It has been reported recently that Penn State University has rejected 29 applicants for plagiarizing portions of essays submitted to the Smeal College of Business MBA program. A number of the applicants had copied language from an online essay and included it into the Smeal MBA "principled leadership" essay.
Reports like this are likely to surface more often as MBA and other graduate school programs, who appear to be very serous about detecting cheaters, will now have advanced software available that can scan essays and personal statements searching for plagiarized language. A company called iParadigms, LLC is now offering plagiarism prevention software to graduate school programs across the globe. Thus far, on Penn State University is the only school that has publicly announced that it is using the iParadigms software, but it is believed that this software is already being used by many MBA programs and will be widely used in the near future.
As an admissions consultant, I often notice language in essays that has been copied from published books of successful application essays and warn my clients not to engage in this practice. Because of the advanced detection software that will be widely used in the future, now more than ever it will be important for applicants to create original essays that display their unique experiences and characteristics in an interesting and persuasive way.
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