I hope no one got in trouble or fired because the OP will have ruined another life.
I can't believe that I just read this. I can entertain and see some value in Da Alchemist's argument that the trust from friendships could (and I stress the word "could" over "should") take precedence over ethics if the point of ethical concern isn't a big deal. But your statement is the most flat out preposterous thing I have read in my life.
The OP didn't ruin the forger's life,
the forger ruined his own life. He committed an act that he had to know was punishable with serious consequences. Yet, he went on to blab about it not to a friend, but a
roommate. Not a friend neccesarily, a
roommate. Using your flawed logic, you would berate a person who snitches on a murderer because that sntich put the murderer in jail. Before you reply with something like, "murder is much more severe than academic dishonesty/forgery, the point isn't the crime. The point is that you are blaming a person for a punishment that another is responsible for via that other person's own actions
You make it sound that the forger had nothing to do with his own demise. Whether the OP decided to blow the whistle on the roommate or not, and regardless how you feel about academic dishonesty (you've already admitted that you don't really care), that does not eliminate the
fact that the OP's roommate still forged a letter. He put himself at risk for his own punishment by doing so. If you don't think the penalty for forging a letter is just, then take the issue up with AACP and other educational entities.
If the OP's roommate didn't want to ruin his own life, then he should have done the following:
1. Apply earlier = He didn't apply until
one week before the March 1st deadline. This person didn't have very good planning, and his planning was worse than many procrastinators.
2. Let the "bad" first letter go through, and let the situation plays itself through = Once again, its apparent that he didn't do enough research into the application process. I was late in my admissions process and I even knew that LORs weren't a make-or-break factor in my application. If this person was good enough for acceptance based on stats, then he would have gotten in
by playing by the same rules everyone else should follow. If he needed that forged letter was the main factor that got him in, then he kept out one candidate who played by the rules.
3. I said this before and I'll say it again. If he found that had to exercise unethical behavior, then
he shouldn't have told anyone about it! I'll admit that I'm not a perfect person and that I did some stuff some people here would define as unethical. It wasn't anywhere near as hazardous as academic dishonesty, but a good samaritan would have acted differently. But I also agree that some actions that are technically "crimes" do not warrant the punishment the justice system serves. Yet, I did not put my friends, family, aquaintances, and even strangers of deciding between emotions and doing the right thing.
The bottom line is that this person created his own predicament. He needs to blame himself for his dismissal, not the OP like you imply.
