Suspension.

[Mambaa]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi,

I am a predental student and I have one quarter left to graduate with a B.S. in Biology. Last quarter, a very close uncle of mine died in Iraq and I went through a terrible time of depression and coping. I cheated in one of my classes and was reported for academic misconduct. I think I will most likely be suspended for one quarter; which I will use to study and take teh DAT in. i feel like my life is over. I have seen counseling and everything. I feel like there is no hope in becoming a dentist or even getting into dental school. What should i do? Is there any hope? Has this happened to anyone? my GPA is 3.30 overall and I think i will do well on the DAT, and i have done a ton of research. Any advice?

Depressed.

 

[wadap]

it doesnt matter if you got in a fight or cheated on a test......whatever happens

1) be truthful
2) be hopeful
3) try hard
4) never give up

and ull get there

 

[Mambaa]

it doesnt matter if you got in a fight or cheated on a test......whatever happens

1) be truthful
2) be hopeful
3) try hard
4) never give up

and ull get there

Thank you. These words mean a lot to me. 🙂 I just feel down. Has anyone been through this?

 

[two thirty]

Pretty tough situation. You want to dental schools to see that you're taking responsibility(admitting your mistakes rather than blaming it on the situation), but you also want them to know the challenges you've overcome. Don't really know what to tell you, but you're fighting an uphill battle if you're convicted.

Best of luck, hope it works out for you.

 

[dentalWorks]

Hi,

I am a predental student and I have one quarter left to graduate with a B.S. in Biology. Last quarter, a very close uncle of mine died in Iraq and I went through a terrible time of depression and coping. I cheated in one of my classes and was reported for academic misconduct. I think I will most likely be suspended for one quarter; which I will use to study and take teh DAT in. i feel like my life is over. I have seen counseling and everything. I feel like there is no hope in becoming a dentist or even getting into dental school. What should i do? Is there any hope? Has this happened to anyone? my GPA is 3.30 overall and I think i will do well on the DAT, and i have done a ton of research. Any advice?

Depressed.

I am not gonna sugar coat it, its going to be tough. You really need to contact some dental schools about this, and ask them. I know dental schools take this ethical stuff VERY seriously (especially the cheating on exams stuff)

Word of advice, I wouldn't associate the uncle's death with your cheating incident.... it sounds like your making up an excuse instead of fessing up to it.

 

[aelian]

I am not gonna sugar coat it, its going to be tough. You really need to contact some dental schools about this, and ask them. I know dental schools take this ethical stuff VERY seriously (especially the cheating on exams stuff)

Word of advice, I wouldn't associate the uncle's death with your cheating incident.... it sounds like your making up an excuse instead of fessing up to it.

👍👍👍
I get the same feeling when I read the OP's post. It seems as if you are trying to blame your cheating on your uncle or your being depressed. Dental school, for most of us, is going to be a very high stress environment. Adcom's aren't going to want someone who has to resort to cheating when the going gets tough.

 

[Impulse155]

👍👍👍
I get the same feeling when I read the OP's post. It seems as if you are trying to blame your cheating on your uncle or your being depressed. Dental school, for most of us, is going to be a very high stress environment. Adcom's aren't going to want someone who has to resort to cheating when the going gets tough.

Same, also if its your first cheating offense I believe that if you go to some class or something it doesnt even show up on your transcript? not 100% though but I know one of my friends got an Academic Dishonesty and he said it wont show up because it was his first and only offense

 

[476515678234896]

be honest about why you cheated and show how you grew from the experience of getting caught

(you might have to grow from this experience btw 😀)

 

[dentalWorks]

be honest about why you cheated and show how you grew from the experience of getting caught

(you might have to grow from this experience btw 😀)

Problem is, this incident was very recent... its not like it happened 10 years ago and today, he is showing real sights of maturity... ya know what I mean?

Its hard to make an argument about how much you've matured from a scenario like this when it happened just 1 or 2 years ago.

 

[icedspice]

OP, like many mentioned... mentioning your uncle's death (condolences to you and family) makes it sound like you are coming up with an excuse. Most people would not be able to say it to your face because you are going through tough times. However, there are other applicants to choose from and many who go through stressful situations.

@dentalworks, yes he has shown maturity now... but thats because he got caught. Only once people lose something do they realize how much it was worth. So yes, he still has an uphill battle with the adcoms... and if he is willing, he will have to show his persistence by kicking ass on his DATs, a really insightful personal statement and perhaps a second year of applying.

 

[Dent001]

yeah um..i dont care what anyone else says. your uncles death is not an excuse for you cheating. There are tons of ppl who have gone through stressful situations and didnt have the urge to "cheat". i lost a close friend in college during midterms week, i didnt decide to cheat. You wanna prove to the adcoms your still worthy of entering their school then you better come up with a gooood story of why you were caught cheating.

 

[Ewt812]

I agree with Dent001. Your uncle's death has nothing do with your cheating incident. I feel like there's no good excuse of why you cheated on the test. I think you should just be honest with yourself and the adcom, and learn from it.

 

[Blarelli]

There are a lot of really good applicants out there with better than a 3.3 who don't cheat. If I were in your shoes I'd be weighing some different options.

 

[DDSwanaB]

I know of a friend of a friend whom had a similar "cheating" blemish on his record whom got into Case, but his GPA was much higher, about 3.8. You will need a stellar DAT given your 3.3 GPA. To counteract your blemish, you need a well-written application. It would be helpful to have extracurriculars that suggest you have upstanding ethics (e.g. volunteering.) Most importantly, be very upfront about your blemish in the specified part of your application. If your uncle was truly the main cause, you need to concisely explain how the two correlate more clearly. More importantly, you need to show that you realize you were wrong to do what you did and that you would never do it again. Again, extracurriculars are the best way to do this. Cite them, credibility intact, and explain what you learned or why you would have made a better choice. You may need to do a postbac. or masters, which will make your blemish less significant. Also, it will raise your poor GPA if you are motivated.

 

[UltimateHombre]

Word of advice, I wouldn't associate the uncle's death with your cheating incident.... it sounds like your making up an excuse instead of fessing up to it.

I am not sure how much i agree with this. Maybe he/she is making up an excuse, but at the same time the OP said he/she was depressed. If he/she was seriously diagnosed with clinical depression and was seeing a counselor, that could seriously affect the OP's rationale and decision making.

In no way am i trying to endorse cheating under any circumstance, but i think we would be foolish to assume that if the OP was truly depressed, that wouldn't have affected the cheating decision.

@ OP... can you tell us more about whether or not you were medically diagnosed with depression? Were you on any meds?

 

[dentalWorks]

I am not sure how much i agree with this. Maybe he/she is making up an excuse, but at the same time the OP said he/she was depressed. If he/she was seriously diagnosed with clinical depression and was seeing a counselor, that could seriously affect the OP's rationale and decision making.

In no way am i trying to endorse cheating under any circumstance, but i think we would be foolish to assume that if the OP was truly depressed, that wouldn't have affected the cheating decision.

@ OP... can you tell us more about whether or not you were medically diagnosed with depression? Were you on any meds?

Thousands of applicants apply to healthcare schools each year, and I am willing to bet a good share of them have gone through the same (or worse) ordeal as the OP.... how come they didn't cheat?

I don't want to sound harsh, but you CANNOT associate the depression or uncle's death with an unethical decision. 3 of the 5 interviews I went to specifically asked me scenario type questions about cheating, about handling the amount of stress dental school will put on, and how I will deal if I saw someone cheating..... They take this stuff VERY seriously

 

[Bchance]

If you really want to get into dental school, then the worst you can do is apply and get rejected. Whats done is done and the only thing I would suggest is to talk to the college and ask what you can do ( if anything ) to get the charge dismissed... Other than that, you are kind of stuck with the reality's of what has transpired.

 

[mitrieD]

To tell you the truth, you have no where to go but up. Try your best. You need to try.

 

[Mambaa]

I know of a friend of a friend whom had a similar "cheating" blemish on his record whom got into Case, but his GPA was much higher, about 3.8. You will need a stellar DAT given your 3.3 GPA. To counteract your blemish, you need a well-written application. It would be helpful to have extracurriculars that suggest you have upstanding ethics (e.g. volunteering.) Most importantly, be very upfront about your blemish in the specified part of your application. If your uncle was truly the main cause, you need to concisely explain how the two correlate more clearly. More importantly, you need to show that you realize you were wrong to do what you did and that you would never do it again. Again, extracurriculars are the best way to do this. Cite them, credibility intact, and explain what you learned or why you would have made a better choice. You may need to do a postbac. or masters, which will make your blemish less significant. Also, it will raise your poor GPA if you are motivated.

Thank you for the motivation. It goes a long way. That is exactly what I am going to do. I am probably going to have to do a post bac.

 

[Bchance]

OP- I was in a very similar situation and DID get accepted to dental school, so don't give up. Don't ever give up. I rarely comment on threads but reading some of the things other people have said to you are so ignorant and degrading that I felt I had to comment to give you a ray of hope. Getting stressed out about exams during finals week, and cheating on a test because you feel overwhelmed--very hard to explain your reasoning because I'm sure everyone has experienced this at one point or another. Having a very close relative unexpectedly pass away and clinically being diagnosed with depression resulting in ONE poor decision--very explainable and any human being with a heart and soul will more than likely be able to see beyond your poor decision. My personal story was I had ~3.8 GPA going into my junior year of college and over Thanksgiving break (3 weeks before finals), my grandfather whom I was very close with (grew up without my own father because he passed away when I was very young so in a sense, my grandfather filled that role) passed away, and it was heartbreaking. To add to that, my brother had a tumor discovered in his neck, which at the time was believed to be cancerous. And to add to all of that good news, my girlfriend of 4 years abruptly broke up with me and I found out she was a cheating little b****. Obviously, my world came crashing down at the worst possible time for a college student. I couldn't do any work, couldn't study for finals, could barely drag myself out of bed, and was placed on anti-anxiety medication as well as an anti-depressant. I made the mistake of turning in a friend's paper from a previous semester as an "extra credit re-write" in a non-science class, and got caught. I got an honor code violation for my actions, and posted a 3.36 GPA for the semester--by far the worst of my college career. My point is that common, everyday stress from being a college student is vastly different from uncontrollable, life altering circumstances that will never occur again. Definitely explain in your application how your uncle's death impacted you and why it led you to make a poor academic decision. Unless many of you have been in a similar situation, please don't degrade the OP for making a bad decision and tell him/her talking about an uncle's death is a "cop out" or "not taking responsibility".

The reality of this, however, is that MANY schools you apply to will, unfortunately, look at your application, see that you have an honors code violation, and without looking twice at anything else on your application, throw it away. I applied to 10 schools that I thought I had pretty competitive statistics for, got 2 pre-Dec. interviews, 2 post-Dec. interviews, and 2 acceptances.

If you really want to be a dentist, be a dentist. One bad decision you made when you weren't thinking clearly doesn't mean you're a bad person, it doesn't mean you're unethical, and it doesn't mean you won't make a fantastic dentist. If anyone wants to sit on their high horse and act like they've never made a mistake, then let them. Just don't let them tell you what you can/can't achieve.

Just my 2 cents

Enough said 👍

 

[aelian]

@Longhorns21
Just to make it clear, I never said the OP didn't have a chance, nor am I going to give him a false sense of hope. He/she is going to have to work their ass off, attempt to walk on water. There are some pretty big differences between your story and their story, namely your GPA versus his/hers and the fact that you got an honor's code violation for an extra-credit opportunity and OP is speaking about being suspended for a semester, which to me is drastically different. The posts might be brutally honest and somewhat depreciative but the OP needs to know that it is going to be tough. And for the most part, a lot of the posters are against OP using his uncle as the reason for his cheating because it just doesn't seem to be a legitimate reason. Like another poster said, a lot of us have our sob stories as well (me included) but never resorted to cheating because of it.

 

[dentalWorks]

OP- I was in a very similar situation and DID get accepted to dental school, so don't give up. Don't ever give up. I rarely comment on threads but reading some of the things other people have said to you are so ignorant and degrading that I felt I had to comment to give you a ray of hope. Getting stressed out about exams during finals week, and cheating on a test because you feel overwhelmed--very hard to explain your reasoning because I'm sure everyone has experienced this at one point or another. Having a very close relative unexpectedly pass away and clinically being diagnosed with depression resulting in ONE poor decision--very explainable and any human being with a heart and soul will more than likely be able to see beyond your poor decision. My personal story was I had ~3.8 GPA going into my junior year of college and over Thanksgiving break (3 weeks before finals), my grandfather whom I was very close with (grew up without my own father because he passed away when I was very young so in a sense, my grandfather filled that role) passed away, and it was heartbreaking. To add to that, my brother had a tumor discovered in his neck, which at the time was believed to be cancerous. And to add to all of that good news, my girlfriend of 4 years abruptly broke up with me and I found out she was a cheating little b****. Obviously, my world came crashing down at the worst possible time for a college student. I couldn't do any work, couldn't study for finals, could barely drag myself out of bed, and was placed on anti-anxiety medication as well as an anti-depressant. I made the mistake of turning in a friend's paper from a previous semester as an "extra credit re-write" in a non-science class, and got caught. I got an honor code violation for my actions, and posted a 3.36 GPA for the semester--by far the worst of my college career. My point is that common, everyday stress from being a college student is vastly different from uncontrollable, life altering circumstances that will never occur again. Definitely explain in your application how your uncle's death impacted you and why it led you to make a poor academic decision. Unless many of you have been in a similar situation, please don't degrade the OP for making a bad decision and tell him/her talking about an uncle's death is a "cop out" or "not taking responsibility".

The reality of this, however, is that MANY schools you apply to will, unfortunately, look at your application, see that you have an honors code violation, and without looking twice at anything else on your application, throw it away. I applied to 10 schools that I thought I had pretty competitive statistics for, got 2 pre-Dec. interviews, 2 post-Dec. interviews, and 2 acceptances.

If you really want to be a dentist, be a dentist. One bad decision you made when you weren't thinking clearly doesn't mean you're a bad person, it doesn't mean you're unethical, and it doesn't mean you won't make a fantastic dentist. If anyone wants to sit on their high horse and act like they've never made a mistake, then let them. Just don't let them tell you what you can/can't achieve.

Just my 2 cents

This is great... so everytime I am feeling stressed, lonely, and depressed I can cheat on a test? or maybe bill the insurance company for procedures I never performed? or maybe bill a patient for a procedure not done correctly / or at all?

I mean after all, ITS OKAY to make unethical calls so long as we can provide enough justification that we weren't thinking "clearly".

Look man, I am happy you got into dental school, but the reality is, when you have 12000-13000 people applying for less than 5000 spots, schools will not only pick the smartest and brightest , they will also pick those who show most qualified signs of a future healthcare professional (keyword = professional).....

If you've read any of my previous posts, you'd quickly learn that I never discourage anyone, as matter of fact, I (and others on from this thread) were trying to explain to the OP to NOT take the rest of his application lightly because he is already at a disadvantage. And my other advice, and I hope you agree with me, is to NOT use the uncle's death as a reason for the cheating incident, this wouldn't look good in a personal statement or in an interview.

 

[Jellybean84]

OP- I was in a very similar situation and DID get accepted to dental school, so don't give up. Don't ever give up. I rarely comment on threads but reading some of the things other people have said to you are so ignorant and degrading that I felt I had to comment to give you a ray of hope. Getting stressed out about exams during finals week, and cheating on a test because you feel overwhelmed--very hard to explain your reasoning because I'm sure everyone has experienced this at one point or another. Having a very close relative unexpectedly pass away and clinically being diagnosed with depression resulting in ONE poor decision--very explainable and any human being with a heart and soul will more than likely be able to see beyond your poor decision. My personal story was I had ~3.8 GPA going into my junior year of college and over Thanksgiving break (3 weeks before finals), my grandfather whom I was very close with (grew up without my own father because he passed away when I was very young so in a sense, my grandfather filled that role) passed away, and it was heartbreaking. To add to that, my brother had a tumor discovered in his neck, which at the time was believed to be cancerous. And to add to all of that good news, my girlfriend of 4 years abruptly broke up with me and I found out she was a cheating little b****. Obviously, my world came crashing down at the worst possible time for a college student. I couldn't do any work, couldn't study for finals, could barely drag myself out of bed, and was placed on anti-anxiety medication as well as an anti-depressant. I made the mistake of turning in a friend's paper from a previous semester as an "extra credit re-write" in a non-science class, and got caught. I got an honor code violation for my actions, and posted a 3.36 GPA for the semester--by far the worst of my college career. My point is that common, everyday stress from being a college student is vastly different from uncontrollable, life altering circumstances that will never occur again. Definitely explain in your application how your uncle's death impacted you and why it led you to make a poor academic decision. Unless many of you have been in a similar situation, please don't degrade the OP for making a bad decision and tell him/her talking about an uncle's death is a "cop out" or "not taking responsibility".

The reality of this, however, is that MANY schools you apply to will, unfortunately, look at your application, see that you have an honors code violation, and without looking twice at anything else on your application, throw it away. I applied to 10 schools that I thought I had pretty competitive statistics for, got 2 pre-Dec. interviews, 2 post-Dec. interviews, and 2 acceptances.

If you really want to be a dentist, be a dentist. One bad decision you made when you weren't thinking clearly doesn't mean you're a bad person, it doesn't mean you're unethical, and it doesn't mean you won't make a fantastic dentist. If anyone wants to sit on their high horse and act like they've never made a mistake, then let them. Just don't let them tell you what you can/can't achieve.

Just my 2 cents

Thanks for posting this. Im not the the type to post on SDN but its kinda sad how pre-dents are so negative on each other. I've read so much bad advice on the some of these post its pretty ridiculous. To the OP listen to the guy above, don't think your chances for dental school is over. Contact schools, stay positive, and you will be fine. I'm not saying cheating is okay, but it happens. No one is perfect but just learn from your mistakes and grow from them. Good luck.

 

[321931]

OP- I was in a very similar situation and DID get accepted to dental school, so don't give up. Don't ever give up. I rarely comment on threads but reading some of the things other people have said to you are so ignorant and degrading that I felt I had to comment to give you a ray of hope. Getting stressed out about exams during finals week, and cheating on a test because you feel overwhelmed--very hard to explain your reasoning because I'm sure everyone has experienced this at one point or another. Having a very close relative unexpectedly pass away and clinically being diagnosed with depression resulting in ONE poor decision--very explainable and any human being with a heart and soul will more than likely be able to see beyond your poor decision. My personal story was I had ~3.8 GPA going into my junior year of college and over Thanksgiving break (3 weeks before finals), my grandfather whom I was very close with (grew up without my own father because he passed away when I was very young so in a sense, my grandfather filled that role) passed away, and it was heartbreaking. To add to that, my brother had a tumor discovered in his neck, which at the time was believed to be cancerous. And to add to all of that good news, my girlfriend of 4 years abruptly broke up with me and I found out she was a cheating little b****. Obviously, my world came crashing down at the worst possible time for a college student. I couldn't do any work, couldn't study for finals, could barely drag myself out of bed, and was placed on anti-anxiety medication as well as an anti-depressant. I made the mistake of turning in a friend's paper from a previous semester as an "extra credit re-write" in a non-science class, and got caught. I got an honor code violation for my actions, and posted a 3.36 GPA for the semester--by far the worst of my college career. My point is that common, everyday stress from being a college student is vastly different from uncontrollable, life altering circumstances that will never occur again. Definitely explain in your application how your uncle's death impacted you and why it led you to make a poor academic decision. Unless many of you have been in a similar situation, please don't degrade the OP for making a bad decision and tell him/her talking about an uncle's death is a "cop out" or "not taking responsibility".

The reality of this, however, is that MANY schools you apply to will, unfortunately, look at your application, see that you have an honors code violation, and without looking twice at anything else on your application, throw it away. I applied to 10 schools that I thought I had pretty competitive statistics for, got 2 pre-Dec. interviews, 2 post-Dec. interviews, and 2 acceptances.

If you really want to be a dentist, be a dentist. One bad decision you made when you weren't thinking clearly doesn't mean you're a bad person, it doesn't mean you're unethical, and it doesn't mean you won't make a fantastic dentist. If anyone wants to sit on their high horse and act like they've never made a mistake, then let them. Just don't let them tell you what you can/can't achieve.

Just my 2 cents

You have competitive stats. A 3.8 with I'm assuming a good DAT. You are lucky to have made it with an honor code violation.


The OP has a 3.3 with an honor code violation. I doubt he will be as lucky as you. Most schools look very unfavorably on academic cheating. Many other people get down on their luck, and end up NOT doing what you two did. In addition, there are 13000 other applicants that do NOT have a academic violations. That is the big counterargument to why schools would most likely never pick up OP application.

If I were the OP, I would look into perhaps a different profession that doesn't look at academic violations. By telling him its possible to get in, its like telling someone its possible to win the lottery, but in reality, its very very hard...and you gotta be lucky.

It can be done as previously cited by some of the other posters here, but it's going to be tough. All the odds are against you, and even with a post-bac that blemish might still after 2-3 years haunt you. Is it worth it? You gotta ask yourself that. If it is, then hey, best of luck to you. And I'm sorry for your situation. I don't want to sound harsh, but I'm just being realistic.

 

[two thirty]

I feel like there would be a lot of liars in this thread if I asked if anyone had ever cheated and gotten away with it.

 

[aelian]

I feel like there would be a lot of liars in this thread if I asked if anyone had ever cheated and gotten away with it.

I've cut a few corners here and there. But here is the golden rule of cheating: You're only a cheater if you get caught. So make sure you're good.

 

[V5RED]

Was this an isolated cheating incident? I mean I have no idea what admissions people would think, but to me the main question I would have is whether this was the first time you had cheated or if this was the first time you got caught cheating. I would also wonder what your GPA would be if you had never cheated, in other words did you cheat your way to a 3.3 when you really should have had a 2.5.

I won't claim to hope that you get in since that is also indirectly hoping that someone else does not get in, and why would I hope for that.

I am just throwing out my thoughts, not condemning you or saying you should not or will not get admitted into dental school.

 

[Impulse155]

Was this an isolated cheating incident? I mean I have no idea what admissions people would think, but to me the main question I would have is whether this was the first time you had cheated or if this was the first time you got caught cheating. I would also wonder what your GPA would be if you had never cheated, in other words did you cheat your way to a 3.3 when you really should have had a 2.5.

I won't claim to hope that you get in since that is also indirectly hoping that someone else does not get in, and why would I hope for that.

I am just throwing out my thoughts, not condemning you or saying you should not or will not get admitted into dental school.

Actually in my school there was an incident that I always think of when an academic dishonesty post comes on SDN.
Long story short, the organic chem class the year before me. One kid was caught cheating off another due to the short answers. They looked at both of their past exams, all were the same. After that they ended up looking more in depth at past records. Found out the kids cheated in both gen chems, organic chem, and a couple bio classes. They ended up with like 12 coutns of dishonesty. Must suck to be the kid that wasnt cheating but letting his friend cheat off him ;\

 

[icedspice]

To Longhorn21 and Jellybean.

I think you might have misread how many of the posters, including me, have responded to the OP.
In no way did we say that: NO, because of this ONE isolated event, you are NOT going to make it in Dental school!

No, we didn't say that. Please do not insult us of not understanding what this person went through during his bad times. We have suffered through our own misfortunes too.

However, we have been through this process.
It is a hard one. competitive. and requires persistence.
In the OPs case, if he is up for it, he is going to require a lot of courage and strength to go through this.... whether it be through INTENSE hours of volunteering, a bacc degree, a second year of applying, many many conversations with adcoms at different schools, a reflective personal statement.. PERSISTENCE. he HAS to be able to show that...

I am sure you would agree he would have to do at least that.

To Maamba,
My advice to you: Take Longhorn21's post to be guidance and encouragement.
Take ALL other poster's response as "motherly advice", not as discouraging put-me-down-ers. Yeah, it is not sugar coated, but it is to shake you into reality and make you focus into what you really need to do.

 

[Dusk]

I'm neutral in this argument. I see both points, but

"You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want something, go get it. Period."

One of my favorite movie quotes, can anyone name it without searching it? 🙂

 

[wizi]

I'm neutral in this argument. I see both points, but

"You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want something, go get it. Period."

One of my favorite movie quotes, can anyone name it without searching it? 🙂

I love that movie. Where is Will Smith after that movie?