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- May 30, 2015
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Background info:
Our professor for a class uses the same homework assignments each year he teaches this class, and posts the homework solutions right after the HW is due. Thus it is not exactly hard to get the solutions for the homework for almost the entire semester. This past semester, however, a large percentage of students (40%+) were called in for suspicion of using the old solution keys on their homework. I was one of the students called in--but in my meeting with my professor and in the email he sent me, he never said anything would happen beyond the meeting, and in our discussion he never said he would do anything past the point of talking to me in person. We didn't even really discuss the incident in the meeting. I thought that was the end of it and went on to earn an A in the class.
However, after the class had ended and after I had taken the final, I received an email saying I was given a 0 on the homework assignment (about 1.4% of the final grade for the class) and that I had to meet with the Associate Dean and watch a presentation and take quizzes about academic integrity. This surprised me but I went into the meeting with the Associate Dean and he said that further violations would result in an immediate suspension of a year from the program. I could have appealed the ruling but I didn't care that much because I had already received an A in the class and I obviously didn't plan on doing anything like this again given the consequences.
My question is, do I have to report this on AMCAS/how should I report it? Should I check with my school first or schools I'm applying to? It doesn't appear on my transcript, only my A does, and I had to sign a letter saying I understood the allegations without admitting guilt, and was told that this letter would be destroyed/deleted after I graduate or after 6 years, whichever comes first (obviously the graduating part has a much higher chance of happening), so this would only really matter for application to programs during my undergrad. Another confounding factor is that I'm a junior--I obviously can't say that this happened a long time ago and that I've grown since then. After reading previous posts on this topic I'm just scared that I've completely screwed over my chances of getting into medical school/MD-PhD just on this one incident. I consider myself to be a competitive applicant otherwise (4.o GPA in an engineering discipline, although my school uses +/- grading and 33 MCAT) and I know that this will result in ADCOMs wondering whether my previous grades were the result of cheating despite that not being the case. Do I report it and talk about it in my personal statement? Or is the IA space reserved for really bad/serious cases of academic dishonesty or probation?
And to all the people who will instinctively reply "Haha kiss medical school goodbye sux 2 be u" I would just like to ask you what you would honestly do in my situation, and whether this one incident should really invalidate all of the work I put into school and making myself a competitive applicant at this point.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
Our professor for a class uses the same homework assignments each year he teaches this class, and posts the homework solutions right after the HW is due. Thus it is not exactly hard to get the solutions for the homework for almost the entire semester. This past semester, however, a large percentage of students (40%+) were called in for suspicion of using the old solution keys on their homework. I was one of the students called in--but in my meeting with my professor and in the email he sent me, he never said anything would happen beyond the meeting, and in our discussion he never said he would do anything past the point of talking to me in person. We didn't even really discuss the incident in the meeting. I thought that was the end of it and went on to earn an A in the class.
However, after the class had ended and after I had taken the final, I received an email saying I was given a 0 on the homework assignment (about 1.4% of the final grade for the class) and that I had to meet with the Associate Dean and watch a presentation and take quizzes about academic integrity. This surprised me but I went into the meeting with the Associate Dean and he said that further violations would result in an immediate suspension of a year from the program. I could have appealed the ruling but I didn't care that much because I had already received an A in the class and I obviously didn't plan on doing anything like this again given the consequences.
My question is, do I have to report this on AMCAS/how should I report it? Should I check with my school first or schools I'm applying to? It doesn't appear on my transcript, only my A does, and I had to sign a letter saying I understood the allegations without admitting guilt, and was told that this letter would be destroyed/deleted after I graduate or after 6 years, whichever comes first (obviously the graduating part has a much higher chance of happening), so this would only really matter for application to programs during my undergrad. Another confounding factor is that I'm a junior--I obviously can't say that this happened a long time ago and that I've grown since then. After reading previous posts on this topic I'm just scared that I've completely screwed over my chances of getting into medical school/MD-PhD just on this one incident. I consider myself to be a competitive applicant otherwise (4.o GPA in an engineering discipline, although my school uses +/- grading and 33 MCAT) and I know that this will result in ADCOMs wondering whether my previous grades were the result of cheating despite that not being the case. Do I report it and talk about it in my personal statement? Or is the IA space reserved for really bad/serious cases of academic dishonesty or probation?
And to all the people who will instinctively reply "Haha kiss medical school goodbye sux 2 be u" I would just like to ask you what you would honestly do in my situation, and whether this one incident should really invalidate all of the work I put into school and making myself a competitive applicant at this point.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
