We Cracked Harvard Admissions

Many eager high schoolers look for a Harvard Admissions loophole.  We at FlyBy aim to please, and found a sweet hack on the Admitted Students website, but, sadly, it still probably can't turn a thin envelope into a thick one.

It does raise some questions about how secure that admissions info is, but we have little time for such trivialities—let's get to the fun part!

Our trick lets you figure out with high certainty whether that friend, relative, or nemesis got into Harvard, particularly if he/she has an uncommon last name. Oh yeah, it's way better than you think.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit the Admitted Students website.

2. In the "Last Name" field, type in the last name of the person whose admissions lottery results you're after.

3. Type something in the "Access Number" field—this can be literally anything, it just can't be blank.

(The payoff, after the jump!)

4. Click submit.

5. Your thought process: "Okay, I got an error message. WTF, Flyby?  I was dying to know whether Aaron V. Pennyworth IV, whose dad wants to rename Pennypacker, was able to pay down that C average."

Patience, friends.  What matters is the nature of the error message.

If no one with that last name got into Harvard, you'll get the "User not found" error message (e.g. "Bismarck," above).  If you get this, the person did not get in, with absolute certainty.  They may have gotten waitlisted, but they ain't got the fat envelope.

If someone with this last name did get accepted, you'll get "Incorrect ACCESS CODE" (e.g. Chu, to the right). Obviously, judging this result is a little more tricky. If you put in "Smith," this may or may not mean your Smith will be wandering Harvard Yard in a couple of weeks.  If you put in "Pennyworth," odds are pretty good that Aaron will be setting the bottom of the curve in Ec 10 next year.  The commonality of the last name matters a lot here, and it's up to you to judge.

So, 2013, stalk stalk stalk and tell your friends!  Hack the system before Harvard seals it up.  This crack has worked since at least 2006, so we doubt Admissions will be able to fix it too quickly, but hit that as soon as possible so you can saunter into class, smug in the knowledge that that insufferable Michael Gary in your math class won't be joining you at the a cappella jam in a couple of weeks.  Until you find out it's Michael Gehry.  Then you'd best check again.

Photo Courtesy Harvard College Admissions website.