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

[changeitatanytime]

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 wouldn't worry. It's a personal statement not an academic piece of work that you're claiming to be your own. Obviously it depends on how niche the field is and things like that but surely personal statements are widely generic - why you want to study there and so on?

Jesus @Happy1982ish I literally put that in my post! I said their approach wasn't bad as they were beating themselves up. I didn't say plagiarism was great.

And for what it's worth I have plenty of experience of it, and work in HE. But will await your next dismissive message.

I don't see the big deal. It's not like in an essay. Isn't it a bit more like using a template for your CV? If that's the case, most of us have 'plagiarised CVs' by using wording that's already been used by others.

Complete contradiction
You say the op has “done nothing wrong”
And then list precisely what she has done that is wrong (use quotations and reference)!

A course application isn’t a piece of academic work so don’t see why this would be an issue. Saving time by using existing content in a personal statement, if those statements apply to you, doesn’t seem either unethical or immoral.

The only mistake you've made OP is putting this in AIBU. People on here love nothing more than to have a pop at the OP about anything and everything. It's a really unhelpful and unsupportive sub-forum.

To everyone getting their knickers in a twist - this is a personal statement, not an academic submission. There's a big difference. Calm down.

I’m going to vastly disagree with the majority of posters- I would contact the university now and tell them you mistakenly entered a draft version.

When I was at medical school it eas the running thing in admissions that every year more than a hundred statements would be received with the same anecdote in from a source on the internet; they were automatically rejected and it affected future prospect of studying at the institution.

I can’t imagine a reality in which a personal statement gets ran through turnitin?

Sounds like you've never worked in professional recruitment then?

Admittedly expectations at some Unis are notoriously low - they have to be, in order to get bums on seats/the money - but if OP's aiming for high level employment it'll flag up what a PP said about this being a lesson best learned now

I work at a post graduate uni. We had a student who did this but we didn't know until an assignment was flagged up for plagiarism. He had used an assignment by a friend, denied even knowing the person and then when looking more closely we saw that he went to the same undergraduate uni and had regurgitated the friends application too. We never would have known except for the fact that his (much later) assignment was plagiarised. Applications aren't checked for plagiarism.

I understand how it happened, but it is plagiarism, it is cheating, and it doesn’t send a good message to the university.
They want to hear about you and you experience and motivations. Copying material off the internet does not colour a picture of you as a candidate who is motivated, interested and knowledgeable.
If this personal statement is freely available on the internet chances are they’ve read it before and it will be picked up.
Don’t panic but as I’ve said- say it was a draft and send them an edited version written by you.

Chances are you will get away with it.

It's not a good start though, is it?

Admissions Tutor here. Not having a 'pop'. Offering my professional opinion.

It depends on the PG course you're applying for, OP. If it's a course leading to a professional qualification / conferring eligibility to apply for entry to a professional register then plagiarism in Personal Statements is take very seriously IME, for obvious reasons.

Personal Statements do go through plagiarism checking software. 9% match you'll probably 'get away with'.

PPs posting that it's no big deal and it's fine to re-use someone else's work and present it as your own because it's 'just' a Personal Statement, it's really not OK so please don't do it. Think about what that says about your approach to academic integrity which, if you've undertaken UG study, you should understand. This is not aimed at the OP who clearly understands why this might be a problem, hence their post.

As some PPs have said, if you're struggling to write an original application for a course you're genuinely interested in studying at PG level, you might want to consider whether this is the right course / time for you. PG courses are usually demanding and expensive so it's important to make a good decision.

Good luck OP.

@ChotaPeg

Admissions Tutor here. Not having a 'pop'. Offering my professional opinion.

It depends on the PG course you're applying for, OP. If it's a course leading to a professional qualification / conferring eligibility to apply for entry to a professional register then plagiarism in Personal Statements is take very seriously IME, for obvious reasons.

Personal Statements do go through plagiarism checking software. 9% match you'll probably 'get away with'.

PPs posting that it's no big deal and it's fine to re-use someone else's work and present it as your own because it's 'just' a Personal Statement, it's really not OK so please don't do it. Think about what that says about your approach to academic integrity which, if you've undertaken UG study, you should understand. This is not aimed at the OP who clearly understands why this might be a problem, hence their post.

As some PPs have said, if you're struggling to write an original application for a course you're genuinely interested in studying at PG level, you might want to consider whether this is the right course / time for you. PG courses are usually demanding and expensive so it's important to make a good decision.

Good luck OP.

Do you say this with 100 percent certainty that all universities check PS through a plagiarism checker?

@ChotaPeg

Admissions Tutor here. Not having a 'pop'. Offering my professional opinion.

It depends on the PG course you're applying for, OP. If it's a course leading to a professional qualification / conferring eligibility to apply for entry to a professional register then plagiarism in Personal Statements is take very seriously IME, for obvious reasons.

Personal Statements do go through plagiarism checking software. 9% match you'll probably 'get away with'.

PPs posting that it's no big deal and it's fine to re-use someone else's work and present it as your own because it's 'just' a Personal Statement, it's really not OK so please don't do it. Think about what that says about your approach to academic integrity which, if you've undertaken UG study, you should understand. This is not aimed at the OP who clearly understands why this might be a problem, hence their post.

As some PPs have said, if you're struggling to write an original application for a course you're genuinely interested in studying at PG level, you might want to consider whether this is the right course / time for you. PG courses are usually demanding and expensive so it's important to make a good decision.

Good luck OP.

Not being rude, just genuinely asking.

Didn't take it as rude, OP. I can only speak for mine as admissions processes vary from institution to institution and from course to course.

You can't say this is true for all universities.... because it isn't!!

I run a suite of postgraduate courses where students apply directly to the university. We've never run personal statements through plagiarism software during the 11 years I've been involved in admissions.

ChotaPeg my own background's recruitment rather than academia, but the job involved a lot of liaison with Unis and FWIW I agree that the checking will also depend of the sort of course being applied for

As you rightly said, something that's going to involve professional bodies will attract more caution than a less rigorous course, not least because some employers can disregard qualifications from selected Unis if the caution's not there

I think you need to calm down and stop fretting. This is just to get to the interview stage and only part of it, with degree results playing a big part. It’s a few lines it’s not like you copied the whole thing.

Focus on interview prep.

I also doubt it would be routinely picked up but depending what you quoted there’s a chance an academic reading it might notice a change in tone or style and pop the sentences into google themselves. They’re obv used to spotting academic misconduct

OTOH u guess we only know about the cases we catch... people must get away with this stuff. But of an unnecessary roll of the dice though- surely low gain for the relative risk unless you’ve fabricated experiences or something. If you’ve just ctrl c+v ‘I’ve always been passionate about law’ or whatever you must be kicking yourself

For a personal statement I really don't think it's an issue. Even if they do check for plagiarism (which I don't think they will) if you've only copied 4-5 sentences out of a thousand I don't see how it's an issue. If you want write a new personal statement that really reflects how you feel about your chosen course and send that in in addition (you could say that the new statement reflects your thoughts more accurately or is more personal or something like that. Don't mention plagiarism).

Anyway, please don't worry. I really can't imagine it's an issue

@Puzzledandpissedoff

I can’t imagine a reality in which a personal statement gets ran through turnitin?

Sounds like you've never worked in professional recruitment then?

Admittedly expectations at some Unis are notoriously low - they have to be, in order to get bums on seats/the money - but if OP's aiming for high level employment it'll flag up what a PP said about this being a lesson best learned now

No, but I’ve worked at a Uni and taught at foundation, UG and M level and ‘gone through’ M level applications. To be candid it was, got a 2:1? Ah yeah sound- you’re in!

Now if it was a funded M application or worse PhD, then it’s a different question. I have no idea if they ahrc or equivalent would vet personal statements for plagiarism? I’m guessing they would for research proposals.

"As some PPs have said, if you're struggling to write an original application for a course you're genuinely interested in studying at PG level,"

How patronising.

For all those challenging me you are completely right, maybe I am not ready to study at postgraduate level

No one will read it anyways. They will take your money regardless. Wouldn't worry about it.