Louise asked:

What I regard as cheating is considered OK by many American university students — one survey
revealed that as many as 75% of the interviewed students had purchased essays, term papers or
even their masters theses from other writers, usually through online "paper mills", instead of doing
their own work. One student responded to the question Why do you cheat? by saying "If you're not
cheating, you're not trying."

As a non-cheating student in classes as large as 400 students, I can vouch for the difficulty of
competing against students whose written work is done by professionals and whose exams and
classes are taken by paid substitutes. They get better grades, look smarter on school records and get
better opportunities for jobs as the "A" students. Professors don't bother to make themselves
available to students or to get to know them, so they have no way of knowing that many of their "best"
students got their grades by cheating.

These papers cost a lot of money, but cost is irrelevant to students who use Daddy's charge cards to
pay for them, stay in party mode and assign their education to writers and sit-ins. I do not see that
they really lose out. They do not care whether they are educated, they want to make money and hang
with people like themselves, and they will graduate with far more social advantages than I will,
swotting away while they cruise the clubs and make the connections that will get them the best
paying jobs. I'm sure they will continue to cheat at their jobs by using insider information and paying
underlings to do all their work for them as they take the credit for it. They will have better grades and
no doubt get into better grad schools after they get tutoring for GMAT exams or even get access to
tests, and present their references as top of the class pupils with good social connections.

I am bitter and struggling for my grades and wish I could find a way to rationalize cheating, because it
seems I am being a sucker by not doing it.

They say it doesn't matter if they cheat to get through required courses that they'll never use, (like
Ethics, haha.) What is your take on this cheating epidemic? It is not only common in University, but
also in lower schools, where 75% of seventh grade students had cheated, and 63% of sixth grade
students, according to a Duke University study. Professors do it too! One east coast professor was
allowed to continue teaching after being caught lying to his Vietnam History of the War classes about
his (non)experience fighting in Vietnam, or the several historians and writers who have been caught
presenting plagiarized material as their own work in books, or the journalist who made up his own
"sources" to quote. I know one cheating professor who even used old, forgotten dissertations in his
newly published book and presented the work as his own, because I worked for him!

Is there a new philosophy that makes cheating laudable because it is so prevalent and because there
is no benefit to not doing it except a feeling (useless) of virtue? I can't say that I recall anything much
from my courses, even ones I got excellent grades in only a year ago, so it's not as if I am so much
better educated than cheaters are.

They all act as though cheating is an out of date concept and practical results are everything. I feel as
if I am adhering to some outmoded philosophy (not religious — I was brought up Unitarian) that works
to my ultimate disadvantage yet I can't seem to let go of it. Please comment, this disturbs me every
time I see a fellow student sitting in the U. pub while I am flogging myself toward the library. It is
ruining my educational experience, plus there are not very many fascinating minds to connect with.
My University is ranked in the top 5 in the U.S. — it's not as if this is happening where it won't affect
the future, but then look at the President — did he really have what it takes to get to, let alone through
Yale? I wonder.

============

There is no philosophy of cheating. Instead, cheating is a strategy for accomplishing a goal with a
minimum of effort. Moreover, cheating is a calculated risk. The cheater reasons that his professor will
likely not check his work, and he may thus escape capture. However, penalties are severe if a
cheater is ever caught (expulsion or other severe penalties, in Universities where I have been).
Honestly, a notation of expulsion on a college transcript is something that is never washed away.
That horrid legacy will haunt anyone who is caught cheating. The fact that increasing numbers of
Universities are subscribing to anti-plagiarism systems should sound a note of caution to all potential
cheaters.

You have high ambitions for yourself, as you described. I applaud your effort. However, it is important
to remember that not everyone shares your desire for top grades, nor do they have the same talents
as you. When you find yourself admiring the guy drinking beer at the bar as you trudge to the library,
remember this: He might have paid his look-alike friend to take a test for him. Or, he might be
celebrating an "A" on a test, after hours of his own studying. Or, he may have a photographic
memory. Or, he may simply keep a different schedule than yours. Or, this person may be content to
get the lowest passing grade and does not see the need to study until his grades fall below passing.

Cheating is not a philosophy, it is a strategy. People who cheat to succeed are also the same people
who ran Enron, WorldCom, and any number of other businesses with abysmal ethics records. Their
"luck" ran out and now most of them are scrambling to cover their hind sides before someone else
exposes them. That is the life of the cheat.

At the end of the day, the only opinion of yourself that matters is your own. If you are willing to risk a
college degree for the sake of a better letter grade, then perhaps your life's priorities require
reassessment.

Take care and don't cheat.

Jeffrey Kenton

let me tell you something about honesty. Nothing philosophical, nothing religious, but practical:

It is about being honest to yourself, to your own way.

If you identify something in the world around you that might be of help to you and you feel good with it
then take it. If you do not feel good with it then leave it and do it your own way. This is real simple. If
you saw the whole world cheating around you and you don''t feel good with it then do not look left or
right'! Do not compare your way to the way of the others! This is very essential! Never compare!
Honesty might bring material disadvantages with it but not necessarily. The example I have before my
eyes is my boss. He was one of the German top managers and I was real lucky to be his secretary in
the past 5 years. He was an honest man through and through, he had an outstanding career in our
company over the past 35 years and last Friday he retired and he got lots of good-bye emails of
which I read some. It is unbelievable how he was seen as an example to others, how much respect
all those people paid him. He was the one in our company in several years who retired on his own
terms, he was forced to nothing.

It is a deep and very real experience to me that people who go their own way in honesty to
themselves and to others are guided by some invisible hand. This is nothing religious but a real
experience! This way is not the bright and shining, funny and good looking way of the mass but your
own which may often be dark and full of hindrances but in going this way you will become a
personality people can trust. Would you ever trust somebody or pay respect to someone of whom you
know how he got his degrees or whatever by cheating. What he achieved is a lie. Would you want to
build your life on a lie? Besides being afraid that it will be known some day. If you see them sit
together, drinking beer in a pub do you really think they can ever trust each other knowing that they
are all able to cheat? Leave them alone. Let them live their lives how they want. Find people in your
school or university who are honest like you. Be together with them, your own people. This gives
some confidence and you are not alone. If there is no one you can turn to the way to the library is the
best way you can choose. In case there are no fascinating minds alive around you be sure there are
lots of the most fascinating minds who left their thoughts to us in the books.

My favourite is still Seneca and his letters to Lucilius. They are brillant for somebody in your situation.
I know because I was in a similar situation but I was the one being cheated. And not only once. It
helps to stay honest, go your own way despite of what happens to you and gives you confidence
doing the right thing and showing this to all the others. And the strength to separate from people who
are not good for you which might bring with it that you are often alone but again, not necessarily.

I wish you the strength to not looking left or right when there is nothing good for you to see.

Martina Blumenroth

There has always been dishonesty, cheating, lying, stealing, torture, maiming, and killing throughout
human history. Many times it results in no punishment for the unethical; they get rich and powerful. If
you doubt that, just look at world leaders and the rich today and throughout history. I assume that
you've just realized that, and that you're shocked by it. I don't blame you, really... but there isn't much
difference between conduct today and in the past, as far as I can tell. Human beings haven't changed
much. Actually, things might be a little better... people don't usually torture others, at least physically,
for public entertainment any more, as virtually all societies used to do, and there are watchdog
groups, such as Amnesty International and the ACLU, now.

If cheating is successful, then you will do worse than cheaters in your grades and future jobs and
money, probably. However, you will learn the subjects you study, and you will learn to behave
ethically under duress. Children learn from example, and you will be setting an example. If you feel
verystrongly about it, start making a fuss: write letters, start a club, talk to the administration. Perhaps
something will come of that, perhaps not. I'm certainly not going to give you a message of hope
here... given human nature as it is shown by human history, the picture is bleak. There are a few
people, here and there, who try to keep things going, intellectually, artistically, ethically. Not very
many, really... most are indifferent, some are hostile. That you can reflect as you do above is a good
sign... you are able to choose your values, which most people do not do. Good luck.

Steven Ravett Brown

Your letter to us is eloquent and disturbing and I am sad to read it. As you say, this is a practical
problem that affects what our society turns out to be like.

The first comment I would make is that I don't think the situation is the same here in England. I
studied at Uni here a few years ago (I graduated in 1995). The classes here, both at school and Uni,
were certainly much smaller than your 400. At Uni, our exams were set by the lecturer who had
taught the course, and often invigilated and marked by them — certainly by one of the departmental
staff. They all knew who I was!! (I used to draw cartoons and write limericks about them.)

I'm sure our lecturers recognized the students who showed themselves in the department and
regularly attended lectures. These students would be expected to get better grades than those who
never attended. I worked hard and read a lot, but I was rewarded with a 1st. I don't think the people
who used to come up to me and my friends 2 weeks before the exams and ask "What books are we
studying?" did so well — although I don't think they failed, either... My only experience of cheating
was when another student borrowed one of my essays 'to help him understand', and I had some
difficulty getting it back.

That said, it sounds like cheating is a common and accepted fact in the US. Do you believe the
statistics produced by the surveys? Do you think, from your own experience, that those figures are
accurate? In England, few students would admit to cheating, even if they were doing it! Here, there is
a great suspicion about the results of surveys, the accuracy of which depends on many things,
including the sample size, the truthfulness of those conducting the survey and of those questioned,
and the statistical analysis applied, which are often not disclosed when the survey's results are
quoted.

If everyone knows about this cheating, doesn't anyone else besides you want to stop it? Do you think
there's anything you could do about it? Would it be possible for you to expose people you know to be
cheating? What about if a group of people formed an association or campaign against cheating?
Don't your schools and Uni's want to do something about it? Is there any group you can join that
works to reduce cheating? Is there any action that can be taken against those who take exams for
others, or who supply essays and papers to cheats? If no-one would agree to do this, it would be
much harder to cheat. These people are as much to blame for the continuance of cheating as those
who pay them.

Looking at this issue from a different angle, do you really believe that cheats have the happiest lives?
Would what they have make you happy? Cheats only benefit if, as you suggest, having lots of money
and status are the things most to be desired in life. Are they what you most want? Our society seems
to tell us that they are indeed important. Do you agree? Do you think these things are what is really
valuable in life? Because I don't. But I often find it hard to remember they're not. Rich and famous
people are admired, they seem to have it all.

By the way, I was interested in your comment that "...there are not very many fascinating minds to
connect with." I don't think this is anything to do with cheating — there just aren't many fascinating
minds, not anywhere! Statistically speaking, the majority of people are of average intelligence, and
even the clever ones aren't all interesting! Like you, I wish I could meet more people I would enjoy
talking to, and perhaps become friends with. But as there are not that many of them, the chances of
meeting one are relatively small. I hope Pathways to Philosophy is one place where 'fascinating
minds' can meet!

Katharine Hunt

There seems to be a lot of frustration in your "question". The kind of cheating you notice is inherent in
a capitalist system. That indicates that not the cheaters are wrong, but possibly the system. Anyway
bought knowledge helps to get titles, but not to solve problems. So it's a matter of your goals: do you
want a title, or do you want to solve problems? If you want only a title, than the present system can be
frustrating. However if you yourself want to attack problems, than own knowledge is inevitable.

Henk Tuten

Why do you wonder especially about Bush? Because he talks funny, and comes from Texas? As for
me, I wonder how so foolish a man as Clinton got where he did.

Ken Stern