Webcam Interviews Disconnect Imposters

Phone interviews allow for possible deception, but the growing use of Webcams by schools is making it more difficult to use a stand-in

by Alina Dizik

Who's really on the other end of the line during a phone interview? It could be the student on the MBA application—or a well-spoken cheater.

It used to be that business school officials couldn't necessarily tell one from the other. But now, with the widespread use of Webcams, one avenue for potential cheating—including coaching or having an imposter sit in for the applicant—is being narrowed.

Busted!

While most B-school interviews are conducted in person, that's not always possible, particularly when candidates are living in other countries. And that's when the temptation to test the boundaries of ethics, such as referring to prepared notes or using a stand-in, can come into play.

No one knows how often it happens. Anne Cooper, the admissions director at University of Georgia's Terry College of Business said in an e-mail that she suspects—but can't prove—impersonation in one or two cases in each incoming class of about 120 full-time students. Cooper says the difference in a student's English-language skills once he or she comes to campus is an automatic tip-off.

"There's no way to confirm that you are speaking with the same person that shows up," Cooper says. "It's disconcerting when it happens, because you want to know that you're dealing with someone of integrity."

Starting this month, Georgia is requiring that phone interviews be conducted via Webcam. Several other schools, including Penn State, Arizona State, and Ohio State offer it as an option. While cutting down on cheating is just one of the reasons schools are adopting Webcam interviews, the technology has other benefits they're not ignoring.

When Is It Cheating?

"It's always suspect, in terms of dialogue, who's on the other end of the phone [line]," says Rudy Pino, the director of admissions at Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business. Over the phone, interviewers listen for suspicious clues such as rustling paper, delayed responses, and requests for the interviewer to repeat questions—possible indications that the candidate is searching notes for an answer or consulting with someone.

Pino estimates that every year close to 5% of about 160 full-time students receive an unethical amount of help—which includes anything from scripted answers to having a well-versed helper present during their phone interview.

Besides outright impersonation, its not really clear where the ethical lines in phone interviews are, admissions experts say. Even if it's not strictly forbidden, when admissions officials like Carrie Marcinkevage, the admissions director at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, get a scripted or delayed answer, they automatically become concerned about the applicant's ability to succeed in an MBA program. An applicant can use notes to "hide language deficiencies, glide over unfavorable parts of an experience they don't want to reveal, or worse, to give someone else's answer," Marcinkevage explains in an e-mail.

But Los Angeles-based admissions consultant Stacy Blackman says there are different expectations for a phone interview than for an in-person meeting. "I don't know that [script reading] is necessarily unethical if you prepared it yourself," adds Blackman who discourages her clients from reading word-for-word answers because that prevents them from coming across as genuine.