Self-study
Hi all, I am currently losing sleep over this and was wondering if anybody had any insight or a similar situation and how it worked out for them
I am currently about to be a senior in college, looking to apply to law school this upcoming cycle.
My sophomore fall semester, I got an academic integrity violation for AI use. I know in retrospect (and at the time) it was completely stupid and foolish of me, not that this is an excuse in any way, shape, or form, but it was for a rough draft I completely forgot about and tried to scrap something together quickly. I don't want to sound like I am pitying myself or anything; I am well aware of my actions, and to this day, am disappointed in myself. I have grown so much academically and as a person since then, and this is never something that would happen again. I pled guilty to the charges, received a 0 on the assignment, and a warning with no further action. As far as I am aware, there is no note of this on my transcript, and this has only been a 1 time incident.
I am 99% sure I will have to report this on the C&F (although it is not on my official transcript) I do not like hiding things; the anxiety would eat me alive, as I said, I am losing sleep over my admissions now. I currently have a 3.28 (that semester wrecked my cumulative) and am actively studying for the LSAT (so no score to report) but I am obviously going to try to counteract my GPA a little with my LSAT, but since day 1 my GPA has already stressed me out about getting into any t100, I have a ton of extracurricular/clubs, work near full time while in college, and have held leadership in these clubs.
My overall question is really just asking if I have any shot at getting accepted anywhere with this on my record. It stresses me out daily and I am kind of pessimistic and suffer from diagnosed severe anxiety, so getting accepted anywhere eats me alive
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3 comments
From the admissions vantage, @sc1394828, there are going to be plenty of people admitted to law school who disclose this kind of academic violation. It's not great to see, but it's also not uncommon.
First things first - this will be something you have to report every school. Let's remove that "I am 99% sure" thing from matters. Every school has some variation of a question pertaining to whether or not you have ever been disciplined in an academic setting. This falls squarely into that category.
Second things second - be ready to explain this situation clearly, take responsibility for it, and point to your academic growth afterwards. Basically, let me know what happened, let me know it was a one time lapse in judgement, and let me know that you have done very well ever since.
But then after that, it's really going to be about the rest of your app - your LSAT, your resume, your reasons for wanting to go to law school, etc. This CF issue is not - on the surface - big enough to sink an application on its own.
I hope that helps!
I'm not an admissions expert or anything, but I think t100 is still reasonable within your reach as long as you remain open to options. I do believe that you're right and that you should report it on your C&F as clearly and honestly as possible, as there is a chance that it will come back to you when you apply to take the bar later.
This is what LSATDemon says about it:
It seems like you've done enough stressing over this one-time mistake, and I personally don't believe that it's as damning of a crime as literal plagiarism or copying off another person for an exam. All you can do at this point is to finish your undergraduate to the best of your ability, secure great academic recommendation letters, and score as high as you can on the LSAT. I don't think your GPA is 'wrecked' quite yet, and I think you are demonstrating an active student life with a wide range of involvement. Granted, I don't know you, and I can only speculate; but from one stranger to another, I believe you when you expressed regret for your past mistake and that you have been trying to rectify it since then.
@haena
hi thank you soooo so much for your response! i appreciate it more than you know, i def needed to hear the “im not done for but it does matter” i had also never seen that lsat demon post (even during my reddit/7 sage/google search deep dive at 3am lol) this response actually grounded me a lot.
i definitely have tried to be as involved as possible. i serve on my schools student legal services board (this was after the violation but they also don’t know about it), debate team, a philanthropic organization at my school, and have held leadership roles in my sorority. also i am doing a major related study abroad. like i said i also have worked near full time all of college and am a double major and have a minor. my gpa has also only been on an upward trend since the incident (2.7 that semester, didn’t fail the class with the violation but got a D+) and got a 4.0 this most recent (spring junior) semester.
and like you said obvi stranger to stranger but this really was just an awful lapse in judgment on my part and i feel like im paying the consequences forever now because of it, i want to go straight through but now im worried i have to change my life plan around this 1 stupid mistake i made over 2 years ago. i did really appreciate you reassuring me about the degrees of severity, i only received a 0 on the assignment, no official transcript mark, only the dean has record of it. you can clearly see in my gpa trend and involvement (which heavily started AFTER the violation) that im not some random bum that i’ve only gone up since then and i really hope admissions will see that.