Cheaters never prosper. This has never been more true than in contemporary society. The Internet has provided students with endless opportunities to plagiarize other people’s work.

Cheating may be a bigger problem than students realize. A survey conducted by Duke University’s Center for Academic Integrity found three quarters of college students admitted to cheating at least once.

It is a rather sobering thought. Take a look around you in class because odds are many of your classmates will have cheated in their academic careers. While it is only human to have thoughts of cheating to improve grades, it is immoral and wrong to act on those impulses.

It is also wrong to accept cheating as legitimate work. One student, in Wednesday’s Northern Star, said “People who cheat and get an ‘A’ deserve it just as much as those who study hard.” The student went on to say cheating students deserve to be rewarded for the risks they take. That is some awful logic. Should rapists be rewarded for risking jail time? The answer is obvious. Students need to do all they can to rid their classrooms of dishonesty.

The pitfalls of cheating are many. First and foremost are the punishments that await those who are caught cheating. In the worst-case scenario, a student can be expelled for using someone else’s work or storing math formulas in his or her calculator. Is getting an “A” in a class instead of a “C” really worth risking getting kicked out of school? We think not. The risks outweigh the reward.

Not to be forgotten are the honorable students – those who deserve their good grades and do their own work. Students who cheat are discrediting the work done by honest students. Not only that, if honest students see classmates cheating and not getting caught, they might experience a bout of peer pressure and succumb to the cheating ways. There is enough corruption in this world. Let’s not perpetuate any more.