Why do College Students Cheat?

75%-98% percent of college students surveyed each year admits to cheating at some time in their academics (NoCheating.org). A number of college students perceive cheating as a survival tactic, rather than an intolerable and highly frowned upon method of educational survival. However, why do some college students make the compromising choice to do so? I do not believe there is a certain type of personality disorder involved when one chooses to cheat, it can be anyone, for many reasons. Most students attempt to validate it with excuses, like poor time management, believing it is easier to download something from the internet; or feeling overwhelmed by the amounts of homework or projects due at the same time. Others are simply pressured by family and themselves to get good grades or obtain or maintain a scholarship.

College students, many of them in their early twenties, often feel pressure, (either self-inflicted), or by family members to do well in the hopes of furthering their education. The quest for a graduate school degree is one example; students that have this hope, usually don’t start college and then decide they are going to move onto graduate school. These college students may have decided on this path long before graduating high school. I feel setting this life goal so early, is one reason students that make this decision might feel more pressure to succeed by any means. When a normally “advanced” student’s grades or work product starts to slip, the pressure then becomes too much; students at times may develop unethical means, such as plagiarism, not just to pass but to get ahead.

The Internet has assisted many college students to plagiarize. I believe this tool has changed students’ attitudes about research, as it is faster and easier to type a topic into any search engine and retrieve a vast amount of shared information to download or cut and paste into their assignments. I feel that the majority of college students who do cheat are more likely to use the Internet to cheat and use the work of others as their own. I have seen college students leaning in this direction when they feel there is too much work and not enough time.

Almost too often, the excuse when one chooses to cheat is: “I just didn’t have time.” When students have multiple assignments due and “time is