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Okay so how do I get my file?!
http://us9.campaign-archive1.com/?u=c9d7a555374df02a66219b57... Apparently you mail a letter to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions with strong language referring to FERPA.
This has the potential to be really devastating, and not because of a few stray lawsuits (if that) that won't go anywhere. It threatens to put the most powerful brands in this society on trial. People understand that there's some socioeconomic corruption in the process, but still have the idea that admissions are 85-90 percent academic. If contrary information gets out there, it could have a major effect. What will b…
First - Devastating for who? If the most powerful brands in the USA are incorrectly perceived as being uncorrupted, would it benefit society if the truth reveals their corruption?
Consider an example: Pennsylvania State University's reputation is likely tarnished beyond repair for the current generation. This is a good thing - because the University's representatives endorsed and covered up years of child molestation. Society benefits as a whole when corruption is revealed. People are able to make better decisions when they have sufficient information.
Second: I think your estimate about the lack of perceived corruption is far high. University admissions is perceived as highly as the NSA is today. People understand that while academics and test scores might get you in the door, the system is broken by unofficial (and official) favoritism and quotas. Unfortunately, the political dividing lines in the USA are such that half the voters endorse (directly or indirectly) such 'broken' non-academic admissions policies. As such, there won't be any breaking news about revelations that university admissions are broken.
> “The things they write, it’s clear that they never expect them to be read,” said the Fountain Hopper staff member. “They’re very frank.” I guess that'll now change. It'll become like what employers do when asked about a former employee's job performance - name, rank and serial number only. The admissions committee may also become closed door meetings, with nobody allowed to take written notes or minutes. Verbal onl…
[1] Quick Google search shows USC keeping records for admitted students 5 years after last class taken: http://registrar.sc.edu/pdf/RecordsRetention2005.pdf
It seems totally unnecessary to indefinitely store every door swipe. Sure, store the swipes used to access the rare book room or the chemistry lab for 6 months or a year, but there’s no reason for every swipe into a dorm or dining hall to be permanently recorded. Some amount of time between a few days and a few weeks should be entirely sufficient for every reasonable purpose.
I imagine if the systems that store all the ID swipe data got hacked, it would be possible to learn all kinds of things about students, including embarrassing secrets or enough info about movement patterns to ambush someone.
[I guess this seems like a minor thing compared to records of people’s cell phone movements, internet traffic history, etc., but I think those should be deleted within a few days to a few weeks too.]
> “The things they write, it’s clear that they never expect them to be read,” said the Fountain Hopper staff member. “They’re very frank.” I guess that'll now change. It'll become like what employers do when asked about a former employee's job performance - name, rank and serial number only. The admissions committee may also become closed door meetings, with nobody allowed to take written notes or minutes. Verbal onl…
> I guess that'll now change. Why? So long as they don't do anything illegal in the selection process they shouldn't have to worry about anything. This is only for people who get accepted, not rejects.
This has the potential to be really devastating, and not because of a few stray lawsuits (if that) that won't go anywhere. It threatens to put the most powerful brands in this society on trial. People understand that there's some socioeconomic corruption in the process, but still have the idea that admissions are 85-90 percent academic. If contrary information gets out there, it could have a major effect. What will b…
>"This has the potential to be really devastating" First - Devastating for who? If the most powerful brands in the USA are incorrectly perceived as being uncorrupted, would it benefit society if the truth reveals their corruption? Consider an example: Pennsylvania State University's reputation is likely tarnished beyond repair for the current generation. This is a good thing - because the University's representatives…
Or perhaps people are just willing to isolate their judgement and only mentally penalize those actually involved with the scandal instead of all the professors and students.
[0]: http://onwardstate.com/2014/04/30/penn-state-application-num...
[1]: http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/penn-state-footb... Note on source 1: this only shows that Penn State's football revenue, most likely the hardest hit area hasn't declined much.
Edit: I see you only said Penn State's reputation was tarnished beyond repair. Question then is if there are no practical consequences of that, is the reputation really tarnished?
The newsletter from The Fountain Hopper (who appears to have discovered this) has some more interesting details: When you apply to Stanford, your application gets assigned at least two admissions 'readers.' FoHo knows you get a third (specialized) reader if you're a legacy or a 'minority' (though we're not too sure how that's defined). We also think you get an additional reader if you're an athlete or development kid…
> FoHo knows you get a third (specialized) reader if you're a legacy or a 'minority' (though we're not too sure how that's defined). We also think you get an additional reader if you're an athlete or development kid (i.e. you donated $$$). This is how pretty much every major university does admissions, so not especially interesting. The one thing to note though is that athletes usually only get a boost if the coach a…