New Website Lets Organizations Scan Apps for up to 99% Similarity

With student population on the rise, demand for better application screening processes among organizations on campus is at an all-time high. To meet this need, iParadigms LLC, the company behind plagiarism-prevention service TurnItIn.com announced Thursday the release of TurnYourAppIn.com, a software-as-a-service based on similar proprietary technology. The service will offer Texas A&M student organizations the capability to test membership applications for a match of up to 99% similarity with current members. iParadigms ran beta tests of TurnYourAppIn with men’s social organizations at Texas A&M with much success.

“We noticed that some of their screening processes weren’t really sufficient,” said the product’s creator, Samuel Better. “Organizations that specialize in tailgating and heavy drinking were making guys show up in suits to a professional interview. It would be like having a ballerina audition in business casual. It’s not a recipe for success. Men’s orgs were looking for a very specific combination of behaviors, body language, and interest in adult activities like gambling and drinking without challenging classic masculine norms like objectifying women or being afraid of gay people. We realized that we were uniquely qualified to provide that.”

InDiversity, a function on the site, allows organizations to pick members that look different, but actually think the same. “What organizations really want—especially at the college level—is to avoid change as much as possible,” said Better. “While there are a plethora of tools available for recruiting, this tool stands alone in that it allows selections committees to pick applicants who have atypical backgrounds and, most importantly, skin tones, but won’t mount a serious challenge to the accepted norms of the organization.

This feature is particularly useful for massive organizations like Fish Camp that process countless applications every year. Former Co-Chair Rebecca Nightingale is very excited about the prospect, noting that her camp’s photos would have been greatly improved by the InDiversity feature that sets a minimum on non-white students.

“Honestly, every camp talks about its unique culture and values,” said Nightingale. “But in reality, we cycle through the same set of skits and use an almost formulaic approach to building out four days of scheduling. Really, the only unique characteristics are the quantity of inside jokes and level of partying post-Lakeview. And we can actually use this site to set desired levels of each in our candidates!” Nightingale is excited to have a website that will assign each applicant into existing Fish Camp stereotypes so she doesn’t need to read thousands of applications.

The site will exit beta testing on February 1st and will be fully integratable into your organization’s application process by the end of the month.

—Howdy Boo Boo