MBA students have highest cheating rates

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_4433207

Undergrads seem to have much higher cheating rates (into the 80%s!) But the survey is limited by self-reporting, and the data range is fairly narrow (56-45% over most majors). Though those principled humanities and social sciences students were the most ethical, down at a 39% cheating rate (because they know that even a 4.0 GPA won't stop them from being poor for life LOL). Interestingly law students had low cheating rates too, or maybe they just lied on the survey!

Some possible reasons for this:
- With so much competition for top education and jobs (and those factors greatly influence lifetime earning and even quality of life), grades and scores are more critical than ever.
- Education is more and more seen as a means to an end, with grades as the goal instead of mastery of a subject (in that case, cheating would be counter-productive).
- Students are exposed to way more examples in the popular culture and mainstream media of cheaters prospering (or at least getting away with it), rather than cheaters getting punished and honest people prospering.
- Anti-cheating tech lags far behind cheating-enabling tech
- Parents and society are emphasizing individual accomplishment, status, and material wealth more than selflessness and personal character (maybe humanity has always been like this to a certain extent, but as an example of how character used to trump even survival under different social expectations: http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/150421710/why-didn-t-passengers-panic-on-the-titanic)

More on the "cheating culture" in the US: http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201204240900

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Yes good point. Students and their families feel like they are forking over so much $ that they are "entitled" to get good grades and good jobs. And they know they will be under financial pressure right when they graduate, which is a potent motivator. Apparently student loan interest rates may double this summer, unless Washington gets its act together and extends the deadline.

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Definitely growing up college degree was never a question in my household, it was a "must" requirement before my sister and I moved into adulthood. So we took out student loans and followed down the yellow brick road.

But we weren't talking $100k like some of these recent grads interviewed by NPR and Yahoo in recent months.

I wonder at what price point does college degree becomes "not worth it"?  When I was in college, $100k debt was something that was only associated with JD or MD, whole another 3-4 yrs of education.  However, apparently college tuition has soared since those days that college grads are leaving with 6 figure debts (either I'm really old or tuition has gone up at alarming rate)

I understand that the job market is getting tougher and college degree has become somewhat of a norm, but may be then it's time to change that social perception? May be we as regular persons and employers should be open to seeing more people not going to 4 yr college? I wonder if that is possible.

Also, what is the driver behind the rising cost of higher education, higher than that of rise of standard of living, inflation etc? most schools are classified as "non- prof" orgs so I assume it isn't for profit.I'm sure the schools have their "reasons" but where is it (money) going? who actually ends up with them?

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First off, tuition since my son started college 3 years ago has gone up 80% in that time.  Professors haven't had raises(unless they were promoted) in the last 10 years.  Meanwhile, the administrators enjoy an average 10% increase annually in that same timeframe.

Secondly, the reason tuition is going up is because the regents of these not for profit schools who, at one time, were committed to the education of Californians, have been taken over by privatization hounds.   

http://ucsdfa.org/ucsf-chancellor-susan-desmond-hellmann-corporate-privatizer-and-union-buster-wants-ucsf-out-of-the-uc-system/530
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And funding from tax dollars has become so precarious for some public schools that they are shifting the costs to students or semi-privatizing (professional schools can do this easier). And with the surge of cheap credit in the '90s and promise of lucrative jobs in the bull market, I guess the regents felt they could keep raising fees above inflation as students and their families became less price sensitive. Now that the recession has hit (it hit school endowments and donations too) and some families are over-leveraged, school really looks unaffordable, yet demand is inelastic because a bachelor's or above is so critical for better pay and more stable employment.

Since elite colleges are so pricey and hard to get into, some org's are looking into giving "substitute degrees" or "open universities" to students who learn over the web. Our economy is in such need for skilled tech labor, and there is an untapped talent pool in Asia (and at home) that can't access or afford top Western tech schools. So by getting similarly rigorous online classes and some sort of certificate, hopefully they can be eligible for jobs in the West too. I am sure it won't be a fix-all, but we need to rethink alternatives to the expensive and arguably obsolete 4-year university system - and no I don't mean Univ. of Phoenix. Maybe there can be more tiers of degree types beyond just associate and bachelor's.

http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201204091000

Regarding the UCSF situation, I think that is sick also. Since UCSF is a grad school, its cost structure is a lot different, and because it is an elite health science hub, of course it is more profitable than UC Riverside. But the UC charter is to serve the interests of the PEOPLE OF CA. And within the UC System, the strong should support the weak, meaning UCSF is supposed to subsidize UC Riverside. Just like there is a net outflow of federal taxes from places like NY and CA to places like AL and SC. That is part of being in a community, unless we want to espouse social Darwinism like the Romney types promote.

The agencies getting Chinese students into US colleges (often by cheating)

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/11/09/pm-chinese-students-too-qualified-to-be-true

With the one-child policy "little emperors" in China growing up into adulthood, their doting parents want to do everything they can to get their kids accepted into the best Western schools, even at the cost of $7K to top "placement" agencies. These agencies have a lot of money and reputation on the line, so they do what needs to be done to please customers. Whistleblowers claim that they wrote entire college apps for about 75% of clients. When a Wisconsin school was informed of an investigation concerning their recruiting partner in China, Shanghai Shenyuan, they immediately terminated their relationship.

I know that those with means are entitled to press their advantages in order to beat the competition, and a little tutoring or coaching is fine. But outright fraud, so they take admission spots away from honest, hard-working students who gave full effort (American, Chinese, or otherwise), is just outrageous. But these are the times we live in. And I guess some colleges aren't as rigorous as they should be to check on foreign students' credentials, because they get full tuition from a Chinese student instead of the discounted in-state rate. And yes, I know American students cheat plenty too (NY SAT scandal: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/nyregion/sat-cheating-inquiry-on-long-island-expands-to-include-act.html), but it's not as blatant as this:

A report by consulting firm Zinch China seems to confirm [this fraud]. Zinch advises American colleges and universities on recruiting Chinese students. The firm interviewed agents and admissions consultants, as well as more than 200 Beijing students headed to U.S. schools. Zinch estimates 90 percent of these students submitted false recommendation letters; 70 percent had other people write their personal essays, and half of them submitted forged high school transcripts. Two former employees of a college placement agency told Marketplace they routinely falsified application materials. We did not use their names, because they feared they would lose their current jobs... There are numerous colleges that are having difficulty assuring the integrity of the essays, transcripts and credentials, coming from other countries, and in particular in Asia.

-Marketplace

Currently 1/5 of all foreign students in the US are from China, totaling over 130,000. You can check marketplace.org today for the 2nd part of this story - what is going down on the US side of the issue. As I am starting an MBA program, I know that it's pretty bad for b-schools too (what do you expect from the future execs and who will lie and cheat their way to the top?) :). Despite clear warnings that it is a violation of school honor code, I estimate that many applicants ghost-write or team up with their managers to draft letters of rec. Bosses are busy, and it reflects well on them to get their reports into top schools, so I guess they are OK with it. I recently heard complaints from peers that the writing abilities of some of our classmates are like middle-school level (the parties in question happen to be Chinese-born, but not making any generalizations). Clearly that level of writing on an admission essay won't cut it for top schools, so they either got help or magically forgot their English in a year. And then there's the GMAT. I had to give a thumb-print, e-sign, and show my driver's license to use the bathroom during test breaks. Is the GMAC test firm just paranoid? Apparently not: http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/dec2009/bs2009123_558900.htm (again, China is implicated here).

But the whole system is just out of control. College is a major determinant for future prosperity and happiness. Demand vastly exceeds supply for top education, and even more so for good employment. Any leg up a young person can get may help. But the ludicrous costs associated with college acceptance/tuition make wealth, not student merit/potential, the major driver of admission - and that's not how a meritocracy is supposed to work. But some cash-strapped schools are thinking about future alumni giving, so would they rather hook up a trust fund baby, or take their chances on a bright kid out of the inner city who wants to major in ethnic studies? I guess we have to get real regarding what college is about. Forget their idealistic mission statements and credos. It's not about inspiring the brightest young minds to make the big contributions that better humanity. It's about giving already privileged people the skills and connections necessary to do even better after graduation, which will augment the school's marketing, reputation, and endowment. Yes I know I'm being harsh, but this successful cheating industry would not exist if schools were serious about academic integrity, so I blame them more than the Chinese or whoever. Well, university trustees, professors, and coaches lie, steal, and cheat too, so I shouldn't be surprised if students just follow their authority figure role models. Cheaters may be in the minority overall, but like we discussed about Greek tax evasion - when the honest people see that the corrupt can do as they please with impunity, what's in it for them to remain honest?