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Duke Begins Checking MBA Applications for Plagiarism

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Photograph by Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business is the latest MBA program to report using plagiarism detection software to check applicant essays during the admissions process. It’s the highest-ranked program by Bloomberg Businessweekto come forward about using the service.

Fuqua rejected one applicant for “blatant plagiarism” but was cautious about turning away others because the 2012-13 school year was a pilot period for using IParadigms’ Turnitin detection system, the school said. No details on the rejected applicant were available.

“We chose to review a large number of applications to understand what threshold would be appropriate to use in the future to investigate for plagiarism,” Liz Riley Hargrove, Fuqua’s associate dean for admissions, said in an e-mail. ”We are still in the process of fine-tuning the system and understanding what the scores mean and how we will leverage it next year and what our investigative process will be.”

Riley Hargrove says the school had received information that led the admissions team to believe some applicants did not write their essays. There’s no way “to catch every single thing that’s been manufactured, but we thought this was one step we could take to help,” she says.

UCLA’s Anderson School of Management has rejected about 115 applicants on the grounds of plagiarized admissions essays since it began using Turnitin heading into the 2011-12 school year. Penn State’s Smeal College of Business has denied about 87 since 2009 for the same offense.

Other Turnitin users include the business schools at Wake Forest University andNortheastern University. Most schools don’t disclose that they are using the service, however, and the company keeps its client roster private.

UCLA has consistently found that about 2 percent of its MBA applicants plagiarize their essays and has traced lifted passages back to the websites of nonprofit organizations as well as websites that advertise free essays or help with editing essays. The school expects that pattern to continue into its third application round this year, which means it may find additional cases of plagiarism before fall.

“Potential” cases of plagiarism at Northeastern’s business school were expected to double to about 100 cases by April 15, Evelyn Tate, the school’s director of graduate recruitment and admissions, told Bloomberg Businessweek in February.

For the 2012-13 school year, Penn State’s Smeal reports that 40 applicants were flagged for plagiarizing essays, representing about 8 percent of its applicant pool.

“Over the years it just feels like there is a lot of pressure among applicants to manage perfect essays,” says Duke’s Riley Hargrove. “This felt like the right thing to do.”

Source: Businessweek

Global B-school - Admission Interviews

For MBA aspirants, who have applied for round 1 (i.e. November) deadlines for globally reputed MBA programs, the interview is an integral part of the admissions process.  It is also a standard practice among B-Schools designed to surface talents and capabilities that are more tacit in nature, and therefore, less apparent in a written application. B-SCHOOL interviews are basically about testing your communication abilities, particularly in an improvised setting. What you say is important but how you say it is more important. 

International candidates, who have qualified in the basic admission requirements round, are allowed phone interviews. Alumni interviews are conducted for B-schools like ISB, Great Lakes, SP Jain, XLRI, IIIM PGX etc. in select metros.

Commonly asked questions: You will be asked questions similar to those themes that recur throughout the admissions process:

·         Academic capabilities/ qualifications

·         Leadership experience and potential

·          We all have weaknesses. What are some of your major weaknesses?

·         What are your strengths?

·         What type of decisions do you have difficulty making?

·         What is your work ethic? Give an example when your work ethic was challenged and how u dealt with it.

·         What is your biggest failure?

·         Describe your ideal career.

·         Work experience - Where do you see yourself five years from now? Describe a major goal you've set for yourself recently.

·         Experience with working on teams

·         What do you expect to do  with your MBA and what you expect to get out of the program

·         What you will bring to enrich the class

·         What questions you have about the program

Preparation:

Think long and hard about the obvious questions such as... Why MBA school? Why now? Be able to articulate this very well verbally.

1.       Your response should be focused and purposeful.

2.       Communicate a pattern of interests and skills that relate to the B-school in question.

3.       Be alert and confident.

Duration:  Anywhere between 30 mins to an hour long

Specific B-school questions:

Rotterdam School of Management- Erasmus Graduate School of Business. \

Admissions Officer. "Marjolijn Dijksterhuis" wrote, in a phone interview, I can tell you that you will be asked a number of questions about your application (e.g. objectives, motives). The questions will be in line with the issues addressed in the essays.

ISB interview:

Related mostly to work, no reference to application essays.

1.       Why ISB?

2.        Questions on ISB? Why at MBA at this point of time?

3.       Some very specific work related questions

         Chicago-GSB:

·         10 mins on your professional experience, starting from the first job.

·         5 mins on the extracurricular background, your present activities outside professional activities and the activities you would like to participate in GSB?

·         Why MBA? Why this school? Short-term goals where and what industry would you work?

·         What are you specifically are you looking to gain from this MBA program?

·         How and when did u realize the need of an MBA? 5 mins -Questions on the school?

           OLIN Business School (University of Washington in St .Louis):

·         Why mba? Why this school?? When did you first hear of the school - How? Questions on the school?

·         3 adjectives to describe your strengths as per you? If I talk to your colleagues what would they say regarding these strengths - will they agree?

·         What would they say on your weaknesses?

·         What 3 criteria would you use to select the school to join, in case you are accepted by all the schools you have applied to?

·         How do you spend your leisure time?

·         Where and what industry do you want to work? Why

Dos and Don’ts:

Do’s:

·         Be alert and hence confident

·         Know in detail about the B-school Program, thus showing enthusiasm about attending the B-school

·         Speak clearly and audibly.

·         Please be punctual for the interview, if in case of rescheduling please inform the admission’s committee in advance.

·         Select a sound proof place for the interview

·         Always have an alternate number for phone interview.

Don’ts:

·         Don't put yourself into a position where you have to get into school no matter what.

·         Don’t bluff or over emphasize.

·         Don’t be arrogant with the interviewer

·         Don’t pose an accent

·         Don’t sound bored.

·         Don’t use a cordless phone.

Last but not the least consider the interview as one last opportunity to tilt the admit scale in your favor. If an interview is offered , grab this opportunity ,since in person we tend to be more compelling and can address certain weaknesses , or bring other qualities like enthusiasm,  sense of humor , maturity to life which  could positively tip the scale in the admit decision.

GOOD LUCK!!