Cheating

The New York Times posted an article about cheating today, albeit not in med schools, but it got me thinking. Is this really a problem in medical schools? I can honestly say I have never cheated on an exam. I would like to say I have never cheated ever, and although I can't remember any specific event, I wouldn't go so far as to say I never copied someone's homework in high school. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Sounds like something I probably would have done. But not in college. And not in my Master's work. And certainly, without a doubt, positively, never, never, ever, in medical school. Holy crap I worked so hard to get here I'd way rather fail an exam (or a whole class) than to be kicked out for cheating. The thought of it makes me cringe.

But I do hear of "situations". And we have an honor board judicial committee for just that. A grapevine story at my school (about a DIFFERENT school) is about a couple of friends, Jack and Jill, who had a professor that was apparently out to get them. During an exam, the professor thinks Jack is copying Jill's work, and essentially threatens Jill with "if you don't turn him in I will". Jill denies that Jack would ever do such a thing, and refuses to turn him in, and the whole thing blows up. They both get sent to committee, and their parents hire fancy attorneys and the school hires a "cheating specialist" who somehow can determine if cheating took place and who cheated off who. The specialist decides that no cheating has occurred, and Jack and Jill are invited back to med school, to which they both promptly reply "Fuck you" and transfer schools.

Anyway, anybody know how often cheating occurs in med schools? I'd like to know.