<p>I'd never know what happened without you, merc. Great blog!</p>
<p>hehe, i agree....was :confused: till read his blog........lol</p>
<p>Actually, with the link removed, this thread isn't really an info source on THE thread at the moment ;)</p>
<p>oops...juz realised the link disappeared...but why remove? :confused:</p>
<h1>ok ok they deleted the link lol... so I'll reproduce the whole entry here...</h1>
<p>And now - MIT's freshman decisions get (almost) 'hacked'</p>
<p>At around 1 AM India time today, someone on the MIT forum on College Confidential posted a way to list the names/cities of all international admitted students to MIT class of 2009. It was trivial, and all it involved was putting in MIT's reference number, shipment date and zip code on DHL's tracking site.</p>
<p>Many people followed the steps and presto - before them appeared the list of all international students accepted to MIT!!</p>
<p>This was unethical without doubt, and the worst part was, that people were posting names of accepted students on CC, and the MIT shipment reference number and other steps were posted on Matt McGann and Ben Jones' blogs (both official admissions information blogs).</p>
<p>Matt McGann acted fairly quickly, deleting the post and adding a blog entry about how unethical it was. First, many people reported the thread to CC's moderators; but the thread was not deleted even after an hour. By 2 or 3 AM, close to a thousand people had seen the thread. Of course the damage was done, but to prevent further damage, we decided upon a strategy. We started bumping old threads frantically so as to get the "forbidden" thread off the first page (so far fewer people would look at it).</p>
<p>However, just when the thread was going to get off the page, someone posted a message on it, and it got bumped up to the top! Back to square one, we started again. This bumping frenzy continued up until now (4 AM). The thread was finally off the first page, and then a good person gave the CC mods a call to alert them. The thread is now gone. Minutes later, Ben Jones deleted the final trace of it too (a comment on his blog).</p>
<p>This development has raised a lot of issues about the ethics of finding out decisions before time (especially in light of the recent ApplyYourself hack). It is perfectly fine to find out your decision (many people did that mere hours after the letters were mailed, by calling DHL to find out if there was any packet for them from zip code 02139). MIT sent notification via DHL to international students who got admitted, on Friday, March 11th 2005.</p>
<p>However, to access a list of all admitted students worldwide is gross. I'll have more to talk about it later.</p>
<p>For now, I may mention that I was much too scared to call DHL earlier, and still am to look at the list...</p>
<p>Is MIT going to be doing anything about it - like harvard did?</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
You know what? 4 out of my 7 books in reading list are <em>rare</em> or at the prices of 80 pounds/book >_< I wonder how I could get the list of me before Oct
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Just don't bother. No-one really reads the reading list before they get here. I kind of think they are just sent to scare students almost. You won't need to buy any books being a scientist (arts students seem to like to have their own to scribble in) because you can just get them from the library when you get here. Though if you really don't want to come to Oxford, why are you coming?</p>
<p>Because it is my second choice, Cupcake :) You know, it is similar to the Firm and Insurance in England ;)</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
You know, it is similar to the Firm and Insurance in England
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>But it's not the same. Oxford is in a different country to MIT! Basically I think if your dream is to study in the USA, you are going to hate England. Think about it very carefully. Did you not apply to any other US schools?</p>
<p>This DHL list is wrong and hopefully incomplete
A friend of mine received today a DHL packet and his name was not in the list.</p>
<p>Swetko, are u sure!!!!!!! oh man please please be!!! tho i still have no package :(</p>
<p>I am not sure, since I am not sure whether his name was on the list or not, but i lost the reference number and can't check.
If somebody has it, he may check for Anthony Rangachev
or email me the refe number : <a href="mailto:swetko@elits.rousse.bg">swetko@elits.rousse.bg</a></p>
<p>But i must admit that i carefully checked the list and counted only 2 Bulgarians. And I did not see his name</p>
<p>
[quote]
But it's not the same. Oxford is in a different country to MIT! Basically I think if your dream is to study in the USA, you are going to hate England. Think about it very carefully. Did you not apply to any other US schools?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What is so important about "different countries" :D To both GB and the US, I am overseas, so the true list is in my mind, not on paper :) Also, I have never hated England, except for the annual increase of train fares in London :D </p>
<p>And you hit the nail on the head, I applied only to MIT, because of its slight superiority in Engineering to Oxford, and its generous FinAid as well :D To be honest, UG in England seems to suit me well, but the overseas fees swayed my mind off taking Oxford as the true First choice :)</p>