Plagiarism in Business School Admissions

It's an open sceret. A lot of students start their MBA application process on internet and spend a lot of time browsing through multiple sample essays and letter of recommendations. "Just getting an idea" seems to be the common go-to excuse and before they even realize, their own essays are heavily influenced by what they have seen on the internet. Many just find the process of writing essays too daunting and don't mind a little external help, especially when the help is few clicks away. A recent post at Getting In - BusinessWeek highlighted how business schools are not only aware of the plagiarism but have started taking some steps to address it.

"Business schools are making it a priority to combat plagiarism in admissions essays, following an incident last year when a Penn State admissions officer discovered dozens of MBA applicants who copied verbatim from an online essay. Next Wednesday, admissions officers will be gathering in Boston to speak about plagiarism and integrity in application essays at the Graduate Management Admission Council's annual conference. Carrie Marcinkevage from Penn State's Smeal College of Business (Smeal Full-Time MBA Profile), will be moderating the session, along with other admissions officers.

Since the Penn State incident last year, Marcinkevage has become a spokeswoman of sorts for admissions plagiarism, urging her fellow admissions officers to take more decisive action in this area. In February, she started an online discussion group called Integrity in MBA Admissions. Since then more than 100 business school admissions officers have joined the group.

She's also taken action by using a software application designed by iParadigms called Turnitin for Admissions that scans essays, personal statements and scholarship essays for signs of plagiarism. The software is expected to have wide appeal for admissions officers because it is integrated into the ApplyYourself Application system, which more than half of top U.S. business schools use to process applications, according to a press release from iParadigms. "

Moral of the story: Don't take it off the internet or any other place. Schools are watching out and identifying a duplicate or "nfluenced"ssays means an automatic DING. I you have found an excellent para in one of those sample essays on the internet, do not forget that thousand other applicants must have found it as well and great minds think alike!