This is made worse by how absolutely rampant it is—to the point the reporting it seemed futile. I actually had high ranking peers inform me that they didn't believe I had never cheated in high school. They actually could not understad the concept. The social risk for reporting any time of cheating is quickly amplified when you realize:
* It's more common in high school to cheat than not to cheat
* Administration has no time to pursue cheaters except in the most widespread and obvious circumstances
* It's very hard to prove cheating outside of an anecdotal "This is what I saw" story, and there is no court system for high school students
Honestly, it sucked.
P.S. Based on an American public high school experience. And, for what's it's worth, ~300 in the College Board Top 1000 Challenge Index schools.
That said, the incentive to cheat is certainly much higher these days, between the 15 hour days and rigorous course loads, than it was 50 years ago before SAT tutors and numbers-based admissions; back when just being able to pay the $$$ for a top preparatory school basically guaranteed admission into Harvard and Yale: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/books/review/06brooks.html... ("That year [1950] 278 students from elite prep schools applied to Harvard and 245 were accepted. The acceptance rate from Exeter and Andover was 94 percent.").
You must be joking. I would have a hard time believing anyone at the top got there honestly. I'm sure it happens but it must be vanishingly rare. Take Lance Armstrong: I doubt he set out to be a cheater, but when everyone else is doping the only way to compete is to dope yourself.