The academic experience at RPI can be an intense one that puts enormous stress on the students here. Most of those students struggle through on their own and come out stronger for the experience—it’s one of the major reasons why employers like this school so much.
A few students, though, try to avoid the challenge: They cheat.
There are many reasons why students resort to academic dishonesty. Most often, it’s the result of intense pressure to succeed. Occasionally the source of this pressure is external—parents or professors—but typically it’s the students’ own drive that is their undoing. They put so much emphasis on grades that learning often ends up taking a back seat.
Others are just lazy—they’re just here so they can get a high-paying job, and they’ll do as little work as they can en route. A few others are just out to take a pot shot at the school or to do something they can brag about to their friends.
The people who cheat are, frankly, stupid. Any student of management can tell you about risk-reward analysis: Even if the odds of something bad happening are very slim, when the consequences are dire and the benefits marginal you just don’t chance it.
Most of the time, "successful" academic dishonesty is worth a few points on an assignment, or occasionally a test. In the most extreme cases, students might pick up a letter grade. But if caught, students face a zero grade, administrative failure of the course, or even expulsion.
Worse, cheaters don’t learn the material they’re avoiding—even if they get away with it, this lack of knowledge will certainly catch up with them in later courses or in their professional careers.
In short, don’t cheat—it’s just not worth it.
