Medical How will this IA affect me?

[GoSpursGo]

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In my sophmore year of college, one of my tests had assigned seats. When I was assigned my seat I saw someone else sitting there. I went and sat in a seat that was not my own as I did not think too much of it at the time. The TA noticed I was not sitting in the correct seat about halfway into the exam. I was accused of two charges. The first one was cheating and the second one was not following directions. I admit that I sat in the wrong seat, but I worked on my exam by myself. I had a hearing with the conduct board and my test was analyzed for work and compared to those who sat next to me. They also looked at photographic evidence. I was found innocent of cheating, but I was found guilty of not following directions. I admitted in the hearing that I should have requested for a new seat instead of sitting in a random seat and said I was willing to take sanctions for that charge. My sanction was that my test grade was changed to a 0 and my grade was dropped one letter grade. I received a B in that class, which was Biochem. I was also put on academic probation for a semester. My GPA is currently a 3.95, and I am going to take the MCAT soon, but I am scared how this IA will affect my application.

Are you serious? That's so asinine.

Assuming that the charge of cheating doesn't appear anywhere on your application, I think you just explain this "not following directions" business exactly as you did here. If the "cheating" allegation does appear somewhere, then I would be a little more worried, but there's also not a ton you can do other than explain it.

 

[Goro]

I think that you'll be okay, especially if you own the fact that you didn't follow the instructions.

I'd be a little annoyed that you couldn't follow simple instructions, and you should have complained to the TA that somebody else was sitting in your seat.

But I think that you should be okay

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

This is absolutely ridiculous. Hopefully, if this does go on your record you will be able to explain and I think 99.99% of people would agree with us that it's absolute bull.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What happened to the person who sat in your seat?

How about the TA for not checking everyone's seats before the exam?

Sorry, I am skeptical and this is something I'd say is not making any sense.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Is this 150% the real story?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Idunno, I took the story at face value because I could totally imagine there being some overly-aggressive TA trying to make a stupid point.

But clearly, if there is more to the story or additional details that led to you being accused of cheating rather than just "not following directions," that would be helpful for us to be able to give you the best advice.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Idunno, I took the story at face value because I could totally imagine there being some overly-aggressive TA trying to make a stupid point.

But clearly, if there is more to the story or additional details that led to you being accused of cheating rather than just "not following directions," that would be helpful for us to be able to give you the best advice.

Totally agree. Some TAs power trip over this kinda stuff just to make a point.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Totally agree. Some TAs power trip over this kinda stuff just to make a point.

Yeah but not if the TA started the exam and THEN noticed the mistake.

 

[AlteredScale]

Honestly not much to be done now. Be ready to explain it in your application. Have a good plan for how you've learned from the process and what you've done to prevent it moving forward.

It's ridiculous they still gave you an IA but what's done is done for now. Perhaps you can ask down the road if there are any possibilities of removing the IA but just be ready.