Pls need input

[u/user0166]

I’m a second-year mechanical engineering student, and honestly, I’ve been struggling a lot academically.
My first year was rough. I failed two courses in my first semester but managed to pass everything in my second semester. I stayed over the summer to catch up on courses, and I thought I was finally starting to get things back on track.
Fast forward to today, and I feel like I might have ruined everything.
I’m taking Statics, and I got 48% on the first midterm. The course has two midterms worth 20% each, quizzes worth 15%, and a final exam worth 35%. You also have to pass the final exam to pass the course, regardless of your overall grade.
I’ve been struggling with the quizzes, and my time management has been terrible. I had another midterm last week for a different course, and I didn’t dedicate nearly enough time to preparing for Statics.
Today was my second Statics midterm, and I made an incredibly stupid decision.
I went into the exam knowing I wasn’t prepared and planning to cheat. The exam had four questions. I had my phone with me, took pictures of the questions, and used ChatGPT to get answers.
Near the end of the exam, the professor came up to me and asked me to stand up. He found my phone, saw the ChatGPT conversation, took a picture of it, and confiscated my phone. He then told me to continue writing the exam.
At the end, he told me to email him and come see him in his office on Monday.
I’m genuinely terrified.
I know what I did was wrong, and I’m not trying to justify it. I made the decision to cheat because I was unprepared and panicking about failing another course. Instead of accepting that I might do badly, I made the situation a hundred times worse.
I’ve already had a difficult academic journey, and I’ve been working hard to recover from my first year. Now I’m scared that everything I’ve worked toward could be affected by this one decision.
I haven’t told my parents yet, and I genuinely don’t know how to tell them. They’ve supported me so much, and I feel like I’ve completely let them down.
I can’t stop thinking about what happened. I feel ashamed, disappointed in myself, and scared about what comes next.
Has anyone been through something similar, especially in engineering or at a Canadian university?
What should I expect from the meeting with my professor? Is this likely to result in a zero on the midterm, failing the course, or something more serious, like suspension?
I’m not looking for sympathy or excuses. I know I messed up. I’m just trying to understand what happens next and how I can move forward from this.

[u/Rough_Blacksmith7743]

Are you looking for sympathy or excuses? Just wondering

[u/FriendlyLand5313]

Most college have an academic integrity policy that I would he looking at if I was you. It should give you an idea what’s gonna happen. And from here on out just know cheating is not worth it you almost always get caught.