Academic Misconduct hindering Admission Forum

[ssareshwala]

During my fall semester freshman year of college, I was cited for plagiarism. I unknowingly and unintentionally quoted about 6 words in my paper off Wikipedia and cited another website. (I'm not sure if that's considered plagiarism, and it is not in my permanent academic record nor did I get any suspension or anything, but it is on file as a warning.) Does that affect my chances of getting into law school? Even though it was the first semester of college?

[Tom Joad]

Plagiarism is a very serious offense, but in your case if what you said was true, I doubt it will hurt your application very much. Disclose everything. Explain what happened and provide copies of your records so that schools can see it wasn't noted as a violation on your record.

[ssareshwala]

Thank you for the advice.
Also, does it help that I had a really low GPA my freshman year (2.6) and was able to increase it to a 3.6 through college. I was even on the Judicial Board which assesses plagiarism my junior year.

Do they look at freshman year in depth? Especially if I have significantly improved my GPA?

[Tom Joad]

All that really matters is your cumulative GPA.

[ssareshwala]

Thank you! I guess all I can do is wait patiently...