I cheated at a language exam when I was eight years old. I finished early and noticed that I had accidentally left a dictionary in my drawer. I double-checked my answers and promptly got caught. The incident is probably unverifiable at this point: The physical evidence is long gone; the teacher probably retired; the school probably didn’t keep records or has already destroyed it. I might be the only person on the planet who still remembers it.
Should I mention this incident when being asked about academic integrity in job interviews or similar?
Should I tell graduate admissions?
I suspect the answer is no since it was so long ago and I was eight years old, but I’m afraid I might be rationalizing.
Answer
As noted in the comments, actions committed long ago as a child are (and should be) entirely irrelevant to graduate admissions.
It is well understood that children do not have same ability as adults to comprehend the consequences on their actions. As a result, many legal systems wipe a child's record clean of most or all juvenile offenses upon reaching adulthood.
I would thus similarly argue that any academic offense predating your undergraduate education should generally neither be reported nor considered in an application for graduate school.
No comments:
Post a Comment