Nearly 100 Would-Be MBAs Nailed in GMAT Scandal

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Efforts to reach Scoretop users whose scores were revoked were unsuccessful, but reaction to the news of the canceled scores on BusinessWeek's "Getting In" blog appeared to be evenly split between those who applauded GMAC's actions and those who thought it didn't go far enough.

"Hope GMAC…didn't punish anyone [who was] innocent," wrote one commenter. "People's lives are at stake here."

Wrote another: "Excellent work by GMAC, but more could have been canceled. Shows cheating, fraud, bribes won't work in the Western universities…."

For schools that received tainted scores, the job of reconciling the applicants' behavior with their own institutional standards and meting out appropriate punishment—or none at all—has just begun. For some programs—including Columbia University, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, there is no action to be taken because the questionable scores reported by GMAC were submitted by individuals who either never formally applied or were rejected.

Applying the Honor Code

For other schools, though, the problem is more difficult and may not be resolved for weeks. At the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, officials are reviewing the list of tainted scores to determine if any belong to current students or graduates. The school's honor code prohibits cheating—defined as "any attempt to gain an improper advantage over other students in an academic setting"—and Dean Robert Dolan said he's prepared to enforce it.

"We will take any proven violations of either GMAT testing policies or our school's honor code with utmost seriousness," Dolan says. "If any of the test takers identified by GMAC are current students at Ross, or have been granted a degree, we will contact those individuals and pursue each case in a manner consistent with the school's honor code and disciplinary procedures."

At Stanford University, 20 scores have been canceled, including those of 10 applicants who were denied admission and one student who has already graduated. Derrick Bolton, director of MBA admissions, said if any of the 10 rejected applicants reapplies to Stanford, the school will require a detailed explanation about what the person did and why. The graduate in question will meet with the dean to discuss the situation, but no additional information was available regarding any penalties the school might be considering.

Expert: Doing Nothing Is Not an Option

"We are disappointed by the actions of any individual who knowingly violated GMAC policy," Bolton said. "As an educational institution, we would like those involved to learn from this incident. Those whose scores GMAC canceled will learn from that outcome, of course. We hope that they also might learn from the experience by reflecting on their actions and taking ownership for their errors, then sharing those explanations and insights with us."

Donald McCabe, a management professor at Rutgers Business School who has done extensive research on academic cheating, said each school must decide for itself how to handle the tainted scores, but that doing nothing is not an option. "If they're convinced the GMAC evidence is solid, I think they need to do something," says McCabe. "I'm not of the school of thought that we let them all off scot-free."

If the schools do take a tough stand, will it affect the behavior of future business school applicants? McCabe, whose research has shown more self-reported cheating among business students than in any other major, thinks it will. "That's one of the few ways I see a real positive coming out of this," he said. "I hope something gets done because it will send a message—and in the case of business, you need to send a message more than in most disciplines."

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Lavelle is an associate editor at BusinessWeek.