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College Admissions Police

Colleges Are Beginning To Do Background Checks On Students

May 26, 2007

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Fraud and cheating is becoming all too common in schools and some colleges are screening students more carefully before they accept them as freshmen.

Cheating Is Bolder

Students are more likely to cheat on tests and homework in high school than a generation ago. This is also true of middle school students. Cheating is becoming something that is just expected for kids to attempt. With scanners, MSN, text messaging, cell phones, MP3 players, the temptation to do "group work" is very tempting.

Graduate School

College students are also more likely to cheat. A recent survey revealed that the highest percentage of students likely to cheat were those earning an MBA. This leaves future business practices a concern.

Colleges Concerned

When a student applies to a college, it is assumed that what he or she places on the application form is truthful. However, colleges are finding that students are padding their success. One year of chorus appears as three, participation in band suddenly becomes a first chair position, and participation in speech may appear as receiving three "I" ratings. High school guidance fraud has also been discovered.

Colleges Review Data

Colleges review high school transcripts, ACT /SAT scores and essays. However, for scholarships and higher level colleges, these are not enough. Colleges review much more than basic student data. Schools are looking for exceptional students for their top positions and the students want to look exceptional.

Going The Extra Mile

Students and parents are now hiring expensive college consultants that may charge up to $500 per hour to have a polished application package. Many students have an on-line essay service refine the essay. Resumes are likely padded. Large colleges that enroll $10,000 students don't have the time to verify the data.

Spot Checks

As a reaction to this bold misrepresentation to gain admission to a college, colleges are doing spot checks to make sure students are being honest. Colleges are randomly using

Background checks
Private investigators
Police databases
Plagiarism checks

How Many Cheat?

According to an article by Jon Weinback in CollegeJournal,.com, 60 percent of students admit to cheating. More than 30 percent have admitted to cheating this year by copying a document off the internet and passing it off as their own homework.

Michael Josephson, a former law professor and founder of the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles says, "Students are "far more brazen" today. Schools at all levels have become soft on cheating. He sites a

desire to give students a second chance,
a reluctance to commit resources to cracking down, and
the fear of crossing parents who direct anger at schools, rather than kids, when improprieties are brought to light."

Are we becoming a society that is "lazy but yet competitive" so that the ends justify the means?

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