Comments on: Harvard Rejects B-School Applicants for Backspacing

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 02:00:52 +0000

It's all about integrity and honesty. Are these potential students trying to become business leaders of tomorrow? Did the student's WILLINGLY access a site that they knew they were not suppose to? Were they seeking information they knew they were NOT suppose to have at that time? The answers are an unequivocal yes. Dr. Greenspun and others don't think it proper to hold these students accountable? It doesn't matter if there was an "open door"; they went through it knowing they were not suppose to. It is comments like the ones above that is why the young people of our society think it's okay to act irresponsible. They can always blame it on someone elses mistakes. It doesn't matter if it was Harvard, MIT, or your local community college. What they did was wrong and they did it on their own accord. In my opinion all the schools should shut the door on them for at least one year. They should reapply next year after they have had some time to think about integrity. Mr. Webster defines that word as steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code. Better yet, make them join the military and really learn what honor, integrity and leadership really means. They obviously need a lesson on it and so seemingly does all those who posted that it was univerities agent that should be held accountable and not the 119 students who tried to cheat the system. I'm glad my child is not learning about integrity and leadership from this Dr. Greenspun.

By: Director Mitch

Director Mitch — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 14:23:11 +0000

Also noted on Techdirt is that once people found out, they emailed fellow applicants telling them of this "Hey, if you want to find out ahead of time if you got in do this.." sort of thing.

And these people didn't change their grades or the results of their admission - they found out if they got in. They got information, but didn't change anything.

But what else would you expect from a school that bans certain groups from its campus?

By: Myopic Zeal

Myopic Zeal — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 14:06:21 +0000

Harvard Rejects Backspacing Applicants "Don't backspace on the URL." That's the message that Harvard is sending to it's business school applicants, who were able to find out before the official announcement date whether or not they were accepted to the school by backspacing. Ha...

By: Kappiy

Kappiy — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 02:37:53 +0000

Bush's alma mater should be ashamed! This, in no way constitutes a "hack." ApplyYourself posted the info on a public website. You can't "hack" into a public, non password-protected site. If anything, the rejected applicants should have a potential lawsuit against ApplyYourself for breach of privacy.

By: Don Singleton

Don Singleton — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 02:16:57 +0000

Harvard does not know what a hacker is
Harvard does not know what a hacker is

By: Musings from Brian J. Noggle

Musings from Brian J. Noggle — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 02:10:39 +0000

Brian Likes the URL String In my capacity in software QA working on Web applications, I know there's no easier means of havoc than to mess with the URL string sent to the Web application. Looks as though some "hackers" have discovered the same with a university application, u...

By: Carlos

Carlos — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 00:23:00 +0000

Amazing stuff, especially since the school in question harbors so little tolerance for those who disagree vocally with the current PC nature of the social universe. For a school whose purported purpose is to expand discussion, their own sin(s) seems to far outweigh a few inquisitive minds.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 00:20:27 +0000

Just because nobody told these students that this information was available for them, doesn't mean that it wasn't. If the information is posted on the website, and is freely available to anyone, how can in be considered hacking? They didn't break into the website, they just found a page that wasn't on the official "Tour Guide" for the site. As you stated above, this is a bug where ApplyYourself is telling people more than they should, and now Harvard is punishing would-be students for listening, instead of punishing ApplyYourself for the wrongful disclosure in the first place.

By: Tom Royce

Tom Royce — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 00:19:36 +0000

So there are enterprising students that have been denied entry to there chosen school because of using their intelligence finding an error by the universities agents.

Unfortunately, this is almost logical in todays academy.