ETS Acquires MyCollegei to Establish LikeLive Video Interviewing Platform

System emulates live interviews for admissions officials, recruiters and applicants

PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Educational Testing Service (ETS), the world's leading measurement and research organization, has established LikeLive, a video interviewing platform, through the acquisition of MyCollegei. LikeLive is a cutting-edge, user-friendly platform created to assist colleges, universities, and corporations in more effectively managing their application process. The platform allows admission officials and corporate recruiters to view candidates more holistically by adding a personal dimension to domestic and international undergraduate, graduate school and career applications.

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ETS acquired MyCollegei through its new, wholly owned subsidiary LikeLive LLC. MyCollegei was formed in 2009 in response to the challenges colleges face with training, staffing, consistency, as well as the overwhelming logistics and cost of managing in-house and alumni in-person application interviews. LikeLive's video interview platform allows subscriber colleges, universities and corporations to invite, view and manage online interview profiles built by their applicants.  The service also allows admissions professionals and recruiters to see candidates beyond just their resumes and applications.

In keeping with ETS's mission to ensure fairness and access to education, the platform enables universities to efficiently consider students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, and offers those students a better way to convey their personalities, while at the same time reducing the need for on-campus interviews.

"For colleges, LikeLive's platform brings consistency to the interview process, helps them holistically evaluate candidates, assesses the student's communication skills, and provides an additional way to measure the fit between student and school, thereby improving conversion rate," explains LikeLive President Bill Barnett. "It also is a real resource for college applicants who might not otherwise be able to afford the expense of visiting many college campuses for interviews."

"This acquisition is a key part of ETS's commitment to bringing innovation to higher education that involves providing admissions officers with a complete representation of a student's total set of knowledge, skills and abilities," says David Payne, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for ETS's Higher Education Division. "Our ETS® Personal Potential Index (ETS® PPI) was a big step in this direction, as was the GRE® revised General Test that launched last August."

How it Works

• Colleges create the questions
• Questions are random so students cannot share them with other applicants
• Students have a predetermined amount of time to answer via video
• Colleges review, sort and rate them using a private and secure account
• The system is flexible and scalable

"What I've noticed is a higher number of minorities and international candidates doing the online interview than is represented in the pool thus far," says William Perez, Dean of Admissions, New York Law School. "These are the students with the most to gain from the interview, so I am pleased that this option is hitting the right audience right out of the gate."

Depending upon which approach colleges prefer, LikeLive allows students to answer via webcam with direct platform interface or they may pre-shoot and edit a video with a handheld device and then upload a file. With this latter option, college admissions officials can experience a student's creativity and digital literacy. At the same time, these edited talent display videos are especially useful for Fine and Performing Arts, Film and Athletics programs.

About LikeLive:

A wholly owned subsidiary of Educational Testing Service (ETS), LikeLive was founded in 2009 by entertainment and communications veteran Bill Barnett, college counselor Caryl Kristensen, and internet technology expert Jason Mehrvarz.  Their mission was to create a meaningful and efficient way for college applicants of all backgrounds around the world to "meet" their prospective school's admissions teams.  Since then, the company has continuously expanded their suite of interview technology offerings and opened human resources, scholarship and recruiting divisions.  The LikeLive platform is now a fully integrated component of the evaluation process for colleges, universities, career centers and corporations across the nation.  Previously operating under the name MYCOLLEGEi, LikeLive provides a digital space for applicants to post "real and engaging" interviews alongside their other credentials, and at the same time allows busy professionals to easily access these more personal evaluation packages for review.  For more information about LikeLive, please visit www.likelive.com.

About ETS

At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, as well as conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® tests and The Praxis Series™ assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org

SOURCE Educational Testing Service