‘Turnitin’ now turns to college applications

The detection of wholesale cheating in US college applications is on the rise due to the use of Turnitin for Admissions, an anti-plagiarism database service that compares student essays to an immense archive of other writings, writes Larry Gordon for Los Angeles Times.

Around the country, more than 100 colleges and universities have adopted it, mainly in graduate divisions, although Stanford University is among the dozen schools starting to use it for freshman applicants this year.

That growth highlights the search for authenticity in college admissions at a time when the internet offers huge amounts of tempting free material, increasing numbers of private coaches sell admissions advice, and online companies peddle pre-written essays. In addition, the larger numbers of applications from overseas have raised concerns about cheating that may be difficult for US schools to discover unaided.
Full report on the LA Times site