@TomSrOfBoston Even though they are “morally inferior” they still have the right to speak as they please. They weren’t offending anyone.
@Bobbybob444555 You are correct, they do have the right to speak as they please. But that does not mean there are no consequences or risks associated with that, especially since Harvard made it very clear that acceptances can be rescinded. They played with fire…
I disagree that they didn’t offend anyone. They obviously greatly offended the admissions group at Harvard. They must have offended those who turned them in. And they offend and marginalize all the groups they posted about.
“We no longer make “Pollock” jokes”
This seems appropriate to the conversation (I promise you it is safe and non offensive) 
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fc/6c/70/fc6c7053e5b2e9065a29a9933e045181.jpg
@Bobbybob444555 , no, they weren’t offending YOU. They obviously offended Harvard, so it looks like you are wrong. And if they have a right to speak as they please, they shouldn’t be surprised when what they have said comes back to bite them in the backside.
I make the occasional Jackson Pollock joke, but that’s different.
@foosondaughter regardless of a school’s Fire rating, its quite possible that UChicago would have made the same decision if it was their incoming freshmen that posted the offensive memes.
@Bobbybob444555 They certainly have the right to say or post what they want. But they have discovered that there are consequences for their actions. The same way you discovered there are consequences for your actions i.e. your two school suspensions as you admit in your posting history. Consequences that may affect your admission to top universities. You area aware of these consequences because you started a thread asking how it will affect you chances.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1994877-suspended-for-three-days-p1.html
I guess he can write an essay about what he learned from his suspensions.
@TomSrOfBoston Harvard specifically said it was a “private” groupchat. It’s not like they publicly posted it.
Everything on the internet is public.
I’m not sure that anybody is disagreeing with this statement. They can still “speak as they please” but there are consequences. Freedom of speech does not mean that one can speak without impunity, as Kathy Griffin will tell you. It means that one can speak without being sent to a gulag, or worse. It’s classic first-world problems, IMO, if one thinks that what Harvard did is “unfair.”
12 pages and no one has brought up the “don’t yell fire in a crowded movie theater” argument. What is this forum coming to ? [-(
@Bobbybob444555 said:
Give me a break. Clearly they offended someone. How did Harvard Admissions find out about this “private” FB page that used “Harvard” in its title? They found out because other members of the group were OFFENDED by what was posted, and more than one of them sent screenshots to the admissions department.
And enough already with the “they have the right to speak as they please.” That has been acknowledged over and over. They do not, however, have any intrinsic right to a Harvard education.
@jym626 Never fear - it came up in the parent forum thread on this topic 
This seems like an easy call to me. Offers of admission to Harvard are explicitly conditional, and Harvard can revoke your offer if you aren’t who they thought you were, defined in whatever way Harvard decides.
It’s not unreasonable to assume that Harvard seeks to admit applicants that it believes are star students of good character with great potential. If you failed a class in the spring of your senior year, or if you were arrested, or determined to be a plagiarist, or any number of other things (including, critically, if Harvard learns you’ve misrepresented yourself in your application, as stated on Harvard’s website), Harvard likely would pull your offer, because they’ve obtained new information that changes their view of you as an applicant.
I don’t think anyone would deny that if during the admissions process Harvard had learned that one of the (now-rescinded) students had posted memes like this, they wouldn’t have been admitted in the first place. Harvard’s now learned that these kids are the sort of person they wouldn’t have admitted, and has revoked their admission.
If Harvard were revoking offers of admission right, left and center for no good reason, it would be damaging to the university’s reputation. That’s why it happens infrequently, when they learn something about the person that would have disqualified them during the admissions process.
@OHMomof2 - Oh thank heavens. I am so relieved 
This topic has at least 4, if not more, separate threads going about it. Overkill…
While we all agree the kids used poor judgement and behaved in an offensive way, I think Harvard went too far (and I predict Harvard will reinstate their admissions contingent on some sort of apology, community service, etc. )
Do any of you really really think these 10 kids truly advocate genocide or child abuse? Of course not. They post offensive and explicit and dark humor to get a rise out of people. It happens all the time and has for years. And far more than 10 of the incoming class have done this. Should we send out the thought police to scrub every kids’ postings? How about their private conversations? Outgoing kids do push limits in both healthy and offensive ways.
Bad judgement? Yes. But so is underage drinking. Do we check that every admit has never had a beer? Alcohol has a much higher chance of leading to actual harm than some stupid pictures do.
I know I am going against the consensus here, but I really do think that punishing kids for speech (even awful speech) is dangerous. Ivy campuses already clamp down too hard on non-PC speech (or Halloween costumes, etc.). I saw it years ago at Yale…classmate circulated a very offensive (but also very funny) flyer and was punished. He later went on to be a writer for Conan.
"I predict Harvard will reinstate their admissions contingent on some sort of apology, community service, etc. "
I’d take the other side if this was a bet. But I doubt we’ll ever know.
"I predict Harvard will reinstate their admissions contingent on some sort of apology, community service, etc. "
I’d take the other side of the bet also. There are more than those 10 on the waiting list alone. Don’t see it as any lost for Harvard. Do see it as a HUGE lesson for those students, however it is not the end of the world for them.
None of us know what’s going on in their heads, but “stupid is as stupid does.” No one knows what behavior this may have led to, if not caught now. No one will know. But if these kids cracked under peer pressure to post offensive pics prior to matriculation, then better now, than later. The preponderance of admits didn’t do or weren’t caught being stupid. Doing stupid things has consequences.
As I mentioned earlier, Harvard already had canceled the balance of the men’s soccer season for rating and commenting on the girl’s soccer team. So if they weren’t too busy being stupid, then maybe these 10 kids would have realized that doing something stupid might get the stupid in trouble.