Penn tells top director: No moonlighting

As an associate director of MBA admissions at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Judith Hodara hosts a weekly podcast that dispenses tips for getting into business school.

It's not the only place she hands out advice. Recently, she was asked to sit on an advisory committee of a Japanese company that helps Japanese students get into top U.S. programs leading to a master's degree in business administration, including her own.

Since 2004, she has also run her own college admissions business, IvyStone Educational Consultants, to guide high school students through the tricky process.

While Hodara said her consulting work was "compliant with university policy," some admissions experts questioned her ties and whether there was the appearance of impropriety.

Penn agreed with them and pulled the plug on her moonlighting.

"This matter came to our attention yesterday, and we have since reviewed the situation," said university spokesman Ron Ozio. "In order to avoid even an appearance of conflict of interest, Ms. Hodara has resigned from all outside consulting activities."

That includes both the advisory board of AGOS, the Japanese company, and her consulting business, said Ozio, who declined to provide any other information.

Before the university's comments, Hodara said in an e-mail that her position on the advisory board was to start this month, but that she had done no work, had attended no meetings and had not been paid.

Yesterday afternoon, her picture and biography were removed from the AGOS Web site, and her company Web site had been shut down.

Her consulting business, she said in the e-mail, "is wholly unrelated to my position with MBA admissions and is compliant with university policy."

Hodara did not hide her after-hours work. The weekly podcast that she hosts, called "bschooltalk," boasts of her Penn connections and consulting business. The company producing the webcast, foryourimagination, referred to her online as a "prominent business school expert," and sold posters and T-shirts with her picture on it.

Hodara's position at a prestigious American university got the attention of AGOS, which tapped her and two other admissions professionals for its advisory board.

The others, Sherry Wallace, MBA admissions dean at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Donald Martin, associate dean for enrollment and student services at Teachers College of Columbia University, had approval to participate on AGOS's board, according to university spokespeople.

After getting an e-mail of complaint recently, UNC looked into the situation and concluded there was nothing inappropriate, said spokeswoman Susan Houston.

She said that Wallace was not paid for the role but was reimbursed for one trip a year to Japan, and that she planned to remain on the board because it would help UNC "reach out to outstanding Japanese applicants."

Martin, formerly an admissions official at the business school of the University of Chicago, says he did nothing wrong because he does not work with MBA programs, said spokesman Joe Levine.

The disclosure raised alarms with two national college admissions groups, which said the board position and private consulting work suggested a problem at a time when colleges are facing increased scrutiny for their ties to student-loan lenders, travel agencies, and others seeking preferential treatment.

"This certainly presents a potential conflict," said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research at the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

While the group's code does not address Hodara's outside consulting, he said that if "you are currently an admissions official and you have a consulting business, that doesn't seem like an ethically appropriate arrangement."

Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, said university professionals should not trade on their office for personal gain.

"The question is whether your association with a university is being used for marketing purposes," he said. "I don't think they picked her [Hodara] because of her name."

Stephen Merritt, dean of enrollment management at Villanova University, said he had never heard of a sitting admissions officer's having his or her own consulting business.

Even if people in that situation could avoid dealing with clients who apply to their university, they might be tempted to ask a favor of a colleague at another university, he said.

Hodara, who has undergraduate, master's and doctorate degrees from Penn, worked in its undergraduate admissions office from 1990 to 1997.

She became a member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association in 2004. The group requires members, who are private advisers hired by families to boost a child's chances of getting into college, to be full-time educational consultants.

As an associate member, she was allowed to do educational consulting part-time while she transitioned out of her former job, said executive director Mark Sklarow.

A handful of members also work for universities, but in low-level admissions jobs that they are looking to leave, he said.