<p>A new study confirms a suspicion that turns up occasionally on CC threads. Admissions offices are using social networking sites and search engines to check out prospective applicants:</p>
<p>No one should have the security on Facebook set to allow their page to be seen by just anyone. Friends only. Problem solved.</p>
<p>It’s not that simple. If you’re a serious candidate, they’ve seen your facebook. You can count on it.</p>
<p>Some of the dumb pictures are accessible to anyone who googles you. There is a completely idiotic photo of my son viewable by all.</p>
<p>Next thing you know, your facebook page is going to become a required credential.:)</p>
<p>I wonder why so many people feel led to reveal such unflattering (and private) information about themselves on these social networking sites. Sounds like there’s a good doctoral thesis in there somewhere.</p>
<p>At my sister’s school, some athletes got suspended because they posted pictures of a party where they were obviously drinking alcohol.</p>
<p>A coach at a local school got fired for similar pictures on his Facebook.</p>
<p>LOTS of people are looking at your pics; you should be VERY careful what you post.</p>
<p>To be honest, a lot of times it’s your friends uploading the pictures, tagging you, etc. I agree anyone putting up pictures of actual drinking, etc. have what they got coming to them, though.</p>
<p>^Your username is an excellent response to the title of this thread… :D</p>
<p>Note that even if you de-tag yourself from a picture somebody else has put up, your name might still be in the caption. You might also be surprised to find videos of yourself on YouTube. I found a (very mildly) embarrassing video featuring my son on YouTube that he knew nothing about.</p>
<p>But do these college admissions officers really have time to go through each kids’ Facebook? And what about the privacy policies Facebook guarantees?</p>
<p>Not only are your college admissions folks googling you, but so are the alumni and others who interview you for college. When the time comes, your future employers (including internships) and graduate and professional schools will google you as well. Anything posted on the internet about you is fair game.</p>
<p>I’ve been an alum interviewer and have Googled applicants before I interviewed them. I assume that applicants also Google me.</p>
<p>A school googling 5,000 “interesting candidates”? Riiiiight. </p>
<p>Next.</p>
<p>So are you telling me that you can use Google to get into protected sites? I have tried Google as a means to get into protected Facebook pages and I can’t get into them. So if someone defames you or makes an unsubstantiated comment on Facebook and the colleges use this information to deny you, that is fair game? The lawsuits are going to start flying if that becomes the case.</p>
<p>This has nothing to do with Facebook, but you should also consider that Google makes it easier for adcoms to check on claims you make in your application. They can look you up and see if you really won an award, whether you really are a ranked athlete, etc. And they might, if anything sounds a false note to them when they read the app.</p>
<p>“So if someone defames you or makes an unsubstantiated comment on Facebook and the colleges use this information to deny you, that is fair game? The lawsuits are going to start flying if that becomes the case.”</p>
<p>Colleges don’t tell applicants why they were rejected.</p>
<p>bubbles:
</p>
<p>They might not google all 5,000, but if you have an alumni interview, I’m pretty sure they’d have time to do a quick check and see what comes up. And if it’s a small school, or if you cliamed you won a big award, or did something spectacular, they might google you to find more info on it. So there are a lot of ways/situations for this to happen.</p>
<p>People who run their own websites regularly post on CC about <em>Insert Name Here</em> University’s IP address coming up as a visitor.</p>
<p>On another note: isn’t it interesting that girls’ diaries used to have locks on them? Somehow, discretion has been replaced with naked, keg-stand photos.</p>
<p>Here’s a question: if admissions officers, or alumni interviewers, or people looking to hire you, are googling you, how do they know they’ve found the right person? I have a very common name, so if you google it you come up with tons of pictures, some of which are of girls my age doing questionable things–but they aren’t me. This is true of facebook too - there are lots of people with my name, even from my area.</p>