Hacker News Reader

Comment by g051051 | Hacker News Reader

Considering how competitive the acceptance criteria are for Harvard (2,056 out of 39,506 applications), this is just another decision point. Now 10 other people are able to get in, and the entire body of current and prospective students have learned a valuable lesson about privacy and free speech.

View on HN

I wholeheartedly agree with this.

As a private institution, Harvard can choose to deny acceptance to anyone for any reason. I don't agree with their reasoning, but I agree with their right to decide.

Next time don't use Facebook. This is what 4chan is for.

That isn't completely accurate. An acceptance to Harvard is usually unconditional, and can only be withdrawn under very specific circumstances (in this case, they're invoking the circumstance relating to an admitted student's honesty/integrity/moral standing). Just wanted to clear up that there is a big difference between denying someone acceptance at the time of application and withdrawing one. (Source: also admitted to Harvard this year)

unfortunately for these 10 ex-applicants of Harvard they might not get into any University period for 2017/2018... This isn't a small implication to them for stupid posts online. I'm not 100% sure if I feel that's fair. them not getting into Harvard is one thing but losing education at this point in time is even worse.

Some of things they said went beyond just 'stupid posts'.

Presumably they were all jests in bad taste though?

Why presume that?

Fair enough it was beyond stupid, sugar coating it isn't going to help. But this is more than just losing a place at Harvard. These individual are at a point in their life where they can finally expand their roots, learn and I use this word lightly but "rehabilitate". Due to the massive culture and intense work ethics they will need to gain to succeed at a place like Harvard. Mind you I do agree they need a form of punishment and Harvard is a business they can do whatever they want. But for these 10 individuals what good can this have for them? it's more like a slippery slope from here on in for them, you never know maybe a few of these individuals were just posting due to peer pressure and some might be blowing off steam just never taught there are better ways. There's things we don't know unfortunately and it just ends up being a sad display of events.

You can get fired from a job at private company for posting racist material on the internet. I'm not sure how acceptance to a private college is any different. It's better that they learn this lesson now, rather than when a salary depends on it. They're smart/accomplished enough to get into Harvard and they'll all likely rebound from this.

> They're smart/accomplished enough to get into Harvard and they'll all likely rebound from this.

only the part that is messed up with this is after you get enrolled you usually send out a letter to other colleges/university to decline their offers... in my past experience after a decline their isn't a second chance. this puts all of them on a 1 year stand by. Really this is fair? - and they still have another 4 years to grow up and grow before joining a professional 'salary' job 18-23 year old? generally they would be between 17-18 years old and for such an petty issue will now have a hell of a time rebounding.

I think it's fair. Put simply: don't be a racist and you won't find yourself on the outside looking in when it comes to things you care about. This isn't kids-being-kids; when I was 17/18 we certainly weren't passing around racist propaganda--and that's what it is, it isn't just "memes" and it shouldn't be minimized as "petty". Our brains weren't fully baked either, nobody's is at that age, but racist propaganda is a profoundly serious issue and Harvard, to their credit, understands that and refuses to minimize it the way you are doing.

And it's not a year, it's half a year; spring admissions are commonplace. That still super sucks for the people who got caught being racist turds; hopefully they learn from the seriousness of what they did (and they did it, and it was serious) and choose not to be racist turds going forward.

...that privacy probably doesn't exist and free speech shouldn't be used.

No, that there are times, places, and contexts on how to use free speech. If you knowingly and publically associate your name with something offensive, there could be private consequences.

Facebook is a public forum that happens to be visible to harvard staff. Students should know this.

...so we should hide before saying things that could offend someone?

> If you knowingly and publically associate your name with something offensive

But the article says it was a private group chat, not public.

Private from other users, not to facebook or the university.

I mean, c'mon. Just because something says "private" doesn't mean it is.

It was private from the university. The only reason Harvard administration found out about the offensive stuff was because some student in that private chat screenshotted and sent it to them.

> a valuable lesson about privacy and free speech

That there is none?

Last I checked they weren't jailed for posting racist shit on FB.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com