Rampant cheating; everyone reaped what they sowed. Caltech ethical dilemma Essay

Members of the Caltech community live, learn, and work within an Honor System with one simple guideline; 'No member shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community.' While seemingly simple, questions of ethics, honesty and integrity are sometimes puzzling. Share a difficult situation that has challenged you. What was your response, and how did you arrive at a solution? (200 word max)

Rampant cheating does not pay

Sophomore year was exhausting, all tests were cumulative, and the tests were weekly. While everyone crammed for the tests and even hired private tutors, I never had problems doing well by just studying on a daily basis. Things were looking well as I headed into the finals, and I was as prepared as I could be.

I walked in one day during the finals week to find everyone studying the same thing, I didn't know why at first, but after looking around it became clear; they had the leaked final. I didn't know what to do at that point, all my work seemed so pointless since everyone had all the answers. I didn't want to notify a teacher as some people needed that grade to pass, but I didn't want to cheat because I valued my work over my grade. I decided I'd just take the finals and hope for the best, since I believed all my work will still be rewarded.

The teachers realized that there was rampant cheating after they saw the same answers on almost everyone, and they decided to redo the test. A lot of people were upset, but everyone reaped what they sowed.

Looking for ways to improve my essay, as it still feels underwhelming when I read over it. Thanks.

@BobRoss
I think this situation isn't really a difficult situation like the prompt states, is there anything else you could write about? It seems like the situation was rather simple for you since you studied often. If you want to stick with this subject, maybe put more emphasis on the rigor of the class and how studying everyday was challenging for you? Then talk about how, in the end, your hard work paid off while everyone else got caught. I think the second sentence sounds kind of pretentious/arrogant, maybe leave out the part about everyone else having to cram and hire tutors? Good luck!

Yamen, the reason that this essay is underwhelming when you read it is because you decided not to do anything about the cheating that you knew was going to take place during the exam. In fact, what you did was a clear violation of the Honor Code of Caltech. You see, the Honor Code expects you to do what is right and what is fair for all concerned, regardless of the fact that everyone else is doing the same wrong thing. This is all about your integrity as a student and your sense of fair play with regards to those students who are trying to pass tests in a honest way, just as you did.

Your solution to the problem, which was to ignore the cheating that was to take place because some of the students needed the grade to pass is incorrect. That is exactly the kind of character trait that the university does not want as a member of their student community. Do not use this reference topic. The story that you are sharing will get your application into the "do not consider" list because you do not have any academic integrity and will obviously, not uphold the Caltech Honor Code for its students and members of its community.