webber@brandx.rutgers.edu.UUCP (05/27/87)
In article <6184@shemp.UCLA.EDU>, das@CS.UCLA.EDU writes: > In article <305@phoenix.PRINCETON.EDU> mmtowfig (Mark Mehdi Towfigh) writes: > >In article <863@gvax.cs.cornell.edu> hal (Hal Perkins) writes: > > Re: Cheating is a problem only for cheaters. > >Actually, cheating is a problem for people who care more about grades > >than what they learn in the course. > > Not exactly -- cheaters can hurt even those who do not care about grades, just > learning. Here's a scenario: ... > Thus, a cheater has hurt other students from his school in the competition for > jobs, because he has cheapened the reputation of his school's graduates. A > small company that has hired few programmers in the past may have little else > to go on than that reputation. Well, of course they have much more to go on than the school's reputation, they also have the interview. But ignoring that, basically grades are one byte recomendations. Your school record consists of losts of small opinions such as: `F -- Forget this one'; `D -- Doubtful if there is anything here'; `C -- Could be trusted not to make to big a mess'; `B -- Believe this one can do useful work'; and `A -- About as good as you are going to see'. If your school tends to give these recommendations based on dubious evidence, then its recommendations are useless to potential employers (and graduate schools), regardless of what educational opportunities it provides the curious. The primary interest of a student should be educational opportunities, since after the first job (if even then), undergraduate grades will have little meaning. However, all is not lost for those that need the recommendations. The solution is to do well enough that a professor actually remembers you and writes a `real' recommendation which (if used correctly), will doubtless prove a more useful approach than trying to change other people's behaviour (of course, one should make maximum usage of local computer security to keep from making it easy for cheaters (just like one wouldn't leave one's homework posted on the dorm announcements board) and also report those situations that are bad enough that they appear to you worth the effort of reporting). Enjoy. ----------------------- BOB (webber@aramis.rutgers.edu)