College is all about learning to beat the system, right? I mean who’s ever going to use Chemistry or Differential Equations in real life anyway? Let’s look at five reasons for cheating.
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by Jessica Swendiman
1. Everyone else is doing it.
Education-Portal.com reports that 75-98% of current college students have cheated at least once. Thanks in great part to the technological boom and the normalization of the college degree, many students now see cheating as part of the game. What are the potential outcomes? Possibly getting a better grade. Cheating also can lead to a tendency to take the easy way out, potentially embarrassment in front of faculty (the same people you’ll want to write your letters of recommendation in a few years!), expulsion or probation, plus a muddying of your name to all future employers who ask for your official transcripts. Yes, you too can reap those great rewards by cheating.
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2. It’s a one-time thing.
Let’s be honest, you probably will get away with cheating at first. The thrill that comes with knowing you beat the system can be intoxicating, and you can feel like you’ve finally found a way to do this college thing without losing your mind. Anything that leaves you feeling this way will not be a one-time thing; it will become something you turn to more and more frequently in times of need.
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And what happens, a couple years down the road, when you’re in that stellar internship or first job and you’re absolutely overwhelmed? It may be tempting to copy and paste or rewrite product descriptions from Wikipedia instead of typing them yourself. This type of behavior might sustain you for a while, but the eventual ramifications will be devastating. Remember Madoff? Yeah. Habits start with one action.
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3. No one’s going to find out, so if I can make peace with it, why not do it?
About 5 years ago professors started using online scanning software, scanning students essays and comparing them against the essays of other past and current students and online content. Many larger universities now require professors to take this precaution and you yourself may be asked to submit your papers to the system. Sooner or later, you will run into a teacher who does this, many times without telling you. Don’t risk your reputation to save yourself a few hours of work.
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4. Everyone else in my class cheats; I have to cheat to stay competitive.
If this really is a worry of yours, like it was for me in my Stat 5 class, speak up. I did, and the professor changed the entire exam. He shortened it from 55 multiple choice questions to 5 open ended ones where we were graded on our process and showing our work, not our answers. Shorter test and competing with overzealous cheaters averted!
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5. College is about beating the system; I’d be a fool to not take advantage of cheating to succeed.
No, you’re a fool if you don’t take advantage of the incredible opportunity to go to college and use the opportunity in the manner it was designed. Think about it: if you take a real shot at doing all the work you need to do to get your degree, not only will you have learned tons of new material, but you will have honed yourself into a productive and effective individual.
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A couple years into the ‘real world,’ the people who cheated their way through college are going to continue taking shortcuts that either get them caught or leave them in a constant state of anxiety. You, on the other hand, will be doing honest work that you can answer for and never getting caught off guard by questions about that work (as I’ve seen happen to dozens of people in recent years). And trust me, employers can tell the difference.
