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To think I've messed everything up? Plagiarised my post graduate personal statement...

changeitatanytime · 10/12/2021 14:46

I've name changed for obvious reasons. I'm in my last year of uni and in the process of applying for postgraduate courses. I've done something really stupid and I really don't know the right thing to do to rectify it. Yeah I’ve really messed up. I copied some sentences from someone else’s personal statement on Google in relation to the course I’ve applied for. The sentences I copied were related to the field and they sounded good so I wrote my personal statement around them and meant to go back and change them into my own words (I know even that isn’t acceptable) and totally forgot until today. I submitted the application a couple weeks ago. It was only when I was reading it back that I remembered I hadn’t changed the sentences and when I copy and paste my statement into Google it comes up with the site I copied from. I have went from feeling elated and excited about potentially getting an interview for this post grad to feeling really sick to my stomach and I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get through the next few months. Even if I do get an interview and/or place on the course I really don’t feel like I deserve it now. I’ve proper messed up and feel awful. I haven’t told anyone in real life so had to write it here. I am a 32 year old woman who should know better! How do I handle this? My family and friends will be so disappointed in me. Do I contact the university and tell them? Do I withdraw my application? I don’t know how I would explain that to my family. Do I sit and hope they don’t check for plagiarism? If so, and they don’t how can I morally live with myself. I’ve totally messed everything up and feel so disappointed in myself, I’ve let everyone down. I applied to the uni directly so I'm not sure if they put it through a plagiarism test or not. But even if not, I don't really deserve a place now. It’s about 4/5 sentences out of a 1000 word personal statement. I am just praying they either don’t put it through a system or it’s not enough % for them to take too much notice. I’m so mad at myself, so stupid! I'm so angry and disappointed in myself, I will never do this again. Have I ruined my chances completely? What should I do?

I don’t know - I think I would probably just sit tight and hope no one checks. It’s a personal statement after all not an exam. Horrible for you though!

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Are you able to update your application with a new version of the statement? Sounds obvious but worth a thought! When I applied for my postgrad a couple of years I had to upload everything to an online portal and could make changes up to a certain date. If not then I’d try not to worry if those sentences are applicable to you and you’re not claiming experience or motivation you don’t really have. If you get to interview and they do ask about those areas of your personal statement, be ready to flesh it out with your own perspective then.

I work in PG admissions. We don't use any plagiarism software for PG. Even if it did get picked up you would get a chance to explain yourself. I wouldn't worry about it.

I think you need to calm down! Its not a dissertation just a simple personal statement, they won't check that for plagiarism! Just sit tight and wait, 4 sentences out of 1000 words really isn't worth this angst.

Has the deadline passed? If not, could you contact the uni and tell them you sent then an old draft by mistake and would they accept your amended version?

It's too late to change as they have already emailed me to say they are processing my application and should hear next week.

They aren't going to run your personal statement through Google or a plagiarism checker.

It's only a personal statement! You'll be fine. Surely you can update it?

That's a little harsh @Sparklfairy . You could call and ask if they'll accept an updated draft, if not you'll just have to sit tight and wait.

Have you applied directly to the university? If so, it's highly unlikely it will be run through any plagiarism software. Personal statements that submitted through UCAS often are, but you would have a chance to explain anyway.

@SpinsForGin yeah I applied directly through the university, not through UCAS

Surely it’s only a personal statement. I wouldn’t worry about it.

It’s only a personal statement. They won’t put it through Turnitin

Echoing the others above: it's a personal statement. Not sure why it would even go through a plagiarism checker. At least it's not a dissertation!

I'm just worried because undergraduate applications go through UCAS and the personal statements are checked for plagiarism then. I just thought maybe the uni used a 3rd party plagiarism checker for post grad applications. I really hope that's not the case

@changeitatanytime

Might depend on the ranking of the university. If it's a 'selecting' university - in other words, if it's extremely competitive to get in, they might pay more attention. Even then it depends on the subject area (eg they're more likely to care if you're applying for creative writing or journalism than if you're applying for maths). If they're a recruiting university, meaning they have recruitment targets to meet and are having to work hard to achieve them, they won't be bothered. All of the above aside, it's not an assessed piece of work so you've broken no rules AFAIK.

[quote changeitatanytime] @SpinsForGin yeah I applied directly through the university, not through UCAS [/quote] Then I highly doubt they will use any sort of plagiarism software. I run a PG course and have never checked my applicants PS's for plagiarism.

If you're copying and pasting stuff for the application, are you sure you should be doing a postgraduate degree?

It's not ideal but they won't be running your application through Turnitin or anything. Maybe just learn from it for the future.

It’s post grad, they want you and your money. They won’t turn you away over this.

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Get someone to double-check it before you re-submit. I don't want to hammer a point when you're feeling low, but make sure you don't write something like 'I have went from feeling elated' next time. Best of luck!

It’s only 4-5 sentences - so less that 1/10 of the statement - that wouldn’t raise a single hair on an eyebrow. Nobody checks anyway - they have thousands of the things to get through. Personal statements are skim read, and for most subjects unis aren’t much interested in them provided you’re qualified and have the funding. Really do not worry about this!

As long as it doesn't relate to claiming some qualification or skill which you don't actually have, I can't really see how this would be a problem, they don't check post-grad personal statements in this way. It's not liking cheating on an exam or a dissertation, is it? A mistake, maybe, but not a crime.

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Are You Admitting Students with Plagiarized Application Essays?

Keeping Your Culture of Integrity Intact

By completing this form, you agree to Turnitin's Privacy Policy . Turnitin uses the information you provide to contact you with relevant information. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time.

It’s a point of pride for many institutions to view their applicant pool as the cream of the crop, obviously untainted by plagiarism or cheating. It’s also the purpose of an admissions committee to peruse applications without suspicion or bias. Therefore, it’s easiest to assume that applications are honest representations of student potential.

But are they?

If students who engage in plagiarism are the most vulnerable and desperate students—why wouldn’t those behaviors cross over into the world of higher education admissions?

The realm of admissions is fraught for students. Competition is fierce . Students may feel desperate. The stakes are very, very high; students feel their entire future is based on which university they attend. For so many, their entire remembering lives focus on this very moment.

Even decades later, every moment of my own college applications process remains vivid in my memory. I still have nightmares (along with the one about missing a final exam) about the admissions process. I remember reading samples of successful college essays and yearning to write such winning statements. I remember aching over every word as I wrote my own essay. I remember the feeling of being judged. Of not being “enough.” I remember running to the mailbox for months, dreaming of big envelopes. I remember cohorts at school sharing to which universities they’d been accepted. I remember the counseling center holding Ivy League acceptances in the spotlight.

This emotional battleground may sound familiar—these are all the components that put students at risk of plagiarism. These are factors that leave students, not to mention their parents, vulnerable to plagiarism and dishonesty.

So what happens under temptation? When one makes decisions under stress, one thinks about what one can live with. One wonders if what one is doing is legal.

Is lying on your application essay against the law ? So far, none of the students in the Operation Varsity Blues scandal have been charged—the charges have instead named parents and largely focused on money laundering, mail fraud, and racketeering . So while lying on your application essay is clearly an act of misconduct, the message is that it may not be “against the law.”

So what’s the message here? Just don’t get caught? The act of cheating fades into the background in the world of legal ramifications, and in the foreground are consequences for the ways in which payment was made. Also in the foreground are the universities themselves, whose reputations are on the line. So who’ s at risk?

When firms exist to coach students through the application process, sometimes crossing over into essay mill territory , they take control of the narrative and make this territory morally ambiguous. As a result, “getting help” on college applications isn’ t presented with moral clarity to students.

Another moral litmus test is the question, “What would your mother think?” If you felt your parents wanted you to go to an elite college, above all else—it’s logical to think your mom would approve, let alone participate in misconduct .

Are we making clear how vulnerable college applications are to cheating? And how cheating is tempting? And the ways in which one can justify dishonesty?

It’s common for institutions to say they don’t have a problem with plagiarized application essays. To say, “No way would anyone who applies to our institution plagiarize.” Or to say, “There’s no way to plagiarize a personal statement because it’s so personal.”

Janet D. Stemwedel, notes in her article, “ When Applicants for Medical Residencies Plagiarize ,” that 5.2% of 4,975 medical residency personal statements contained evidence of plagiarism.

When you admit someone who’s plagiarized or outsourced their application essay into your institution, you’re poisoning your culture. How can you expect someone who’s plagiarized their way through admissions to embrace an ethical culture on campus? How can you expect someone who’s plagiarized their application essay to uphold academic integrity?

The studies are only now being conducted on links between plagiarized application essays and subsequent instances of plagiarism on campus. The preliminary anecdotes make clear the possibility of a connection.

So the short answer is that you cannot expect someone who’s plagiarized their application essay to uphold academic integrity on campus. You must make plagiarism detection a part of your institution’s admissions process. You must free up your admissions committee to read applications without suspicion.

We’ve already seen through various admissions scandals the stain they leave on an institution’s reputation . We’ve already seen through various admissions scandals the short cuts and side doors people are willing to take to enter higher education. What’s stopping students who got away with cheating on their applications from continuing this pattern of misconduct once on campus?

As we stated earlier, earlier academic dishonesty leads to later workplace deviance .

And yes—the majority of students don’t cheat on their applications. The majority of students don’t outsource their application essays. The majority of students don’t plagiarize. But are you comfortable with even 1% acceptance of students who cheated on their applications? Of students for whom “short-cut” answers are an acceptable component of their playbook?

In a 2012 Insider Higher Education article entitled, “ Dishonorable Conduct? ” written in response to a cheating scandal at Harvard University , Allie Grasgreen states, “Perhaps the main culprit in such behavior, experts say, one that is ingrained deeply in college students today—particularly at elite universities like Harvard—is the idea that the main objective should be to pass, not to learn.”

In the same article, Teddi Fishman, director of Clemson University’s International Center for Academic Integrity , says:

“The students who make it to us (and especially the ones who end up in schools like Harvard) have learned exactly what they have to do to succeed, and sadly, that often has very little to do with becoming educated….Instead, it’s almost solely about figuring out what will be asked (in papers, tests, and other assessments), learning that material long enough to produce it when necessary, and then moving on to the next thing.”

Fishman says that for many students, the educational process “is simply a means to an end.”

This on-campus cheating and short-cut mentality could just as easily be applied to application essays, with the singular objective being “get accepted.” It goes to follow that such a person would bring that short-cut mentality with them onto your campus. It’s endemic to the environment, and while it shouldn’t exist at all, you must make sure they do not enter your gates.

And vice versa—someone who has the basis for academic honesty going in will be way more likely to uphold academic integrity. And we can surmise that ensuring the admission of honest students would then decrease plagiarism cases and scandals, thereby upholding an institution’s academic reputation. Who would you bet on to represent you throughout the course of a lifetime?

Want to uphold academic integrity in your admissions process? Learn more about iThenticate .

Personal Statement

Personal statements may be used to customize the application to a specific program or to different specialties. 

In This Section:

Creating the personal statement, formatting the personal statement, previewing the personal statement, reviewing/editing the personal statement, assigning the personal statement.

You create your own personal statements in the MyERAS portal from the Personal Statements section listed under Documents. 

• Each personal statement must contain a Personal Statement Title and the Personal Statement Content. The title will be visible only to you to help you correctly assign it to programs, and the content will be visible to both you and the programs it is assigned to. 
• The personal statement is limited to 28,000 characters, which include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation marks. 
• There is not a limit to how many personal statements applicants can create. 
• Personal statements created outside the MyERAS application should be done in a plain text word processing application such as Notepad (for Windows users) or SimpleText (for Mac users). The statement should reflect your personal perspective and experiences accurately and must be your own work and not the work of another author or the product of artificial intelligence. 
• Personal statements created in word processing applications not using plain text may contain hidden and invalid formatting. 
• Note: A number of websites provide examples of personal statements. Do not copy any information from these sites and use it in your personal statements without giving credit to the author. Such use is considered plagiarism. 
• The ERAS program will investigate any suspected acts of plagiarism. 
• Any substantiated findings of plagiarism may result in the reporting of such findings to the programs to which you apply now and in subsequent ERAS seasons. 

Return to Top ↑

When creating a personal statement in the MyERAS application, the following formatting options will be available: 

• Bold. 
• Italic. 
• Underline. 
• Strikethrough. 
• Bullets. 
• Numbering. 
• Align left. 
• Center. 
• Align right. 
• Increase indent. 
• Decrease indent. 
• Insert hyperlink. 

After entering the personal statement title and content, you will have the opportunity to preview your personal statement before saving it. This preview allows you to view your personal statement just as the programs will view it, including the number of pages.  

You are responsible for reviewing your personal statements before assigning them to programs. 

The Preview/Print option under the Actions column will allow you to view and/or print your personal statement. 

Personal statements can be edited at any point during the application season — even when assigned to programs that have been applied to. 

Personal statements that have been edited will be reflected on the programs’ side by an updated status containing the date of the updated version, but programs are not guaranteed to view or review updated versions of personal statements. 

You may designate the assignment of one personal statement for each program. 

• Personal statements can be assigned to any saved or applied to programs from the Personal Statements page by selecting “Assign” under the Actions column of the intended personal statement. 
• When assigning by personal statement, programs listed with a disabled checkbox already have the selected personal statement currently assigned. 
• When assigning by personal statement, you should review any personal statements that are listed under the Assigned Personal Statement column before making selections or changes. 
• Personal statements can be assigned by program using the Assign option under the Actions column on both the Saved Programs and Programs Applied To pages. 
• Changes to personal statement assignments can be made throughout the application season, but programs are not guaranteed to view or review newly assigned personal statements. 
• A personal statement cannot be assigned to programs that are closed. 
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• Professional Service

ERAS Integrity Promotion - Education Program

The Education Program is designed to educate ERAS users about behaviors considered fraudulent or unethical; to discourage such activity; and to encourage reporting of these activities where warranted. Examples of irregularities and activities targeted for investigation include, but are not limited to:

• Omission of education extension
• Omission of previous graduate medical education (GME) training
• Submission of fraudulent publication citations
• Submission of fraudulent letters of recommendation (LoRs)
• Plagiarism of personal statements

As part of our education plan, we share audience specific information about the Integrity Promotion Program.

ERAS Applicants

The ERAS Investigations Program information outlines the steps in the process and delineates specific infractions that can trigger an investigation and the consequences of a positive finding.

An increasingly common issue with applications is personal statement plagiarism . Here are a few of the Web sites that applicants have used to obtain text for personal statements:

www.usmleweb.com

www.medfools.com

www.newmediamedicine.com

Medical Schools

Each year ERAS sends reminders to the ERAS School contact at U.S. medical schools explaining the ERAS Integrity Promotion Program and encouraging distribution to applicants.

Designated Dean’s Office staff is obligated to report any fraudulent or unethical behavior to ERAS for investigation.

ERAS Programs

ERAS disseminates information about the Integrity Promotion Program at specialty meetings and in distributed literature to programs participating in ERAS. ERAS also sends periodic correspondence directly through the PDWS software to inform programs of Web sites that applicants frequent for plagiarism material and other relevant information.

If you are aware of any activity by an applicant that might be considered irregular behavior, please contact ERAS Investigations at [email protected] .

• Medical Education
• ERAS - Electronic Residency Application System

Does UCAS Check for Plagiarism?

In University by Think Student Editor October 22, 2023 Leave a Comment

The UCAS application is the main part of the application process to university in the UK. It takes a lot of time, effort and thought to make the best application you can. This includes everything from carefully filling out personal details, to researching and deciding on the best course and universities for you, to the dreaded personal statement. It can be really daunting to try and show universities why they should accept you in so few lines.

Many students read example personal statements, perhaps from school or older siblings, to help them get an idea of what to write. However, it is really important that your own personal statement is original – both to stand out to universities, and to avoid plagiarism. But what exactly counts as plagiarism? And what is the UCAS policy on it?

UCAS does indeed scan every single personal statement for plagiarism using a service known as Copycatch. The Copycatch software works by scanning every personal statement against previous personal statements that have been submitted, to check for similarities. If more than 30% of a personal statement is regarded as similar, this would be flagged as a potential plagiarism issue. This may even result in the whole application being withdrawn.

Keep reading for everything you need to know about plagiarism in a UCAS application, including how it is checked and what happens if you are found to have plagiarised.

Table of Contents

Does UCAS check for plagiarism?

Yes, UCAS does check your application for plagiarism, specifically, the personal statement.

Plagiarism involves copying someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. The personal statement is intended so you can tell universities about your unique skills and experiences which make you as an individual suitable for this course.

Therefore, plagiarism, as well as being morally wrong, defeats the purpose of the personal statement in the first place! This is why UCAS has a strict policy to make sure any plagiarism is detected.

UCAS uses a service called Copycatch to scan personal statements, comparing them to previous personal statements from their archive. You can read more about how, exactly, this process works in this document from the UCAS website.

It is worth being aware that, as of 2023, there is discussion about replacing the personal statement with a set of questions for future application cycles. You can read more about this on this page of the UCAS website.

However, it is likely that whatever form the personal statement takes, it will still be scanned for plagiarism. It is really important that UCAS makes sure students don’t get an unfair advantage by copying good personal statements or using other people’s words as their own.

What does UCAS check for plagiarism?

There are lots of different parts to the UCAS application. However, it is only the personal statement that is scanned for plagiarism.

Of course, they don’t need to scan things like your name and course choice for plagiarism – you can’t steal these and pass them off as your own! The other part of the application that people sometimes wonder about is the teacher reference.

The reference is often a lesser-known part of the application, as students are not really involved in it. It is generally written by your teacher and is less important to universities than your personal statement. In fact, most students never see their references – have a look at this article from Think Student for more.

In short, UCAS does not scan the teacher reference for plagiarism. There are a few reasons for this. For instance, teachers are generally writing similar things about the majority of students. Additionally, the universities already know this isn’t the student talking about their own experiences – they don’t need a plagiarism checker to confirm.

What counts as plagiarism in a UCAS application?

It can be hard for software to tell between someone who is actually copying another personal statement, and someone who is just using common words and phrases.

UCAS regards 30% or more of a personal statement being flagged up as similar as a potential plagiarism issue, according to this document from their website. This is a relatively high percentage, so it is likely that anything showing up on these checks is intentional, rather than a few similar words.

Additionally, the software does not include common words like ‘and’ or ‘the’ in their checks, as well as common personal statement phrases like ‘Duke of Edinburgh’. This makes it even more likely that the statements that are flagged up are actually cause for concern, not just accidental.

Another worry that some people may have is if they have applied through UCAS before. Generally speaking, you can reuse your personal statement – which you can read more about in this article from Think Student.

This isn’t something to worry about. If you are applying with the same name, you won’t be checked against your previous applications , so you won’t be pulled up for plagiarism – you can’t plagiarise from yourself.

If you have changed your name since your last application and are using the same or a similar personal statement, it is worth getting in contact with UCAS to make sure they are aware of this.

Ideally, do this before you send off your application. You don’t want to wait until you have been flagged for plagiarism, because the software doesn’t know it is the same person applying as before.

How do you make sure you don’t accidentally plagiarise in your UCAS application?

Some students get worried that they will accidentally plagiarise, by using common phrases, or unconsciously copying a nice sentence they read in a friend’s statement.

This isn’t something to be concerned about. As we’ve discussed, it is highly unlikely that the service will flag up anything that is just due to accidental similarity.

You won’t get ‘caught’ for plagiarism just by using common phrases such as ‘I am extremely interested in’, or ‘I want to study this course because’. That being said, it can be good to branch away from these widely used openings – just because it makes you stand out to universities more! Check out this article from Times Higher Education for advice on writing an original personal statement.

If you are pulled up for plagiarism, and know it was not intentional, it is worth checking over the similarity report you will be sent to see what exactly has caused this. There is more information about this report in the FAQs from UCAS, linked here .

If you are still worried about accidental plagiarism, there are plenty more tips for avoiding it in this article from The Uni Guide.

What happens if you are pulled up for plagiarism on your UCAS application?

If the software detects your personal statement as potentially plagiarised, you will be notified and sent a similarity report, and your university choices will also be told.

At this stage, it is a good idea to contact the universities and get their advice for next options. It may be that they don’t use the personal statement as much in their admissions process – perhaps they use interviews instead.

On the other hand, they may have a very strict policy, and reject your application. This decision is up to the university that you have applied to and so it is best to look at their policies on their website or to contact them directly to learn more.

Ultimately, it is never worth trying to pass off someone else’s work as your own.

You have plenty of experiences and talents to help convince universities you are right for their course. Use your own words to talk about these, and you will not have to worry about UCAS’s plagiarism checks. Best of luck with your application!