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I plead guilty to violating my school's academic integrity policy my first semester freshman year and was placed on probation for the remainder of the semester. In short, I and another student were accused of collaboration/plagiarism in a writing seminar class after being placed in the same peer review group and I agreed to take the blame. I can't stress enough how ignorant I was of the offense until my accusation; our essays had similar theses and I was unaware of the extent of similarity of our final submissions.
There seems to be little discussion available on the impact of unintentional academic dishonesty in the admissions process at t14-30 schools and I find myself questioning my decision to even pursue law school if my cycle will be unpredictable because of this incident. 3.65/170

EDIT: Also have a marijuana charge on my record Sophomore year, but that seems trivial.

If you write your addendum in the same way that you wrote this (excusing your actions and pleading ignorance or something, even though you plead guilty), it'll probably affect you negatively. If you take responsibility for the situation and show how you've grown beyond it, it probably won't have much negative effect.

jselson wrote:If you write your addendum in the same way that you wrote this (excusing your actions and pleading ignorance or something, even though you plead guilty), it'll probably affect you negatively. If you take responsibility for the situation and show how you've grown beyond it, it probably won't have much negative effect.

You'll have to write an addendum, and I agree that your original post is the wrong way to go. However, I would expect it to have a negative effect on your application - it's a cheating/plagiarism charge, which law schools don't like to see. So don't fire off a quickly written addendum - this is going to be more important than most addenda; take the time to make it as good as it can possibly be.

This hurts a lot at T14 schools and probably kills you at T6 schools. They have close to zero tolerance for academic sanctions--even less than for criminal charges. If you write a better addendum than your OP, however, you should still be able to cop some T14 acceptances.

Cicero76 wrote:This hurts a lot at T14 schools and probably kills you at T6 schools. They have close to zero tolerance for academic sanctions--even less than for criminal charges. If you write a better addendum than your OP, however, you should still be able to cop some T14 acceptances.

In saying that they have zero tolerance for criminal charges, were you referring to the marijuana charge?

t-14orbust wrote:

Cicero76 wrote:This hurts a lot at T14 schools and probably kills you at T6 schools. They have close to zero tolerance for academic sanctions--even less than for criminal charges. If you write a better addendum than your OP, however, you should still be able to cop some T14 acceptances.

In saying that they have zero tolerance for criminal charges, were you referring to the marijuana charge?

I phrased that incorrectly. They have zero tolerance for academic dishonesty charges. They DO have tolerance for criminal charges--you can explain away marijuana fairly easily, for example.

Cicero76 wrote:

t-14orbust wrote:

Cicero76 wrote:This hurts a lot at T14 schools and probably kills you at T6 schools. They have close to zero tolerance for academic sanctions--even less than for criminal charges. If you write a better addendum than your OP, however, you should still be able to cop some T14 acceptances.

In saying that they have zero tolerance for criminal charges, were you referring to the marijuana charge?

I phrased that incorrectly. They have zero tolerance for academic dishonesty charges. They DO have tolerance for criminal charges--you can explain away marijuana fairly easily, for example.

I was hoping that's what you meant, since it is what I've read elsewhere. It's just that your avatar emanates authority.

edit: Your phrasing is good, I think I just read over the 'than,' making it: "close to zero tolerance for academic sanctions-- even less for criminal charges. Sorry for the confusion bro, I should drill some RC.

When I read your OP, my first thought is that this sounds like bullshit. It might be true, but I'm willing to bet that it isn't just based on how it was written.

Own it & Spin it.