Cheating in College... What to do?

[Tis_Bearself]

See, I’ve never understood this.

And this is why I and others are telling you to please go talk to your priest, because you seem confused.

1ke gave you the correct answer: you will never be required to tell anyone your sin other than the priest in the confessional.

 

[Minks]

There is more than one way to make amends without opening a can of worms for yourself. You know the areas in which you cheated. Go back through that material until you can explain it forward and backward. Sign up with Newman Club, or wherever campus signups are located, to volunteer tutoring in math or the basic subjects.

You have the beginnings of an exemplary Catholic. Examine your conscience, vow to change, ask Christ for help, talk to a priest, make a good confession, receive the Holy Eucharist, go and strive to sin no more. Easy-peasy!

 

[otjm]

I just don’t think I’m ready to confess unless I’m willing to do what it takes to make things right.

I understand your hesitancy.

I will repeat - who did you cheat?

There is a mindset among way too many “students” that there is this (for lack of a better term) game that has to be played, between them and the professor re: assignments and homework. And they think that when they slide by not making an effort, or they cheat. that they have gamed the situation.

You are not in school to play a game with the professors; you are there to learn.

In short, you are the one who was cheated by what you did - not the professor. You did not do the assignment correctly - you used someone else’s work. The assignment is to teach you; it is not there for you to get brownie points from the professor, or a “grade”.

You cut a corner - not hurting the professor, but hurting yourself. You cheated yourself.

I just don’t think I’m ready to confess unless I’m willing to do what it takes to make things right.

You can go back and repeat the work assignment - and if you are not able to get it right, you can go back without a long historical review - you can approach the professor to ask for help in understanding what was required to complete it correctly.

That does not involve a “mea culpa” to them; all you have to say is you are having a problem understanding the concepts/issues/whatever in order to accomplish the task. Or you can ask a grad assistant, who does not need to hear your prior failure.

“Making it right” is about you, about your learning, about your ability to apply what you should have known to do the assignment in the first place.

In short, you need to make it right with you - not in “fixing your guilt”, but in learning - which supposedly was why you were in the situation in the first place.

It is not about the grade. It is not about “turning in the assignment” done by you rather than others.

It is about you learning. That was what was cheated, and you cheated yourself.

Now go to confession - you don’t need to meet the priest outside the confession, just go.

And then start confronting whatever it is in you that is taking the slacker’s approach, and correct that.

 

[Lionel_Beezus]

I love your positive attitude! Thanks for your wisdom God bless!

 

[FrankFletcher]

Lionel_Beezus:

I just don’t think I’m ready to confess unless I’m willing to do what it takes to make things right.

I understand your hesitancy.

I will repeat - who did you cheat?

There is a mindset among way too many “students” that there is this (for lack of a better term) game that has to be played, between them and the professor re: assignments and homework. And they think that when they slide by not making an effort, or they cheat. that they have gamed the situation.

You are not in school to play a game with the professors; you are there to learn.

In short, you are the one who was cheated by what you did - not the professor. You did not do the assignment correctly - you used someone else’s work. The assignment is to teach you; it is not there for you to get brownie points from the professor, or a “grade”.

You cut a corner - not hurting the professor, but hurting yourself. You cheated yourself.

And every other student in the class who didn’t cheat and worked honorably.

 

[otjm]

And every other student in the class who didn’t cheat and worked honorably.

I don’t think I would go so far as to say that he cheated any classmate - unless it was a joint project nad they had to carry his responsibility. However, that was not what the OP said he did.

Rather, I would say he dishonored their work and effort.

Their purpose in class was to learn, not be honored; and if they learned, they did not cheat themselves, and I find it difficult, other than a joint project as to how his cheating had any known impact on their learning.

 

[FrankFletcher]

Say this person received an A in the course while cheating but a classmate received a C while not cheating. This person’s GPA would be improved. He could have an edge with graduate schools and jobs.

 

[mdgspencer]

I presume that doing this, if you realized this was wrong when you were doing this it is a sin.
But if you were kicked out of school for doing this, the punishment would be excessive. So I wouldn’t tell the university or your professors you had done this. Though if a person plagarized a Master’s thesis or Doctoral dissertation, having his degree repealed would be justified.
There are cases where a person’s Doctor’s degree was rescinded by his university for plagarizing his dissertation.
There are many stories I could tell about this, having advanced degrees and being a professor once. When I was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin back around 1970 there were several businesses who would sell term papers to students. Apparently, it was a flourishing business. They even advertised in the campus newspaper. After a few years, though, the attorney general of the state cracked down on them because it was an illegal activity. He also seized their records. Presumably, he found out which students had used the business. However, the local dailies did not say what happened to the students who bought term papers to turn in in their courses.

 

[Lionel_Beezus]

Very well. Thanks for the great advice, as I can tell you’ve taken time to think about this, which I appreciate. God bless!

 

[otjm]

Say this person received an A in the course while cheating but a classmate received a C while not cheating. This person’s GPA would be improved. He could have an edge with graduate schools and jobs.

Or we could stick to the OP’s statements and not get carried away with what ifs.

If he has lied to us - and I have absolutely no reason to believe he has - then your question might possibly make sense.

All the prof’s I have had, both in college and grad school, graded each of us on a standardized scale. the person who worked hard and was only “C” capable was not going to get into grad school whether someone else cheated and got an “A” or not. And the guy who was not an “A” student who got into grad school - assuming the school had any credibility, was going to crash and burn.

 

[kapp19]

what must be repaired in confession.
Say you stole something from your parents…

You are conflating reparation with restitution. That’s why I pointed out that grades aren’t property. The extent to which they are would be in proportion with the ownership of a qualification for further studies in the context of the 100k+ people looking for further studies in the same field (accounting for many of them having cheated, by the way), which is a very small factor, unless you are scraping up against a 4.0 directly as a result of clear dishonesty whereas you actually would have had a 2.1 without cheating…

 

[FrankFletcher]

FrankFletcher:

Say this person received an A in the course while cheating but a classmate received a C while not cheating. This person’s GPA would be improved. He could have an edge with graduate schools and jobs.

Or we could stick to the OP’s statements and not get carried away with what ifs.

If he has lied to us - and I have absolutely no reason to believe he has - then your question might possibly make sense.

All the prof’s I have had, both in college and grad school, graded each of us on a standardized scale. the person who worked hard and was only “C” capable was not going to get into grad school whether someone else cheated and got an “A” or not. And the guy who was not an “A” student who got into grad school - assuming the school had any credibility, was going to crash and burn.

If the C student is the average, that changes who will receive a scholarship or job offer. 1) The A students who didn’t cheat are deserving of such opportunities and may not receive them, and 2) The A student who cheated does make it less likely that those students who received lower grades honestly will be given opportunities based on merit.

I’m surprised that so many are dismissing the seriousness of cheating. It’s a moral issue. If you wouldn’t steal from your employer, you shouldn’t cheat. Minimizing it makes cheaters feel better but it doesn’t change the immorality of their choices.

 

[Lionel_Beezus]

If the C student is the average, that changes who will receive a scholarship or job offer. 1) The A students who didn’t cheat are deserving of such opportunities and may not receive them, and 2) The A student who cheated does make it less likely that those students who received lower grades honestly will be given opportunities based on merit.

I’m surprised that so many are dismissing the seriousness of cheating. It’s a moral issue. If you wouldn’t steal from your employer, you shouldn’t cheat. Minimizing it makes cheaters feel better but it doesn’t change the immorality of their choices.

Okay. I’m going to reveal my conclusion on this issue, because I feel as though I’ve come to one. But first, I’d like to address this.

What you’re saying, @FrankFletcher is exactly what I’ve been thinking. I do agree that cheating does take away from those who are honest. It is wrong. I should not have done it, and am in the process of serious guilt. It hurts.

Here’s another truth: A poll revealed that around 86 percent of students cheat in college. And that’s just the ones who were honest in the poll, and the ones who knew they were doing it. So the truth is that MOST students cheat. Now I arrive at my question: How do I reach restitution or do reparation for this? I think that many would agree that the consequences, given how easy it is to fall into such a trap that is common in society, are dire. Coming forth with this information would destroy my reputation. To be clear, this is the point of my creation of this forum: My steps to fix what I’ve done.

There’s something I’ve come to learn as a Catholic. It’s called reasonability. It’s what we use all the time to come to conclusions about complex morality issues that we simply don’t have the omnipotence to understand. We generalize. It’s the notion that if we commit a crime, we submit to the law within the realm of our own reason, the reason that God gave us. It has a lot to do with the disposition of the heart at the time of restitution and reparation (as well as the disposition of the heart at the time of the offense.)

Do I think all students who have cheated should be thrown out of their institution and permanently flagged as dishonest because they cheated on assignments? No I do not. I think that would be unreasonable. I feel for them, and realize how easy it is to become complicit with society’s beliefs.

But there are other situations where a student SHOULD be punished in this way. As @kapp19 mentioned, serious offenses should be met with appropriate consequences. It’s not a matter of taking the law into our own hands, it’s a question of reasonability- an immeasurable amount of guiltiness of a person’s soul.

I believe, obviously, that my offense lies somewhere in-between these two extremes of reasonability. I appreciate all of you trying to figure out the 1s and 0s of my sin to better help me make up for it, but what I need is a priest to sit and talk about what my reasonable response should be.

 

[Lionel_Beezus]

Did I fully know I was hurting others?
Will coming forth truly help things?
Will not coming forth force me into a situation in which I must sin again?
Which solution does the MOST good for repairing this situation?
Do I stand a chance in my further studies if I choose to continue?
What do I tell my parents when they thank me for working hard?
Is God calling me towards something else?

Thank you all for your help, but thus far this is my solution:
To have a priest help me make a reasonable decision. God Bless!

 

[otjm]

Did I fully know I was hurting others?

You have shown absolutely nothing which indicates you have hurt anyone else.

Will coming forth truly help things?

Going to confession will truly help your faith walk. It isn’t going to change anything else except you might find an emotional catharsis in speaking to a professor. I seriously doubt it will impact any final grade, but it may make the professor think less of you. Or not. You have shown absolutely no impact on any other student. The impact was on you, for you did not necessarily learn what the assignment was set to teach you or to show you that you needed further work.

Will not coming forth force me into a situation in which I must sin again?

One never “must” sin again; you choose to sin. In this case, you choose to take shortcuts as if school were a game, instead of a place to learn. In other words, you need to grow up. this is an opportunity to do so going forward - to change your mindset to why you are paying tens of thousands of dollars.

Which solution does the MOST good for repairing this situation?

What needs repairing is your attitude toward your studeis and thge workload you take on - slack or get serious. that is the opnly thing needing repair, as the damage you did was not to other students, nor to the professor(s) - it was to yourself.

Do I stand a chance in my further studies if I choose to continue?

That depends on whether this is a learning lesson, and you learn. You are in school; you are tgaking the classes. Either you seize the chance to learn and devote your full attention and effort to it, you you continue to be a slacker.

What do I tell my parents when they thank me for working hard?

“Thank you. this last year has been a learning lesson, and I worked hard, but definitely not as hard and as focused as I could have. I intend to make this my main focus and devote more effort.”

There is absolutely no need to say anything else it is not a false statement - you have worked hard on some of it. It only becomes a false statement if you do not focus and get your hear turned around as to why you are in school, and what that requires of you.

Is God calling me towards something else?

The fact that you cheated and were a slacker has nothgint to do with God calling you to something else. You have not said you were incapable of the work. You said you took the easy way out on some assignments.

A priest cannot help you to make a reasonable decision., You need to quit expecting someone to give you some magical solution to your choice of being a slacker. That is entirely up to you. A priest can give you absolution. That is not the same as making you feel better. YOU need to own your choices, which you appear in part to be trying to do, and yet you are hedging.

 

[FrankFletcher]

The fact that you cheated and were a slacker has nothgint to do with God calling you to something else. You have not said you were incapable of the work. You said you took the easy way out on some assignments.

A priest cannot help you to make a reasonable decision., You need to quit expecting someone to give you some magical solution to your choice of being a slacker. That is entirely up to you. A priest can give you absolution. That is not the same as making you feel better. YOU need to own your choices, which you appear in part to be trying to do, and yet you are hedging.

Why do you continue to refer to cheating as merely “slacking”? And why wouldn’t a priest be able to help someone determine how to rectify immoral behavior?

 

[Lionel_Beezus]

@FrankFletcher from what you’ve said in numerous other posts, I’m under the impression that you think I should feel guilty. I don’t disagree (In fact, some sense of guilt is how we’re contrite in confession.) But believe me, I’ve felt plenty of guilt for this. It’s time for me to move past guilt and move into the healing/fixing process.

I will wholeheartedly agree that a priest is my best bet here. The reason I haven’t gone yet is because I’m not in college right now, and I feel like the priest at my college would be more equipped to help me with this. He’s probably heard it 1000 times and given plenty of thought to it. I go back on the 8th of next month.

Posting on here, as some have alluded to, was a mistake. I did some reading. When a priest gives restitution, he does so in cathedra christi. Essentially, I should trust his advice, despite how I may feel. I prayed for my confessor, that he might recommend adequate restitution. I promised God that I would do as my confessor instructed, even if it meant sabotaging my life. I trust whatever happens in the confessional, and believe that’s the best I can do. What more could I possibly do?

 

[otjm]

Why do you continue to refer to cheating as merely “slacking”?

I don’t recall the use of the word “merely”. He has said absolutely nothing about being unable to accomplish the assignments. He slacked off.

And why wouldn’t a priest be able to help someone determine how to rectify immoral behavior?

He is looking for some sort of way to have someone say he has to go back and “rectify” his cheating; and that is because he still does not seem to understand who he cheated - which was himself.

And he is by no means whatsoever alone in an idea that he “cheated the professor”. He did not cheat the professor, nor did he cheat any other student; he cheated himself, as the assignments are a means for him to learn, and to perfect his learning, on the matter assigned.

He has more than ample information to stop his future cheating. A priest is not going to add to that, and I most seriously doubt any priest ifs going to say that what he did was a mortal sin. it was a stupid sin, but stupid sins are not automatically mortal sins.

At the bottom of this all, he lied to the professor, implying that he had done the work assigned. I don’t know of any moral theologian who is going to say that all lies are mortal sins, and that these lies were mortal sins.

I have not told him to not go to confession (to the contrary, I have told him to get on with it). Although the Church holds that for venial sins, confession is not mandatory; I have encouraged him to go to confession.

His last response was he needed to go and “talk” to a priest.

What he needs to do is put on a pair of big boy panties, pull them up, pull up his socks, and get moving on his classes - for the purpose of educating himself - which should be the sole reason he is in engineering in college.

He has not in the past appeared to fully grasp why he is there. And he does not need to “ask a priest for advice” - he already has it.

 

[otjm]

When a priest gives restitution, he does so in cathedra christi.

And what are you going to do, considering how stuck you are on restitution, if he does not recommend any?

What restiutution can you make for a lie? What did you “take”? Hint: you took nothing from the professor or any other student; you took from yourself.

What you took was the opportunity to learn more thoroughly by completing the assignments - or in the alternative, to learn what you did not understand, so you could seek more help learning.

Sabotaging your life is getting a bit over the top; you are not in the drama department, so how about let’s not get this out to the fringes?

What more could I possibly do?

Go read what I have written - figure out why you are in school - you are clearly not committed to doing the very best you can.

Make that commitment. Print it in big bold letters on a piece of paper: “I am here to do the absolute best I can in each an every class”, put it in the wall where you study, and read it every day every time you lift your eyes from whatever you are doing.

And then do it.

 

[FrankFletcher]

I explained earlier that all cheating harms other students. And despite your protestations, this is a moral issue and one, therefore, under the purview of a priest.