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ncp
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riverripper
Your credit score is considered a sign of your responsibility. In a lot of states car insurance actually use it as a factor to calculate rates. If you have huge debt you are a liability and some companies wont hire you, so that may be why they care.
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This is a common misconception. Auto insurance companies are expressly prohibited to calculate rates based on your financial status. They can at most use credit history to determine intial down payment. It is against insurance fair trade practices to charge someone more for the policy purely based on credit status.

In the insurance industry, the scores are used mainly while insuring high value properties like a $25 M diamond or something like that. Some one in financial turmoil could fake its theft and cash in on the insurance.

Coming to the issue at hand, what about all the international applicants from countries which do not even have the credit concept? How will B-schools assess these folks? In any case, credit history shouldn't affect the admission decision. And if something does not affect admissions decision, then it shouldn't be looked at in the 1st place.
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jjanders
Sorry, that was a lame attempt at a joke.
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i thought that was hilarious....haha.....we need more silly jokes on this forum
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Do they perform salary checks?
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riverripper
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ryguy904
Do they perform salary checks?
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Anything is possible so better be safe than sorry and keep it at least reasonably close. I dont think current salary is a very important stat for them.
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ryguy904
Do they perform salary checks?
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I hope they don't want the number to the exact dollar figure.

Ballpark should be good within 2-3 grand... I hope.
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djdan
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for me, salary is easy. It's the bonus that's hard. who remembers how much bonus they got 5 years ago?
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casbroker
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I work for Kroll's sister company and have clients that utilize their "security" services. They know everything....
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kidderek
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casbroker
I work for Kroll's sister company and have clients that utilize their "security" services. They know everything....
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what's everything?
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From what I hear:

job title
salary
companies you worked for
references
schools you attend


Anything else to add?
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clobo
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I think schools will probably check your extra-curricular or community activities if they are stellar. For instance, if you were a president or founder of a non-profit, I think schools would want to check that out.
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Generally speaking, background checks seek to evaluate a handful of items - they vary by company and by amount paid - in some cases they include a credit history, in some they do not.

At a firm they look for a bunch of random things: For instance, you claim to have been working in FL from 2000-2007 but you filed tax returns in Texas. You say you were in school in IL from 1999-2000 but your address shows up in Omaha. Things that are generally inconsistent with your job application. Ideally, this includes degree verification. It likely also includes some attempt to identify dates of employment, position and salary, though 99% of firms I know will not disclose salary at all. In general, they are looking for glaring inconsistencies. If there's a criminal check, typically the kinds of crimes they are looking for are things that would put other people - your coworkers, boss - at risk ....im talking about assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, assault with a deadly weapon, manslaughter, murder, rape, false imprisonment, domestic assault, kidnapping, a dozen TROs, etc. Either that or issues of serious ethical breach such as say b&e or embezzlements, RICO act stuff. Credit checks are just a further element of this.

Now for the purposes of grad school, they aren't looking for exact employment dates, nor do they care if your salary is right - some people include bonus, some not, etc. They aren't going to come after you if you are off on salary figures, nor will they come after you if dates don't line up precisely, nor will they likely validate extracurriculars (its near impossible to do, generally theres no public record of that stuff). They are less concerned with these details and more concerned with egregious claims: If you claimed not to have a criminal past and you have a (serious) criminal past, thats not good. If you claimed to have a degree and don't. If you claimed to work at a firm Y and you never worked there at all.

So unless you happen to take the "the" out of psychotherapist, I wouldn't don't get hung up on this background check.
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rhyme

So unless you happen to take the "the" out of psychotherapist, I wouldn't don't get hung up on this background check.
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hahahahaha
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defenestrate
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ncprasad
I can understand the school's interest in checking criminal and employment records. But why the swear word should they check financial/credit records. Applying to a school shouldn't give it the right to reckless abuse ones' privacy.
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well maybe they shouldn't, but if you want to go to the school you have to play by the rules right. All these things do is make the barrier to entry high. 10 years ago if someone told you that you would have to take your shoes off and have your body patted down (to the genitalia) you would probably would have the same reaction. But now, anything short of a public cavity search is considered appropriate and necessary.
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defenestrate
ncprasad
I can understand the school's interest in checking criminal and employment records. But why the swear word should they check financial/credit records. Applying to a school shouldn't give it the right to reckless abuse ones' privacy.

well maybe they shouldn't, but if you want to go to the school you have to play by the rules right. All these things do is make the barrier to entry high. 10 years ago if someone told you that you would have to take your shoes off and have your body patted down (to the genitalia) you would probably would have the same reaction. But now, anything short of a public cavity search is considered appropriate and necessary.
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come on.
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abhishek.sardana
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I started a company in collabration with my uncle while I was in 2nd year of my under-graduate studies. The company was closed after 5 years in operation. I mentioned the same in the application. But yesterday, i came to know that my uncle never registered the company as the profits were not substantial. Will this raise a red flag?
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Personally I think background checks by schools are all bollocks.

First, they can never check credentials of international students. I know for a fact if they try to check an Indian or a Chinese student's details, they'll be told to go boil their heads.

Second, I think this is a phenomenon for US schools only - as far as I know, nobody in Europe and definitely no school in Asia gives a **** about this crap.

Credit checks are specific to the US - I know for an absolute fact that credit history does not transfer to another country if you shift your base to another country. For example, a great 10 yr credit history in the US is worthless if you move to the UK or anywhere in the EU, even though you may retain the same credit card company (Citibank, for example).
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rk4g63

First, they can never check credentials of international students. I know for a fact if they try to check an Indian or a Chinese student's details, they'll be told to go boil their heads.
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I am not so sure about that. I know that Oracle for example conducts thorough background checks of prospective Indian employees who live in the US. I think there are companies in India which do this now.
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Unless the applicant lied about the figures/rules/carrer progression, she or he shouldn't be worried with that.

In Brazil for instance, there is a document which shows all places I've "officialy" worked and everyone can attach salary changes, the problem would be with bonuses.

But some problems may appear when checking international students such as myself. I put the figures in USD, taking the last FX rate of the year, is that correct? I don't know but I wouldn't spend much more time than that.
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abhishek.sardana
I started a company in collabration with my uncle while I was in 2nd year of my under-graduate studies. The company was closed after 5 years in operation. I mentioned the same in the application. But yesterday, i came to know that my uncle never registered the company as the profits were not substantial. Will this raise a red flag?
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no don't worry about it.

Again, they are looking for two things:

1) Gross and clear deception or other obvious breaches of ethics
2) Issues that could put the school staff, faculty or students at risk

* You say you went to Harvard but Harvard says you didn't.
* Your transcript is full of A's but the official one is full of C's
* Your social security number is on a death or invalid list (you lied about who you are)
* The time you said you were working for McKinsey you were actually at Riker's Island after appearing on "To Catch a Predator".
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kwam
Unless the applicant lied about the figures/rules/carrer progression, she or he shouldn't be worried with that.

In Brazil for instance, there is a document which shows all places I've "officialy" worked and everyone can attach salary changes, the problem would be with bonuses.

But some problems may appear when checking international students such as myself. I put the figures in USD, taking the last FX rate of the year, is that correct? I don't know but I wouldn't spend much more time than that.
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Salary and bonus is relatively easy to check. Just ask the applicant to get the IRS report the tax records.

(assuming the IRS gives out this information) Yes, it's not practical or probably asked of everybody, but if something smells fishy... then I don't see why not.
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