Yale University filed a complaint with the FBI yesterday, alleging that admissions officers from Princeton University hacked into a Yale admissions Web site.
Applicants to Yale could use the Web site to learn whether or not they had been admitted after typing in their names, dates of birth and Social Security number.
Princeton admissions officers used information from the applications of students who had applied to both schools to obtain their admissions information.
Yale officials said that these actions violated the applicants' privacy.
"We do believe there was a very serious violation of the privacy of the individuals," Yale General Counsel Dorothy Robinson told The Yale Daily News. "It is a matter which we believe law enforcement should be informed about."
The Yale site specifically displayed a message stating that only the applicants, and nobody else -- including parents or guidance counselors -- were authorized to enter the site. The message also threatened possible legal recourse against anyone who violated these instructions.
Stephen LeManager, an associate dean of admissions at Princeton, defended Princeton's actions. "It was really an innocent way for us to check out the security," he told The Yale Daily News.
LeManager has since been placed on administrative leave, according to a press release from Princeton's Office of Communications.
Yale's admissions office first learned that Princeton had accessed this information in June, when Princeton admissions officials casually mentioned at a conference of Ivy League admissions officials that they had gained access to the site.
Yale subsequently traced 18 log-ins regarding the status of 11 different applicants back to computers in Princeton's admissions office.
Four of the students did not learn the outcome of their applications until after Princeton had accessed the site.
Princeton has also pledged to conduct a "very aggressive internal investigation" to determine what exactly happened within the admissions office, according to a press release.
The press release also noted Princeton's willingness to cooperate with any external investigation.
Dartmouth introduced a similar Website this year, which allowed students to access admissions decisions by entering their dates of birth and Social Security numbers.
