by By RACHEL SA -- Toronto Sun
February 24, 2001

I'm honestly torn by this one.

My brain has been clicking and whirring nonstop since I heard the news about the cheating scandal at the faculty of law at the University of Toronto. Thirty students are suspected of falsifying their mid-term grades to downtown law firms in order to beat out the stiff competition and score lucrative positions as summer students.

I'm torn, because the student in me who works honestly for grades is outraged and wants to see these cheaters punished. But the aspiring author in me, the girl attempting to get herself noticed in a tough industry, kind of wishes there were some sort of records I could fudge to get a publisher interested in my book. ("Uh ... did I mention it was co-authored by Margaret Atwood?" Yeah, that's the ticket!)

Actually, the student in me isn't entirely bloodthirsty and wanting to see these students punished. I really can feel some sympathy for them. The thought of ending your career before you even begin it is terrifying.

I can also understand some of the pressure they must have felt to do this. I'm only a first year undergraduate at U of T, but the pressure to do well can still get to the point where it's unbearable - and I'm not even competing to get into a specific program after my initial four years of studies. I may have dropped the idea of going to law school (I kinda like this writing thing) but I still can't get the programming out of my head that any mark less than an 80 constitutes a failure on a grand scale.

Even my adult friends constantly remind me: Rachel, a degree is a degree! Don't stress out if you don't get an A+! But it's what those little numbers come to represent that makes their attainment so essential. An A means you're great and smart and wonderful and can probably leap tall buildings in a single bound. But a C? Practise saying, "Would you like fries with that?"

Essential for law school

But for those friends of mine still planning to move on to law school, those grades are, in fact, essential. One girlfriend of mine, who hopes to become a lawyer, has posters plastered up all around her dorm room.

A giant "85!" (the average grade she must attain to be accepted to law school) is posted near her computer.

"Why are you going out? Study!" Is up on the back of her door.

And the hallowed space on the ceiling above her bed features a poster that says: "Why are you sleeping? Get up and study!"

So, yes, I do understand the stresses of being a student. But all those pressures still don't disguise the fact there are plenty of students going through it without cheating. That makes me angry.

But then there's the writer in me, the girl who's already out in the dog-eat-dog working world who gets to see that clawing for what you want tooth and nail is the name of the game. In the world beyond the classroom, it's all about looking out for No. 1.

We all embellish our resumes, right? We all fudge a few details of our past experience in front of the boss, don't we? It's all part of the game. People may not be loved for their ambition, or even ruthlessness, but they're often successful because of it. We all know that nice guys finish last, don't we?

That all sounds about right. But then, must ambition and dishonesty go hand in hand? I'd like to think not, but out here in the real working world, it's sort of a grey area.

In the world of academia, though, the line is drawn clearly in the sand - what these students did was wrong and they're likely going to be punished severely for it.

But how many of us might have done the same thing if we thought we could get away with it?

Probably a lot more than would care to admit it.