Have any of you had your grade sabotaged before?

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balambfishie

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So, you hear a lot of stories about friends/classmates sabotaging your grades in college, moreso as a premed because of all the pressure and all. Has anyone actually experienced this at all? And how did you deal with it?

To start off, recently, I was helping a friend on his hw and was late for my tutoring job. He offered to turn in my work for me and since we'd known each other for a while, I figured why not? Turns out, he never did turn my work in. Instead, he tore my packet apart and stapled the printout on his own because he didn't get a chance to do the programming and I ended up with a big fat 0 on the assignment. Luckily, one hw is dropped in the class and I now know never to work with him again, but I've heard stories of people actually ruining lab results or screwing up classmates on exams.
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That's insane. There are ~40000 applicants. What is sabotaging one worth?
 
I have heard of plenty of people cheating but I had never experienced or heard about people trying to get others to fail.
 
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Moosepig said:
That's insane. There are ~40000 applicants. What is sabotaging one worth?
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Agreed. Besides GPA only goes so far.. sure its an important part of the application but its far from holistic ... yeah that's insane.
 
Marika11 said:
Agreed. Besides GPA only goes so far.. sure its an important part of the application but its far from holistic ... yeah that's insane.
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I was thinking the same thing, but I guess I was wondering whether this type of thing happened often and I was a horrible judge of character or if I just had bad luck this one time. I used to think these stories were just high school teachers trying to scare us into doing our own work :rolleyes:
 
Not personally. I have heard of this happening, though.
 
balambfishie said:
So, you hear a lot of stories about friends/classmates sabotaging your grades in college, moreso as a premed because of all the pressure and all. Has anyone actually experienced this at all? And how did you deal with it?

To start off, recently, I was helping a friend on his hw and was late for my tutoring job. He offered to turn in my work for me and since we'd known each other for a while, I figured why not? Turns out, he never did turn my work in. Instead, he tore my packet apart and stapled the printout on his own because he didn't get a chance to do the programming and I ended up with a big fat 0 on the assignment. Luckily, one hw is dropped in the class and I now know never to work with him again, but I've heard stories of people actually ruining lab results or screwing up classmates on exams.
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This is outrageous:eek: I would want revenge.
 
Surely you told the professor?
 
Offer to buy him coffee and pee in his cup.
 
Yeah I would definitely tell the professor, but at the same time, you "gave" him your homework? I don't know how that will look, but I know if you tell the professor, he'll be in some deep ****, and he'll have to eat his way out of that poop hotdog.
 
I hate your friend. A true friend would never do that.
 
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Not in undergrad but there really weren't that many pre-meds and I hung out with normal sane people...

I have heard about this in professional school though. People will actively try to sabotage the "gunners" (the top people in their class who are aiming for top specialties). Insecurities run even higher in professional school and trash talking and/or sabotaging people who are doing better happens pretty often.

Whenever I interview, I ask students about the competitive nature of the school, all schools always say it isn't competitive which is BS, I wish there was a more reliable way of knowing exactly what the environment is like.
 
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Yeah, this is crazy. I'm suspicious is some classmates in my O-chem lab, but I haven't confirm it. Do report your friend and confront him personally.
 
That sucks! Some friend he is. But I've heard stories of this before. Especially with my business major friends. It's a dog eat dog world and the gullible ones are the first to go.

If I was in your position, I would've hit him as hard as a freight train in the groin.
 
Think of it like this, my friend. He's not going to be a doctor with that half-a attitude. One, I doubt he would get through med school , and through the MCAT if he needs to do that to pass. Two, you shouldn't get revenge,F him anyway, karma will get him right back. But seriously, if he's pre-med, I'm scared of the future of healthcare. Also, I would work with the A students or even the average joe who is putting effort in class to do the labs and assignments.
 
My saboteurs weren't nearly as nasty as yours. They were more psychological. They'd be the people who I used to group study with and would constantly whine and scare everyone about the test to psyche them out. Guess who got the highest score among the group too? Can't stand people that take this competition so damn seriously.
 
Life Sucks said:
. Two, you shouldn't get revenge
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screw that, by the time you get to undergrad, you should know not to pull something like that. I say rat and let the prof. fail him, unless it jeopardizes your grade too.
 
Samiamm said:
you "gave" him your homework?
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We had known each other for a few months and I've never known him to do anything like this before, so when I was running late and he offered to turn in my homework along with his, I didn't think anything of it. Especially because I've never really befriended super competitive people like that before, and I've offered to help out a friend when he/she was running late before.

Anyways, I emailed the professor and because he has a no late homework policy, he won't do anything other than drop that homework score though. The good news is that this shouldn't hurt my grade if I'm on top of my homework the rest of the quarter. He didn't say what he intended to do with my "friend" though.

This is one of the reasons I don't tend to hang out with other premeds, but I guess it would be my luck that one of the few I befriended ended up like this...
 
I've heard stories (don't know if they are true or not) about people sending anonymous letters to admissions committees at schools, saying that the applicant cheated or lied about things, such as school assignments, ECs, etc...

That would really suck.
 
No . I mean as in kicking his ass or getting him back with same thing...okay, you can report him.
 
I'm sorry to say you're going to be meeting people like this your whole life. The cliche works: "Success is the best revenge." Move on and upwards. Trust me.

Unfortunately, that's all I got for "proof." :D
 
Last year, an upper-level bio professor began the class by telling us to look around the auditorium at classmates to the right and left. She said, "From this point forward, these people are your competition."

Sometimes, other professors structure the grading system with a curve determined by the class average (sometimes in the 60s) and so it makes little sense to form study groups and hurt the curve.

I haven't seen outright sabotage, just a general disinterest in forming a pre-med club.
 
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wordofm said:
Last year, a upper-level bio professor began the class by telling us to look around the auditorium at classmates to the right and left. She said, "From this point forward, these people are your competition."

Sometimes, other professors structure the grading system with a curve determined by the class average (sometimes in the 60s) and so it makes little sense to form study groups and hurt the curve.
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I was thinking about starting the pre-med route originally at my undergrad institution. The competition, however, was completely insane. There were gunners everywhere trying to outperform one another.

I did my post-bacc at a school that was ranked lower, bottom of the 1st tier. I found that the competition was definitely not cutthroat, in fact, I found the environment to be collaborative. The funny thing is that now being in medical school, I find my class to be extremely collaborative!!!
 
Never been sabotaged myself, but I have heard of other people giving out false lab info and stuff like that.
 
I've heard about this happening in places like Cornell and Carnegie Mellon but I've never actually known someone who has done something like that. Sorry for what happened to you OP.
 
Samiamm said:
screw that, by the time you get to undergrad, you should know not to pull something like that. I say rat and let the prof. fail him, unless it jeopardizes your grade too.
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It's not about the grade, it's about sending a message.
 
This sort of thing is rare at any college I'd imagine. I went to a top 20 undergrad and I never once encountered anyone who was sabotaging other people, or a person who had been sabotaged. I'm sure this kind of stuff happens, but only as isolated incidents because of an imbalanced, insecure person who believes they can salvage their own grade in a class by screwing up their "competition".

For example, OP tells his story to a friend who goes to another college. That kid tells the story to another friend, who then repeats it as "man, at [OP's college] the kids there are crazy. A friend told me they do stuff like offer to turn in your homework for you and then rip it up on the way to class".

pasiley said:
Not in undergrad but there really weren't that many pre-meds and I hung out with normal sane people...

I have heard about this in professional school though. People will actively try to sabotage the "gunners" (the top people in their class who are aiming for top specialties). Insecurities run even higher in professional school and trash talking and/or sabotaging people who are doing better happens pretty often.

Whenever I interview, I ask students about the competitive nature of the school, all schools always say it isn't competitive which is BS, I wish there was a more reliable way of knowing exactly what the environment is like.
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No no no. It's the gunners who do the sabotaging. Hence why they're called "gunners"; they gun their classmates down in an attempt to crawl up the ranks. It's just that the word's meaning has morphed over the years from describing that special kind of ****** who hands you fake notes and rips up books in the library, to describing a person obsessed with being the best of the best of the best by just studying like crazy.
 
What if every person sabotaged 1 person. With no repeats, we'd effectively cut the pool in half. Right?
 
tumblr_lnoj60p4bZ1qzma4ho1_500.png


I wouldn't trust anybody with those eyebrows.
 
I just don't get the point of it though. Because if you sabotage somebody I would imagine that the person you sabotaged would be pissed and tell other people what happened and then with people finding out that you're a jerk and all they would either try to get you back or simply stay away from you because they can't trust you.

And just speaking from experience, there have been multiple times my classmates saved my butt whether it was reminding me we had an assignment due or telling me something I didn't know about, or filling me in if I had to miss class and these were merely just acquaintances. Not to mention in the long run, some of my classmates turned out to be great connections and helped me out with finding research, or good volunteer opportunities, I would have never found my summer program at the local medical school or research job if it weren't for my classmates. So if I sabotaged them or was known for being a sabotager (if that's even a word) I don't think it would have come so easy.

I just think the benefits of sabotaging people are greatly outweighed by the disadvantages of it.
 
Lollygag said:
I just don't get the point of it though. Because if you sabotage somebody I would imagine that the person you sabotaged would be pissed and tell other people what happened and then with people finding out that you're a jerk and all they would either try to get you back or simply stay away from you because they can't trust you.

And just speaking from experience, there have been multiple times my classmates saved my butt whether it was reminding me we had an assignment due or telling me something I didn't know about, or filling me in if I had to miss class and these were merely just acquaintances. Not to mention in the long run, some of my classmates turned out to be great connections and helped me out with finding research, or good volunteer opportunities, I would have never found my summer program at the local medical school or research job if it weren't for my classmates. So if I sabotaged them or was known for being a sabotager (if that's even a word) I don't think it would have come so easy.

I just think the benefits of sabotaging people are greatly outweighed by the disadvantages of it.
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Saboteur is the word you're looking for.

And I agree. There was a guy in our class who initially had a reputation for making statements about how he planned to sabotage others efforts and the unity of our class against him was pretty intense. He has since improved and people have warmed up to him but if he had kept in that direction, he would have had a tough time making it through medical school. There is an awful lot of peer assessment in med school as well as simply needing one another's assistance at times.
 
Never brag about your grades, especially to other pre-meds. Or else...
 
ShenanigansMD said:
Never brag about your grades, especially to other pre-meds. Or else...
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Lol if I high A a super hard test, I am gonna brag about it. Friends should congratulate you on your successes, not being all butthurt about it, those ain't my buddies and I wouldnt give a crap what they think.
 
Can't you prove it? Don't you have a saved file with a date? Plus programming is always unique. You can tell if someone has copied especially if you have a dated original file. The extra staple holes would help you as well :)

I am curious. How do you know he did this? Could the TA have lost your assignment?
 
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pasiley said:
Not in undergrad but there really weren't that many pre-meds and I hung out with normal sane people...

I have heard about this in professional school though. People will actively try to sabotage the "gunners" (the top people in their class who are aiming for top specialties). Insecurities run even higher in professional school and trash talking and/or sabotaging people who are doing better happens pretty often.
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Allow me to clarify your obvious misunderstanding. These people aren't "sabotaging the gunners" . . . they ARE the gunners.

A gunner is not someone who is at the top of their class aiming for top specialties necessarily at all. By definition, gunners are people who "gun down" their competition . . . they are the people sabotaging others to get ahead. Whether or not they are successful in gaining elite status in school is irrelevant.

Edit: I see someone else beat me to the explanation.
 
A gunner is not someone who is at the top of their class aiming for top specialties necessarily at all. By definition, gunners are people who "gun down" their competition . . . they are the people sabotaging others to get ahead. Whether or not they are successful in gaining elite status in school is irrelevant.
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Good to know. I, too, misunderstood what a gunner was.
 
JustMeditate said:
Good to know. I, too, misunderstood what a gunner was.
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It's because med students/premed students have bastardized the term by assuming that, if someone is at the top of their class, the only explanation is that they sabotaged others to get there.

On the contrary, in my experience that the gunners were people who had a noticeable mismatch between their aspirations and abilities; people who desired elite status but who just couldn't hack it through legitimate means.
 
That s**t is crazy. I have a huge biology test tomorrow that has been very memorization heavy and light on the concepts. A lot of my classmates were at a study group tonight in the library (I'd say twenty-thirty of us over the course of a few hours) and as I'd made some cool study materials (a practice test, a study sheet) I brought in my USB drive to share with people who might want 'em.

This attitude of collaboration is incredibly helpful. In my chem lab, for instance, I work with another student most labs, because while I'm better at the math and the lecture material, she has the manual skills when it comes to pipetting etc that I lack - I'm clumsy and it takes me longer than most people to learn a tactile skill. I've shared my notes with her when I've missed class, and she's shared her notes with me. As a result, we both do better and we both enjoy our class.

I'm also operating under the theory that since I go to a no-name CSU founded within the past couple of decades, the more excellent students coming out of this school the better - we need to make our reputation as a place that produces good med students! Screw this gunner s**t - it makes you a miserable human being and will eventually backfire on you.
 
^ Yeah, yeah! Totally with this guy!

*steals USB drive*
 
GuyWhoDoesStuff said:
Allow me to clarify your obvious misunderstanding. These people aren't "sabotaging the gunners" . . . they ARE the gunners.

A gunner is not someone who is at the top of their class aiming for top specialties necessarily at all. By definition, gunners are people who "gun down" their competition . . . they are the people sabotaging others to get ahead. Whether or not they are successful in gaining elite status in school is irrelevant.

Edit: I see someone else beat me to the explanation.
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Thank you. Everyone I know uses it wrong and it's really annoying.
 
I had heard horrible rumors about a culture of sabotage in my undergrad institution. Despite ranking #1 in the college of biosci, I never once experienced or observed this. People were generally nice and were simply struggling through the same tribulations as I.

I've observed that the people who circulate these rumors are often themselves the overly-competitive types who are unwilling to help others. Whether they are somehow attracting this sort of behavior, incorrectly perceiving it, or became that way as a result of being sabotaged is unclear. Regardless, I would advise the OP to treat this as the aberration that it is and not allow it to taint the rest of your college and med school experience.
 
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