Are B-Schools Setting Their Sights on Hired Guns?

Newspapers report that top business schools are increasingly unhappy with the activities of unethical admissions consultants. Admissions officials are particularly irate over the role that unethical consultants play in encouraging applicants to submit 'canned' or ghost-written essays.

Now, the Boston Globe reports, the deans of Wharton, Stanford, and five other top b-schools will use an upcoming meeting to discuss ways their schools could work together to rein in abusive practices. Some of the ideas under discussion are having applicants complete essays in exam-like sessions, under the supervision of proctors; assigning different essay topics to different applicants; and giving more weight to admissions interviews and reference checks.

As we noted in our blog in January 2006, our view is that applicants who fake their essays are cheating themselves as well as the schools they apply to. The admissions essay writing process is an opportunity to gain a better understanding of your life and work goals and to sharpen writing skills that will serve you well throughout your career. Applicants who resort to essay fraud shortchange themselves on both counts.

Now there is a third, and more pragmatic, reason why applicants should resist any urge to follow an essay template or to have someone else write their essays for them. Regardless of what procedures b-school deans do or do not agree on in their upcoming meeting, it is clear that admissions committees are on guard for applicants who present a false picture of themselves. Applications that strike a false note are more likely than ever to get dinged. As ever, honesty is the best policy in b-school admissions.

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