I just finished my third year of college as a Math major, and I'm interesting in applying to a Masters of Statistics program. I have a 3.75 GPA, and I've done very well in all my major classes. I have a letter of recomendation from my Abstract Algebra professor and from my Probability instructor. I also have experience tutoring with the Math deparment at my school. I like to think that I'm an acceptable canidate, but I'm worried that I made too many mistakes my freshman year for any graduate schools to consider accepting me.
I took a Sociology course during my second quarter of freshman year and made a giant mistake. A classmate asked me for help on one of our take home assignments. He said he was having trouble with the assignment so I gave him some pointers and let him take a look at my paper. I didn't realise that I was doing anything wrong. He ended up copying a few of my answers verbatim, and he turned the paper in. Obviously, the professor noticed and reported the issue. I had an conduct issue earlier in the year with alcohol in my dorm room, so they went hard on me. I was given a "0" on the assignment, charged with academic misconduct, and put on academic probation for a calendar year. Nothing from either incident is on my official transcript. I did well otherwise. My grades were very good all year. I never got anything below a B+.
Since freshman year I've stayed out of trouble and continued to do well in my studies. I make no excuses for my two mistakes (drinking and academic misconduct). They were terrible things to do, but I was driven by niativity in both of them. I wasn't trying to skirt the rules. I was just dumb and too trusting of others. Can I overcome these issues and get into a decent Masters program or should I consider a different path?
