Cheating in College... What to do?

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Lionel_Beezus

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I’ve spent a lot of time working for my electrical engineering degree, but lately, my moral compass is acting up again.

I can’t deny that I’ve “cheated” per se on a lot of small homework assignments in college. Some of it is fairly small, like finding Quizlet accounts that help out with homework or sometimes help me to do simple fill-in-the-blank style questions.

But I’ve been thinking a lot, and there have been some bigger ones. In physics, I’ve copied down someone else’s homework without understanding it, changed it to look unique, and turned it in. In a coding class, I submitted code that was essentially someone else’s work. It’s undeniable that these were wrong. I don’t believe I’ve ever cheated on an exam. I’m feeling incredibly guilty.

Is it my duty to go back to my professors and turn myself in? I feel like I’ve genuinely worked hard for my degree and have adequate knowledge for my profession, but I realize that this doesn’t change the fact that reparation must be done. Fessing up would shatter my world and everything I’ve worked for. I feel extremely emotionally vulnerable. Please only answer if you are fully confident and have a firm understanding of reparation and what must be done. Thank you, and God bless!
 
Lionel_Beezus said:
Fessing up would shatter my world and everything I’ve worked for.
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Lionel_Beezus said:
I feel like I’ve genuinely worked hard for my degree
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You worked hard, but you didn’t work as hard as you needed to and resorted to dishonesty instead. Because you’re Catholic, you do need to bring this matter to your priest in Confession. Consult with him about your penance. It may include coming clean with your department, but either way you’ll receive some important spiritual guidance.

The bigger issue at hand: What is motivating you to cheat? Can you remedy the issue with study groups and outside tutoring?

If not, is this a good time to meet with somebody in a different department to see about changing your major? Would it help to take a leave of absence and work (or perhaps volunteer?), in the so-called “real world” for awhile until you figure out where God is calling you?
 
I do not. I will be a junior this next semester. I’d consider myself halfway there.
 
I have never known of a class where it was not clear as to what any one project or assignment weighed in the overall resulting grade. From what you have said, it does not sound as if your cheating was on a major part of the grade for the class.

I seriously doubt that any professor is going to go in and change your grade.

I can’t speak to any rules of ethical conduct which the school may have; and even if there is such a thing as a code against cheating, it may not be even-handed in its application, and it is entirely possible that no professor would turn you in on the code.

And I suspect that any confessor is either not going to require you to go back to a professor, or even more likely not even inquire further if he ascertains it was not a major issue of cheating.

And in the meanwhile I would suggest that you are going through a process we used to call “growing up”. That entails getting your head out of your tailpipe and focusing on why you are in college: to wit, to learn.

If you don’t “get” something, then a responsible adult reaction is to get help with the concept until you understand it. A non-adult response is to find a shortcut and shrug it off.

You are spending multiple tens of thousands of dollars, if not into the 6 figures to get a degree. That degree is not the piece of paper, it is the learning and understanding that precedes it.

Your focus has been about that of all too many students, sorta serious but not really serious. To an extent (and I don’t say completely) you have been, to put it in a driving analogy, in forward motion but somewhere around second gear. It is time to buck up, buttercup.

Yes, you cheated; but who did you really cheat? I would submit it was not the professor. It was you - you have cheated yourself. No, I am not suggesting that you will not make an adequate engineer - or anything else you choose to do. But what occurred did so because you chose to be immature, and slide.

But keep up this routine of slacking, and you will be merely adequate. Is that what you want? And is that why you are spending multiple tens of thousands of dollars - to be merely adequate?

Unless the priest in confession requires you to go back to the professor(s), I don’t - for a simple reason or two. Grades are merely an approximation of what you have learned and it is highly unlikely anyone is going to change a grade over what happened. Further, you did not cheat the professor - you cheated yourself.

Time to do some serious growing up - which is more than just not cheating. It is time to devote all you have to learning.

Or be merely adequate.

Your call.
 
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@otjm
Wow, what an amazing take on this! Thank you.
It’s true… I’m certain that if I do the math, the cheating wouldn’t affect my overall grade. (I dropped one of the classes anyways, and would’ve ended up with the same letter in the other class- the letter grade is what really counts.)

You’ve shed a lot of light on my situation.
I believe I’ll end up talking to a priest as you say and hopefully gain more clarity. God Bless!
 
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My worst experience working with somebody in industry was with an engineer who once told me he cheated his way through college. I don’t want to put anybody down, but this person didn’t know anything, couldn’t do anything, and made other’s lives miserable.

The worst incident went a follows. This engineer wanted to show he was contributing, so he “cleaned up the lab”. When I say “cleaned up the lab” I mean he took apart everybody’s lab setup without asking and put the components from these setups in random drawers. People were yelling at him. There was really a meanness and maliciousness about what this guy did in the guise of “wanting to help” and “misreading“ a situation. My point is that it is a slippery slope. If you cheat you don’t learn. If you don’t learn, you can’t do a job. If you can’t do a job, you’ll do nasty stuff to keep the job. It doesn’t appear that you’re that far down the slope…

There is also a grey area that you don’t want to be too concerned about. Two engineering students can’t copy homework problems obviously, but they can work through a very similar problem on whiteboard together. There is a lot of sample code on the internet that you’d only need to change a few variables to use to solve a homework problem. You got to understand the code before you can change it though. Just sayin…perhaps its best not to get hung up on the grey areas…no college engineering instructor expects you to get in to ethical dilemmas on day to day homework assignments over grey or vague instructions on how you work with other students.
 
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Any time you have a question pertaining to your soul, as this issue does, please talk to a priest as soon as possible. He can help you educate yourself as well as give you peace of mind until you can plan an attack upon the offending sin, confess, and receive absolution.

I agree that your distress over your sins of cheating is a sign that you’re reaching a deeper level of maturity, recognizing that there is no room for cheating in responsible Catholic citizenship—or in any smoothly operating society.
 
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First, grades typically aren’t rightly categorized as property… only in the remotest sense in the normal case. So there is not restitution to be made. (Could be different in some schools, where your grade is determined in relation to other students.)

Second, your professors would likely not care enough to go through the process of changing anything in your case.

Third, you are assuming, maybe wrongly, that they don’t know you cheated in xyz way. Teachers are smarter than students sometimes think… and it is actually “on them” to catch dishonesty.

Fourth, if it is still really bothering you, have a friend/classmate go ask these professors (or the dean, or whoever) their opinion/desire about what if xyz kind of cheating had happened during the semester. Then go from there. It would certainly not be obligatory to ruin your entire life (and I think they would probably not do that - for multiple reasons). But if they were willing to let you redo assignments, maybe that could be good, and you would earn a good reputation in the process.
 
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@Lionel_Beezus, before you even think about discussing this matter with friends or acquaintances, please discuss it with a priest. This is your soul that’s up for grabs, so please skip involving others.

If you don’t have a special priest to whom you feel free to turn, maybe your college has a Newman Club? If so, talk to the priest affiliated with that campus group.

Best wishes to you. I’ll keep you in my prayers.
 
Coming clean CAN NOT be his penance. It is absolutely forbidden for a priest to ever, under any circumstances, require a penitent to reveal his sins to another. Even if it’s murder. That’s a blatant violation of the seal.

That being said, a priest may ENCOURAGE him to come clean, but it can never be required.
 
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Lionel_Beezus said:
I’ve spent a lot of time working for my electrical engineering degree, but lately, my moral compass is acting up again.

I can’t deny that I’ve “cheated” per se on a lot of small homework assignments…
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Don’t beat yourself up too badly. You feel guilty. That’s your conscience saying ‘hey, you did wrong, man’. So you know you did wrong. That’s a great first step.

The next step? Well, you’ve got something that maybe you would have got anyway. But maybe you didn’t earn it. So now go and help others with their studies so they don’t have to go through what you’re going through.

You’ll be good. Life’s a learning experience.
 
Go to confession, listen to what your priest tells you and stop the cheating for the rest of your studies.

I know it sounds trite, but you are cheating yourself of knowledge you may need when you don’t do the work yourself. And of course, your cheating is having an affect on how you feel about yourself. So stop doing it. You can do the work on your own, if not, get help.
 
Hi, I’m also an EE. (Degrees gotten many years ago.)
I understand. Engg is a jungle. Especially undergrad.
But you do need to go talk to your priest. No one here is in a position to give you proper advice on this.

As someone else said, if your campus has a Newman Center, I’m sure the priest there is an absolute expert on this situation and has heard it 1 million times. I’d start with him.
 
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My son studied mechanical engineering in college and his situation was a little different.

He struggled in one of the early engineering classes meant to “separate the men from the boys”, so to speak. He had a big decision to make - cheat, change majors, or just do his best and see what happens.

He did the latter, but he still failed the course. However, he was convinced he was meant to be an engineer, so he buckled down and retook the course in summer semester after improving his study skills, focus, and received some more individualized help from the professor’s staff.

He got an ‘A’ in the summer course and went on from there to graduate with a solid ‘B’ average and now has a good mechanical engineering job.

My only advice, for whatever it’s worth, is to make use of all approved legal methods (asking questions, study groups, tutoring, etc) to help reinforce the material without feeling like you have to cheat to succeed in the future.
 
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Confess your cheating, don’t do it again and move on. Pray that you will have learned enough to move on. You will likely see how this cheating hurt you in the future.
 
See, I’ve never understood this.
There are times when it is very clear what must be repaired in confession.
Say you stole something from your parents…
Clearly, after confessing, you should give it back (But the priest has never MADE me to do something like this.)
If we go into confession with the unwillingness to repair the sin- to give the item back- are we really making a contrite or true confession?

This is why I asked this question on these forums. Many of these posts are correct in that a priest wouldn’t require me to do anything except repent (and a small penance)… but shouldn’t I “fix” things anyways if not at ;east to believe that I’m actually sorry for my sins?

I think the most blatant truth here so far is that a priest has the best answers to my questions. My plan is to somehow meet outside of confession to resolve a plan FOR my confession. I just don’t think I’m ready to confess unless I’m willing to do what it takes to make things right.
 
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