Though Wharton MBA admissions officer Judith Hodara's involvement in two private admissions-counseling businesses is temporarily embarrassing for Wharton and Penn, experts say it's unlikely to be a long-term blemish on the ethical reputations of either.
Because Wharton has a "well-established program with such great demand," the school's admissions numbers and overall reputation probably will not be affected by the potential conflict-of-interest issue, said David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admissions Counseling.
Hodara both owned a private consulting business catering to high-school students and served on the board of a Japanese company, AGOS, which advises applicants to MBA programs.
Suspicions of conflict of interest could lead college admissions groups to outline specific professional standards and institutions to iron out clearer protocol for employees, said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
Hawkins said his organization is already in the process of laying out more specific guidelines for the admissions-consulting profession.
NACAC's board is working on "providing some informal guidance [to members] and will be discussing . long-term ethical statements that we can ratify in the not-so-distant future," he said.
Still at issue in Hodara's case is whether an ethics infringement actually occurred. Hodara works in MBA admissions and her private company, IvyStone, catered to undergraduates. She did not provide direct consulting to applicants through AGOS.
But "I personally view both [incidents] as raising troubling questions," Nassirian said.
However, according to Rose Martinelli, associate dean of admissions for the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, "it's all about perception here."
"The issues of running a business on your own and making profit because of the name of the organization for which you work really raises eyebrows," she said.
However, Martinelli, formerly the director of admissions for Wharton's MBA program, added that "it's hard to understand what would raise a red flag" and said many admissions officers maintain relationships with various admissions firms.
While Chicago doesn't have an explicit conflict-of-interest policy, "the institution really does come first," Martinelli said.
And after revelations like Hodara's, institutions may be clarifying their conduct guidelines, especially since both the student-loan and financial-aid industries have recently drawn scrutiny from state and federal governments because of perceived conflicts of interest.
From those incidents, Hawkins said, professionals "learned . that these issues need to be dealt with with some expediency and with cautious and rigorous guidelines applied."
