Who's Cheating the Most

Donald McCabe says he has the research to prove it: Business students probably cheat the most.

"Students in business already have a bottom-line mentality," said McCabe, founder of the Center for Academy Integrity and a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. " 'I have to get the job done, and how I get it done is less important.' That kind of thinking."

In a survey of 32 schools, 74 percent of business undergraduates admitted to having engaged in one or more of 13 behaviors listed in a cheating index, compared with a mean of 68 percent from all other students, he said. Business students also topped the list in graduate school, he said.

Second on the list of cheaters, he said, are engineering students. Both business and engineering are problem-based.

"There is one right answer," said McCabe, who has been conducting large-scale research on the subject for nearly 20 years. "If I can look over at your paper and see what the answer is, that can confirm what I have or [allow me to] think about another solution. If you are writing a history exam, it's not so easy."

Business students who respond to his surveys often cite corporate scandals as an excuse for why they cheat, McCabe said. "The Enron situation, WorldCom, you name it. . . . As time passes, you just hear different names."