Originally posted by koma
I think attaching such a moral value on cheating is a bit excessive. "If you cheat - you are a bad bad person. If you tattle on a cheater, more power to you. " Etc. I would agree that cheating was immoral if we had a good honest system by which we could judge a person's ability to be a doctor. As of now, the system is not perfect. If you have to take some bull**** class to pass some bull**** requirement in order to graduate, and you choose to cheat, that's your decision. I can't judge this decision on a moral level. Seeing "cheating" as immoral is only justified if you see the "system" as just and fair. People get so carried away by being inside the whole premed game and following the rules, they sometimes forget about the bigger picture. Not everything is Important. Not everything is worth pouring your blood and sweat into. You should choose things that you truly want to put effort in and do Right, and let the rest of it slide, if you can. If you need to take environmental science to for your major, and the teacher sucks, and you choose to use one of your old papers or whatever, who cares.
I don't think I could report a cheater unless I was really really annoyed by their attitude. If you cheat, you're either struggling and in denial - in which case I feel sorry for you, or you just want to jump through the hoop effortlessly, and are aware of the consequences.
I dont even know where to begin addressing your lame arguments koma:
1. Grades dont judge ability to be a doctor, they judge your ability to handle the work that leads to becoming a doctor. Either way, it makes no sense for you to talk about cheating in a bad system being good or even morally neutral. Two wrongs dont make a right (ie cheating in what you view as a bad system doesnt make you right). It is NOT better to lie in an imperfect system than to be honest in an imperfect system.
2. Yes if you decide to cheat in a class it is your decision. And you should be held accountable to your decision. If you are going to accept the benefits of cheating (higher grades with less work) you darn well better be able to accept the consequences (getting an F, getting kicked out of school).
3. So by your logic, if I dont like my med school anatomy class because the teacher isnt that great, I can cheat in it because I think its a bullcrap requirement. What you call a bullcrap requirement others might consider integral to their education, and you are screwing their curve as well. I guess if I dont like med school anatomy I can cheat and not worry that I will become a ***** unqualified to treat patients.
4. Not everything is worth putting your blood and sweat into? Give me a break. If its not worth putting any effort into, just take the B or C and live with it. You are just trying to fool everyone else into thinking you are smart when you cheat, so you deserve for your bubble to get burst once you get caught.
5. I agree that if you are cheating, you are probably both stupid and lazy. But all med schools see is the transcript. They dont know youre stupid and lazy til you matriculate, by which point the cheater has already won. They already got the grade, however illegitimately.
6. No matter which way you cut it, cheaters tend to be the idiots in your class that cant admit they cant handle the work. But the fact that they are dishonest as well is going to appear repeatedly in their careers. Most people dont cheat once or twice and then are done with it. Once they realize its an easy way to do better, they because habitual cheaters. To think that they will quit cheating in med school or quit in residency or quit in practice is naive and stupid. If they cant handle the work without cheating as an undergrad, they sure as heck wont last in med school without cheating later.