Saturday, March 05, 2005
Thank GOD for Spring Break.
With the rough recruiting season, and a couple of exams in recent weeks that THOUROUGHLY kicked my ass, I'm VERY glad to get a break from the hallowed halls of Huntsman. It's weird to think the class of 2006 is 3/8 of the way done with our Wharton experience. It's starting to feel like it's going too fast.
The latest scandal in the MBA App Blogosphere has been QUITE amusing. For those not in the know, apparently the Apply Yourself software that MANY of the b-schools use for business school apps had some sort of loophole where the crafty applicant could see change the URL and see her/his application status before the notification day.
The scurry to see the decisions early prompted HBS to post this statement on the BW. (And for more info on the brouhaha check out Clear Admit's series of post for the blow by blow- thanks to bskewl for pointing that out ). The sad thing is that if you manipulated the URL, you might have screwed yourself out of admission. Many of the school's are throwing around terms like unethical, hacking, and tampering.
I don't know how I feel about that. I doubt the people who checked early even thought about the ethical consequences. I remember how anxious I felt during the admissions process last year. I remember checking all kinds of sites to get any tiny piece of information. The schools could lessen some of the anxiety by having more transparent admissions process. Some of the schools affected have these black box processes. You send your application in and then nothing for three months until DING. Maybe applicants would be less inclined to peek early if they had more information about the process.
How much would it suck to get dinged for looking at your status a few weeks early? Is it unethical to check one's OWN status early? While the schools are managing the process, it is YOUR application, right. Isn't it a reciprocal process? Don't both the school's and the applicant own the outcome? I just think the schools in question should approach the idea of denying admission because of this carefully.
Would I have looked early if the same thing happened last year? Probably not. But not because I would be concerned about ethics. I never open my Christmas Presents early and in my experience peeking early has always lead to bad news, like bad peeking karma or something. But would I think that someone who peeked was an unethical future business leader? I don't think so. I guess I just don't put peeking at one's application status on the same level as the things like misrepresentation, lying, stealing, etc.
Anyway, it's been interesting to watch. I'm glad I'm not one of the peekers!
With the rough recruiting season, and a couple of exams in recent weeks that THOUROUGHLY kicked my ass, I'm VERY glad to get a break from the hallowed halls of Huntsman. It's weird to think the class of 2006 is 3/8 of the way done with our Wharton experience. It's starting to feel like it's going too fast.
The latest scandal in the MBA App Blogosphere has been QUITE amusing. For those not in the know, apparently the Apply Yourself software that MANY of the b-schools use for business school apps had some sort of loophole where the crafty applicant could see change the URL and see her/his application status before the notification day.
The scurry to see the decisions early prompted HBS to post this statement on the BW. (And for more info on the brouhaha check out Clear Admit's series of post for the blow by blow- thanks to bskewl for pointing that out ). The sad thing is that if you manipulated the URL, you might have screwed yourself out of admission. Many of the school's are throwing around terms like unethical, hacking, and tampering.
I don't know how I feel about that. I doubt the people who checked early even thought about the ethical consequences. I remember how anxious I felt during the admissions process last year. I remember checking all kinds of sites to get any tiny piece of information. The schools could lessen some of the anxiety by having more transparent admissions process. Some of the schools affected have these black box processes. You send your application in and then nothing for three months until DING. Maybe applicants would be less inclined to peek early if they had more information about the process.
How much would it suck to get dinged for looking at your status a few weeks early? Is it unethical to check one's OWN status early? While the schools are managing the process, it is YOUR application, right. Isn't it a reciprocal process? Don't both the school's and the applicant own the outcome? I just think the schools in question should approach the idea of denying admission because of this carefully.
Would I have looked early if the same thing happened last year? Probably not. But not because I would be concerned about ethics. I never open my Christmas Presents early and in my experience peeking early has always lead to bad news, like bad peeking karma or something. But would I think that someone who peeked was an unethical future business leader? I don't think so. I guess I just don't put peeking at one's application status on the same level as the things like misrepresentation, lying, stealing, etc.
Anyway, it's been interesting to watch. I'm glad I'm not one of the peekers!
