These types of discussions always depress me. You'd think from reading them that everyone has cheated or popped some Adderall at some point, and it's a normal part of college. Is that really true? I never have, unless you count making up excuses for turning in the occasional thing late. I worked hard in school and got decent but not amazing grades (3.7 something). When I hear this shit it makes me feel like I was playing the game handicapped all along.
Either that or the cheaters among is are always looking for ways to rationalize it by making it seem more normative.
I've never cheated or taken non-caffeine stimulants. I haven't seen anyone around me cheat. As a TA grading other students' work, I caught three students cheating out of ~40 whose work I graded. I did see another student taking Adderall once.
So, while cheating and stimulants are not unheard-of, they certainly aren't normal where I am. It probably varies from school to school, though.
Don't feel bad. Cheating is like taking on technical debt. It's a short term reward, but it usually comes back to haunt you. After graduating, their employer will learn that they aren't nearly as good as their resume said they were and with your greater knowledge and word ethic, you'll probably come out ahead.
Yup, that's what I've seen. I have an engineering degree and it is was a common understanding that the cheaters were the guys and gals that ended up being technical reps, while the hard workers ended up doing the exciting work. It only takes 1-2 years in the work force to see who has got the chops and who doesn't.
Cheaters definitely rationalize. I myself never had anyone else sit exams for me, nor used anyone else's work as my own, nor copied homework answers. I think cheating is common but there are definitely people who don't do it. You just don't hear much about them.
In my experience, a lot of the cheaters do, in fact, believe (or want to believe) that just about everyone else is doing it too. Don't buy it.
I wasn't aware of anyone in my circle of friends or even friendly acquaintances who cheated in college or grad school. (I heard about occasional incidents involving people I didn't know. But if there was an active cheating subculture, nobody talked about it when I was in earshot.) And my experience as a professor is that there are an awful lot of students who I work with one on one and whose homework and exam grades are right in line with my firsthand experience of their work.
When I went to college, I saw smart people who not only studied insanely hard, but ALSO took adderall AND cheated just to stomp out the competition. I saw a few friends end up in the hospital, but they had no regrets.
I didn't either, and don't believe I knew anyone that did (grad and undergrad CS, knew 2-3 other students who likely did not). Anecdotal data point, but there it is.
Either that or the cheaters among is are always looking for ways to rationalize it by making it seem more normative.