Personal Ethics and College Admissions

Ooh - this is rich. A large number of candidates for admission to prestigious MBA programs used a hack that was freely available on the web and which worked for several hours to view the contents of their admissions files  - including the decision that had been made about their application but not yet mailed out.

Carnegie-Mellon, Harvard and MIT have already sent out blanket notices to all people who checked their files that they have been automatically rejected for admission as a result. Other schools involved (Stanford, Dartmouth and Duke were mentioned) have not been so quick.

The quick conclusion from this is the first three schools consider those applicants to have revealed themselves as ethically challenged. This makes sense: the point of the name moral hazard is the implication that people can take steps to avoid it, but that on average some people will succumb.

Here's a broader implication: those schools are also admitting that they can't change those students with the ethics component of the education package they offer. This is a clear indication that these schools don't believe in their ethics education, and therefore that they are just riding that trend and hoping that no one calls their bluff.

Some might counter that it is incumbent on the officers at those schools to act ethically and can the miscreants. I think this is true, but it does not negate the damning indictment of ethics education: an officer who truly stood behind ethics education would embrace the interlopers for their dire need of precisely what the institution can offer. Religious groups do this all the time, but it seems they have greater faith in their gods than do B-schools. Diary of a Shoe Addict points out that at least one admissions consultant appears to support my point.

BTW: I can't vouch for the accuracy of the reporting, but for those with a little background in how the internet works, it sounds like they used publically available data and a simple modification of a GET or POST to access this information. If that's the case, a whole lot of people at those institutions ought to get fired for permitting such a simple hack to work. Mind the Gap offers a similar viewpoint: "This whole thing should have been branded, 'MBA applicants find security loophole in admissions online software'" [emphasis not added].

I think my argument addresses the point made earlier and independently by Aunty Spam's Net Patrol.

Comments

[Econ Buddy]

Why dont they reward someone for exposing the security loophole. Probably under academic code of conduct/honor it will be difficult to let those students stay.

I think people who did not work in IT offices to update the softwares to block access may also be fired or downgraded in their job rank as well.

[Dave]

Your're statement where you wrote, "Here's a broader implication: those schools are also admitting that they can't change those students with the ethics component of the education package they offer. This is a clear indication that these schools don't believe in their ethics education, and therefore that they are just riding that trend and hoping that no one calls their bluff." Was incredibly insightful. I didn't think of that. Good show.

[Dave Tufte]

Hurray ... somebody's reading - but are they linking too?