<p>by the way, my friend logged in the regular way later and got nothing. just the regular site.</p>
<p>when i clicked on the site i didn't have to log in...i was already logged in because of my cookies...which is so unfair, i would not have logged in had it asked</p>
<p>does anyone seriously think Cornell will take action?</p>
<p>so u think i should just keep checking backa t the site? Mine said they didn't have a decision yet....or should i jsut wait till thursday</p>
<p>i don't think cornell will take action unless for some reason it's obvious that you full well knew what you were doing.</p>
<p>should we actually call cornell and tell them about what heppend, or send and email, or just assume it was ok. I am the guy that started the second thread, but that is because i was trying to find out if it was legit. I got the link from the "good luck + link" thread. that person said that it was where they found out last year. I was wondering if it was just a second database (kinda like a michigan) and it took me to the page. what should i do?</p>
<p>i would call admisisons tomorrow and explain yourself. the more up front and apoligetic you are the more accountable for your actions they will view you as.</p>
<p>i'm not sure anybody hacked the other year either (see <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,119938,00.asp)%5B/url%5D">http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,119938,00.asp)</a>. but hacked is a great newspaper word to make it sound badass...</p>
<p>I found out the process for the backdoor access to the page. While i obviously won't reveal it. It is more than just clicking a link, and is sort of hacker-esque. For those of you who already had the cookies enabled as someone said, you should explain that, but otherwise, what you did was actually going through a process that was pretty sketchy.</p>
<p>However, since you were just accessing a page after gaining permission legitimately, it may be that they are unable to check if you illigitimately gained knowledge of your decision. I doubt that though...i bet they can track it via IP/your permission cookies.</p>
<p>My opinion now: If they can't track which pages you went to after logging in: you're fine
If they can track which pages (i.e. the decision page): you're quite possibly screwed since what you did was more than just link clicking.</p>
<p>What everyone did wasnt sketchy.... there was a link and people saying "our decisions are there!" ... who wouldnt go? It's perfectly natural, and nobody is going to get in trouble for it. period. It is HIGHLY HIGHLY unlikely. Nobody knew anything about it and clicked the link out of curiosity. Nobody really understood that it was a loophole until AFTER they went to it.</p>
<p>did you click the link? because if you didn't, i'll have you know that as far as i know it's more complicated than just clicking once. The process relayed to me involved one step more than clicking the link except for a select few people who had coincidentally satisfied the requirements of accessing the site as one poster mentioned happened to him.</p>
<p>I would appreciate it if people would PM me on just how they accessed their decisions, so i can make sure my friends rendition of the process is accurate. because if my friend is correct, what you all did is sketchy?</p>
<p>i had just ckeck the site and was still logged in. basicaly all we did was acidently access a subdirectory of the self service page</p>
<p>I checked the admissions page first, logging in. When that didn't work, I clicked the link... It wasn't until after that I realized what I had done. After that, my friends and I experimented with logging in and out to test if the link was real... gah. I really didn't want to find out my decision this way although I hope with all my heart mine was real, and it won't change.</p>
<p>Sparticus, understand that for those of us who clicked the link originally, it really was that simple. The first link from the very first post took me straight to a page with my decision. As soon as I saw the page, I posted asking what the heck it was, then called the admissions office at Cornell and left a message telling them I had happened upon a very strange and alarming link. </p>
<p>The original post from GLfromCornell said something like this:</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you, and check this link out...(link)...we used this last april to get our decisions! </p>
<p>That really as everything, and that took me directly to the decision. I am totally confident that we didn't do anything wrong (at least not those of us who logged in before it was being discussed). There is no way we possibly could have anticipated the actual decision page.</p>
<p>i am in the same boat as you, let me know what you hear back</p>
<p>cory, i understand the process well. you may have done it innocently, but other students would have had to have logged into the site first and then clicked the link according to what i was told...the fact that is is possible for students to have gotten the decision without actively logging in with the intent to get it (for example, the case you present, i.e. having been logged in already), is a nice safety net, as it really would be unfair for cornell to penalize you for that.</p>
<p>I should clarify the actual situation for you, because I think you've misinterpreted "log in" from the earlier posts. </p>
<p>Nobody, at least not during the initial hour or so the thread was up, had to log into their Cornell account to get their decision. They simply had to be logged in on their College Confidential account, which almost all of us already were.</p>
<p>But you do have a point. Those people who logged into College Conf. after having read the post indicating that doing this would take them to the site, are somewhat guilty of shady business. But how would anyone ever prove that this was the case?</p>
<p>Anyway, I think we've basically talked this whole thing to death. I think if we all call tomorrow and say what happened, we will be fine. I was freaked out for a little while until I realized that I really did absolutely nothing wrong.</p>
<p>that's impossible. how could cornell's site know who was accessing the decision and know whose decision to show?</p>
<p>you do have a very good point though. there is no way to differentiate
1, between those who (according to you) saw the decision with no login and those who saw it later with a login required and </p>
<p>2, were already casually logged into the self service site (completely plausible; i know i anally checked my decision for days in advance "just in case") when they clicked the link and didn't have a "warning" type screen requiring them to log in.</p>
<p>RichardCory, it had nothing at all to do with being logged in to CC...at all.</p>
<p>If you weren't logged into the Self-Service account already, it brought up the log-in screen. Those who saw their decisions were seeing the real thing...it wasn't a prank.</p>
<p>right, so my point 1 in the above post doesn't apply anymore, but point 2 applies to everyone now.</p>
<p>Listen, I'm saying you are both wrong from the position of being one of the original posters. </p>
<p>I was so unshure about it that I went to a separate computer to try it out. When I logged in as richardcory, prior to visiting the Cornell website on that computer, it still took me immediately to the webpage. </p>
<p>I am just as confused by this as you. it doesn't make sense, but I assure you it logged me in directly from college confidential, with nothing from Cornell.</p>