Where I live, "hacker" is a very general term.
Motivation is everything. You can hack documents from a school just because you want to see if you're good enough to crack the code. A lot of computer nuts fall into this competitive category.
You can do it to tweak your own grades, maybe to create a fraudulent resume.
You can do it for simple vandalism, like breaking the Dean's window with a rock, or to blackmail some other student.
White hats, gray hats, black hats. Some hackers have more than one color in their closet.