Case Study 9

Mei and Chloe have been good friends since they met in 7th grade. They are now sophomores at Penn State. Chloe has a scholarship that requires that she keep a 3.0 average to retain the scholarship support. Chloe has been having a rough semester and is barely earning B’s in her classes. Mei and Chloe are both taking a difficult statistics course. Although Mei is doing well in the course, Chloe is panicked because she really doesn’t understand the material. Since the final project for the class is worth 60% of her grade, Chloe knows that if she doesn’t earn at least a B on the project, she will lose her scholarship. Although the instructor made it clear that all work on the final project was to be done independently, Chloe begs Mei to help her. Mei is sympathetic but reminds Chloe that the professor said that they must work independently. Chloe cries and tells Mei that if she loses her scholarship she will be forced to leave Penn State and again begs her to help her.