For virtually the entire time I've been at law school, we've had no reported honor code violations. It's made being an Honor Code representative very easy. But in the past 3 weeks we've gotten 2 notices from the Dean of violators.
We aren't given the names, but these folks have done stupid stuff: one person spent too much time in a free-slot exam. Three folks found an electronic copy of a paper, and then submitted it as their own (i.e. they stole someone's paper.)
Just in case anyone ever reads this who is thinking of going to law school, know this: cheating in law school is exceptionally serious business.
Because so much depends upon the trustworthiness of lawyers, the profession is extremely sensitive about anything in your past suggesting dishonesty.
Forget your grade for the course, that'll be an F: four months of hard work, gone.
The problem is that to be a lawyer, you must pass the bar, and the bar requires both the skills of being a lawyer (the stuff tested on the bar exam) AND good character.
While I can understand the pressure of law school, and it's possible to make a mistake and still be a good person, academic dishonesty makes me especially angry for a more personal reason.
Cheaters all harbor a common rationalization: everybody does it.
Well, you know what, not everybody does it.
I haven't.
Indeed, almost all of students do what they're supposed to, and accept that sometimes that means getting a worse grade, or working harder than they'd like to get the grades they're hoping for.
Law school grading is competitive: everyone is on a curve.
Cheaters are filthy little thieves of honest students' grades.
1 comment:
"Three folks found an electronic copy of a paper, and then submitted it as their own (i.e. they stole someone's paper.)"
This is the type of cheating that I have an even harder time forgiving than that of going over the allotted time. At least if you're cheating on time but putting your own work into the exam, you evince some ability/ knowledge for the subject. If you turn in another person's work, you're insulting the professor by saying that you learned nothing.
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