Ethical Issues In College

One of the most difficult ethical dilemmas that young adults face in life is the choice of whether to cheat on exams in college or be honest and try your best without unethical help. I have personally faced this dilemma on many occasions in my time at the University of Houston. The most prominent experience that I have had with this issue was last year in one of my accounting classes. It was a class that was known to have very difficult exams, so everyone was nervous and trying to find ways to get a better grade. One day before class started, I overheard some people talking about secret study guides that the professor pulled exam questions from. I thought to myself about asking them for the study guides, but I then reflected about whether

I personally considered the thought of asking for the study guide because my mind immediately started to rationalize the decision and the idea of having a better chance of getting an A in the class. However, the thought of “it’s not really cheating because it is not the actual exam” was soon followed by the feeling of guilt and fear. These feelings stewed in my head because I could not stop thinking about the academic honesty documents that we sign on every exam, which states that we did not use any outside sources that were not openly offered to all other students. If I were to sign that after using the external material I would have been lying on every exam. Someone could have eventually found out and exposed my wrongdoing to the professor, who would then have had to bring it to the board of the college. I would have had to face a panel of people and try to explain why I used the material and why I believed that I should not be punished for using it. It would have possibly led to my suspension or even expulsion from the University. Either way, it would be on my record forever and I would have to walk around knowing that I was labeled a cheater by the University that I