To want to pay someone to do my uni work

[Paid30307]

I know deep down it’s a bad idea but it feels like the best option.

And your response to this is Oh I might as well be a cheat too?

The fact you are even considering cheating says a lot about your character. And none of it good

A lot of people don't seem to be able to do their jobs properly these days and it makes life difficult for everyone. No doubt some of it is down to ignorant cheaters conning their way into jobs they are neither equipped to do or educated to do.

totally ok to use AI for coursework - people do it for their work ffs

No. Some uses are probably ok, depending on the applicable policy, such as finding literature and brainstorming, but it isn’t ok to get AI to do the research and writing for you as a student, no. Study is very different to work. If I use AI to draft something for me at work, then as long as it’s accurate and suitable for the audience (my responsibility) nobody cares. The end result is what matters.

Study is about reaching your own conclusions and developing solid research processes and argumentation to get you there. The point of an undergraduate essay on the decline of the Roman Empire or the behaviour of bees is not that someone needs this output, but that the student is building the knowledge and skills to create it.

If you pay someone to do it, they will use AI and you will be penalised for it.

Why on earth are you paying to do a degree, if you need to pay someone to do it for you?! A degree is not worth that much, tbh - unless you want to go into a field that specifically uses the degree content /skills - in which case that’s not going to work well…

This year, so far, I have sat on six academic misconduct panels for AI use. Turnitin picks it up.

And, it may surprise you, but we humans can also tell when someone else wrote your work. Including AI. Your academic voice is as identifiable as your speaking voice to a tutor who knows you.

But surely doing the work is how you learn? And learning is what you’re there for and presumably paying for?

You'd have thought.

I know someone who paid someone else to do her coursework and take her exam. I don’t know the logistics as I wasn’t interested enough to ask, but she became an ex friend pretty quickly as I realised it was a sign of her wider morals/character.
I found uni work pretty boring and didn’t want to do it half the time. But what would it have taught me to cheat? That I didn’t have to try hard, learn or do things I didn’t want to do. Unfortunately that’s not the real world and I would’ve got a shock when I started a job. Additionally, I use AI for my current job. But I need to be able to do the work without AI in order to know whether the output is actually any good. (And sometimes using ChatGPT takes longer than me doing the work myself).
It’s much better in the long run to build good character, self esteem and resilience, even if others are cheating around you. But if you really hate uni, then changing degrees or looking for a job might be a better option.

Please don't be tempted @Paid30307

I was in the unfortunate position of catching a final year student cheating a few years ago. It was so bad and widespread that she was kicked out without her degree but with all of the debt. So sad she could have done it. She was intelligent and capable. I think she'd just got away with it earlier and then kept going.

Book a meeting with your personal tutor. They can help.

Online exam we were home. It was in first year we are now in third year if they were going to be caught they would have been.

was she paying someone to do her work?

Come on… give us a clue…
what are you studying and what do you want someone else to do for you?
I can’t be the only one wondering!

Online at home exams just shouts out for cheating. Your uni is being very irresponsible for facilitating cheating and not picking up on it. What is your course?

Well I didn’t cheat.

No, she was plagiarising but very cleverly and it was quite complicated with the subject she studied.

But I know our Academic Integrity Tutors are catching people all the time using these essay mills. They're pretty clued up on how they lure students in and it's just not worth it if (and it's quite likely) you get caught. I was in a conversation just this week about it. They're very switched on and share what to look for with tutors.

I didn't suggest you did cheat but your post stated that others did and weren't found out. What are you studying?

What is that makes them stand out from essays written by students please?

So you’re in third year? It’s nearly over then. See it through to the end honestly.

I think it's sad you've obviously witnessed exam cheating and it's now undermining your confidence in the system and leading you to feel like you're being a mug for struggling under your own efforts. Please talk to tutors. They should provide support and also flag these issues in their exam system. Though I can't believe they're unaware of it now. Surely they have taken steps to prevent this.

There were issues in our uni during the pandemic because exams had to operate from home and quickly but lessons have been learnt as they say.

Why do you want to know? And why won't you state what you are studying?

Depends what you are studying. If its medicine then no, that would be awful. Art history? Go for it.

Has the OP actually said she's 'overwhelmed and struggling' though? We have no reason to believe she's not just thinking it would be easier to cheat. Could be just laziness or a lack of academic ability. If she's overwhelmed for genuine reasons, she needs to seek support from her uni. If she just cba or thinks she'd get a better mark by cheating, then she should be ashamed of herself for even considering it.

I think this response was written by AI..🤔

Academic misconduct is a serious matter. You can always tell when a paper has been written by someone else because 1. It doesn't quite align with the program and 2. It is miles better and completely different from other papers the student has written. There is also often an electronic trail to the original author if you are not careful. Going through an academic misconduct panel is stressful even if the panel can't definitively prove the misconduct and it impacts how the program team see you. They certainly won't be giving you offers of work or glowing references because they will know what you did and hold you in low regard. If you are entering a field that is relatively small your reputation will follow you around because people talk to each other. Cheating on a home based exam is a lot easier to get away with so don't be misled into thinking that because people have cheated on home based exams you will get away with submitting a paper written by someone else. Also it's something that will follow you around for the rest of your life. What is even the point of life if you don't fully engage in it. If you are doing something you don't want to do it's better to change things up, not get someone else to do it for you.

The case I'm talking about was not an essay based subject, however, as others have said, where I have personally seen cases in written work, it's because it just does not sound like the student. With Ai it's pretty obvious and it will imagine fake sources and get technical things wrong. But your academic writing will be completely different from your previous work if someone else does it for you.

Say you do it.... You'll be anxiously waiting to see if you get caught. It'll be horrible waiting and it'll be months until you get your degree finalised. Say you do actually get away with it and you walk up to smile and collect your degree and listen to plaudits from your VC on all the achievements of the graduating cohort, won't you feel awful?

And ... Actually it doesn't end there. If they discover it later....say someone who hasn't cheated tells someone and they know what you've done...your degree can be rescinded.

Where does she say she’s struggling or overwhelmed. So far she just sounds like she wants to do because her perception is everyone else is.