5/31/2005 » Tech

A few months ago, some b-school applicants stumbled across a fascinating post on a BusinessWeek message board. The post explained how change the address in your Web browser while using a grad school application site to find out whether you were admitted:

The instructions told people to log onto their admissions Web page and find their identification numbers in source material that was available on the site. By plugging those numbers into another Web page address, they were directed to a page where their admissions decision would be found.

This security hole was a rookie mistake — all Web developers knows it’s bad programming to rely on easily-changed Web addresses. These instructions were the equivalent of being in the dean’s office and peeking at your admission file lying open right on top of her desk. As ethics issues go, this is thin gruel, akin to using your neighbor’s WiFi for a day or getting a parking ticket.

A few hundred applicants forwarded the instructions among themselves and followed them. For the pecadillo of visiting a Web site, the mainstream press and b-schools labeled them ‘hackers.’ Harvard summarily rejected them; surprisingly, so did MIT and Stanford, tech-friendly schools which should know better.

The applicants who were proactive enough to check their application status early are mavericks, not hackers. They should be applauded, not censured. They’re the go-getters who aggressively eliminate uncertainty like good ops types. They’re the people who route around traffic jams instead of just sitting there like cattle to the abbatoir. I suppose b-schools are doing what they do best: selecting and breeding unexceptional middle managers. Were I hiring MBA’s, these people would be at the top of my stack rank.