MCAT pilot-tests digital fingerprinting at exams

Starting next month, 10 American medical schools will use a database storing MCAT takers' digital fingerprints to automatically identify that the applicants they are interviewing and enrolling are the same people who took the admission test. The Association of American Medical Colleges created the database as means to curb fraud in admissions. Previously, MCAT takers were required to provide ink fingerprints at test sites for a paper record. Privacy advocates say the new fingerprint process may infringe on students' privacy, but supporters of the system says fingerprints are much less of a privacy concern than Social Security numbers. The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required)