Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.
Last year at this time, many MBA applicants were fretting about their futures, because of an investigation into users of the Scoretop.com website, a site which was designed to provide those studying for the GMAT with actual questions from the test. In 2005, one-hundred and nineteen applicants were rejected by HBS for trying to access their admissions decisions online prior to the release date. In 2003, Darden rejected an applicant for making statements on the BusinessWeek message boards which were not consistent with the school’s Honor Code. In short, people have a tendency to think that the web is an anonymous place, where their actions won’t follow them. Of course, as the scandals above show, they are wrong. Whether you are publicly displaying your private life on your Facebook or MySpace page or you are surfing the web without identifying yourself, you should certainly be careful not to violate any principles of good practice. Such violations can follow you and adversely affect your fate.