MIT, as an institution that is historically highly competent at using computers and designing computer systems, can surely figure out with decent accuracy who all the applicants’ parents are and can cross-reference with their historical registration records.
Just kidding. MIT, until quite recently, was remarkably backwards in their own administrative systems. Class registration was done by filling out a triplicate form, getting the appropriate signatures, and taking it to the gym to be stamped, with two copies going in a shoebox and one copy being kept by the student to use as evidence for when whoever entered the data into a computer eventually got it wrong.
And this is the same MIT that sold half of its /8 without successfully notifying all the users of said addresses. And also the same MIT that created and still actively maintains Kerberos but, for some reason, outsourced authentication for its own systems to Duo.
So I would believe any level of competence in the quality of MIT’s development, registration and admissions databases.
Just kidding. MIT, until quite recently, was remarkably backwards in their own administrative systems. Class registration was done by filling out a triplicate form, getting the appropriate signatures, and taking it to the gym to be stamped, with two copies going in a shoebox and one copy being kept by the student to use as evidence for when whoever entered the data into a computer eventually got it wrong.
And this is the same MIT that sold half of its /8 without successfully notifying all the users of said addresses. And also the same MIT that created and still actively maintains Kerberos but, for some reason, outsourced authentication for its own systems to Duo.
So I would believe any level of competence in the quality of MIT’s development, registration and admissions databases.