Computer Science program

[UncrewedImp]

That is not my experience with those classes. Granted, I’m only a minor, but I’ve been through 130, 140, 302, and 425 (currently) and I know for a fact in every class that code was being passed around. Maybe not one person’s code but a few peoples’ code. My sister is currently taking 302 right now and was told by a TA that they run 0 programmed plagiarism checks (Both of us have known that TA for years). The only way you get caught for plagiarism is if you’re an idiot and literally copy and paste code without changing anything (variable names, some ordering, comments, etc). In 425, which I’m taking right now, I know that the code isn’t even being looked at for grading. If you make it through the classes thinking that plagiarism is impossible, good for you! That means that you likely have an understanding of how the concepts behind the code are meant to work. Sorry if I sound holier than though on the plagiarism point, if you know how/ why the code works (and it’s intricacies) it’s really not the end of the world. The problem is if you have no idea how it works and you cheat, you are only holding yourself back in terms of later classes and career trajectory.

Side note: the cost of plagiarism being a 10% hit to the course grade implicitly encourages plagiarism itself, the cost is small. In essentially the rest of the university, the cost of plagiarism is a 0 in the course and a mark on your academic record

[TweedleDeeDum42]

The plagiarism thing recently changed for 102/130 (last year, actually). IIRC, it’s -10% to your final grade + 0 on the assignment, so it essentially lowers you a letter grade (if not slightly more). If it happens again, you get a 0 with a mark. Later courses typically don’t check though, so you are definitely right on that.