn't have a good relationship with at all - then quit that job - then waited until after the letter was submitted, weeks before it was due, to try and remove the request. Then it blew up into this whole thing.) She didn't get in that cycle and hasn't tried again, and it's probably easy to see why. She was the brains behind the fraud attempt, he was just the one with access to the e-mail account.

 

[battie]

He was doing it at the request of the student who's VMCAS he was trying to change. (Long story, she asked someone for a LOR who she didn't have a good relationship with at all - then quit that job - then waited until after the letter was submitted, weeks before it was due, to try and remove the request. Then it blew up into this whole thing.) She didn't get in that cycle and hasn't tried again, and it's probably easy to see why. She was the brains behind the fraud attempt, he was just the one with access to the e-mail account.

Wild from start to finish

 

[PrincessButterCup]

Wild from start to finish

That whole summer was messed up in about 100 different ways.

At one point I said 'if I was going to quit this job I would have done it already,' and then I did quit four months later. Turns out the mess can always get worse.

 

[SkiOtter]

Wild from start to finish

That was my same reaction when I asked her yesterday

 

[FutureShelterVetHopeful]

Does this show up officially on your transcript in some way? I have to admit that this isn’t a situation I’m very familiar with.

It does not show up on my transcript but if the school chooses to contact the university as it is still on record they can find out the information.

 

[SkiOtter]

It does not show up on my transcript but if the school chooses to contact the university as it is still on record they can find out the information.

Are you looking at an official transcript of an unofficial transcript? I know for my undergrad there’s some stuff that shows on official transcripts but not unofficial ones.

 

[FutureShelterVetHopeful]

Are you looking at an official transcript of an unofficial transcript? I know for my undergrad there’s some stuff that shows on official transcripts but not unofficial ones.

I've looked on both. It is not on there.

 

[pp9]

I've looked on both. It is not on there.

Wow, that's really interesting. Most schools make a pretty big deal of stuff like that and t can follow people for a while. I would search around on your undergrad's website, find where they talk about academic violations, and see if it mentions anything about it being on your record.

Even if it's not on your transcript, you may have to divulge it anyways if VMCAS or a school specifically asks if you have any violations on your record. I think I would contact your schools ahead of time to ask if they'd still consider you just in case. You'd waste a lot of money to find out the hard way.

ETA: Also, just to be the devil's advocate here, I'd triple check that the 'official' transcript your school sends a student is the same as what they would send another school. It's not always the same.