<p>This hadn't really concerned me or even occurred to me until completely our first BS visit and shaking hands with AOs. Being available and active online is a big aspect of my career and I'm very easy to find once someone has my name. Was just reading through my tweets this morning and wondered if the AO at the recent school visit could be doing the same thing? Or any of the other schools where we've begun the application process and have handed over parent names. </p>
<p>Will my tweets including pictures of heart shaped potato chips (I made this one up so don't bother to search for it), or repeated mentions of food cravings and links to funny youtube videos potentially hurt my child's chance at school admission? I got the impression from visit #1 that parent support was important but not much else regarding parents made a difference. I can't be the only parent who has a public online presence, right? Surely someone owns a business or is in politics or something way more controversial than my youtube video links...</p>
<p>I don’t get the sense you’ve posted anything inappropriate. Who knows- you might end up with a few new followers! :)</p>
<p>My concern is student applicant FB pages/photos and privacy settings. It’s always a good idea to tidy up everything and check settings before an application is sent in. </p>
<p>I don’t think AO’s have a lot of time to randomly google applicants’ parents. The exception, as I understand it, is if there’s a suspicion the parents could turn out to be mega-donors, making the child a development admit. </p>
<p>I don’t think you have anything to worry about as long as your social media posts aren’t truly crazy. Start posting about your love of Nazi weaponry and showing off your skinhead tattoos and you might be in trouble!</p>
<p>And I’d second the tip about tightening up security on your child’s social media. One useful thing to do is have your child google him or herself and see what pops up. Is it what you’d want an admissions officer to see?</p>
<p>@payn4ward are you googling heart shaped potato chips? because I really do have a picture but I haven’t tweeted it yet. </p>
<p>My target audience is essentially boarding school aged kids, like twi-hards and Katniss Everdeen wannabes so when I see an innuendo opportunity via twitter, I tend to take it. Making fun of myself and original forms of self-deprecation is also very well-received with my fans so there’s that… </p>
<p>But yeah, I was leaning toward the “AOs do not have time to look me up” theory as well, so it’s nice to hear someone else say it too.</p>
<p>No, I wasn’t googling potato chips. I meant to google myself and take down any embarrassing things such as my kid’s baby photo in a bath tub.
My google scholar profile needs updating too.</p>
<p>For once, being a Luddite has paid off. I think I’m on the only one left on the planet who has no social media presence whatsoever. I saw a t-shirt the other day that says, “It’s true, I’m not on Facebook.” Maybe I’ll get that.</p>
<p>My son is on Facebook and he does look at it or message people every once in a while but in a year of being on FB he’s never posted one status update. Plus all the privacy settings are up. All of my twitter/website/Facebook public page posts were done with public in mind but I feel so non-intellectual in my sayings. But whatever. They aren’t admitting Me. Maybe they’ll feel sorry for my son and having a parent with less than college prep vocab will be a new hook. I think I’ve even voiced my inept knowledge of SAT words via twitter while studying flash cards with my son. I know I’ve complained about Math confusing me.</p>
<p>@ChoatieMom I think you’re the smartest one around here. I wish we could go back in time for a little while and not have facebook. </p>
<p>@payn4ward okay, that makes sense. I googled myself just now and one of the first results is a really mean review of my first novel. I guess I can live with that result popping up.</p>
<p>@Sue22 I’m playing with photoshop now. If you see a viral image of a 14 year old boy rescuing kittens from a tree popping up on MSNBC.com or CNN.com well…it’s not mine. Of course it’s not mine.</p>
<p>My dad has this top of the line cell he has no idea how to use. He pocket dials me almost everyday… so it’s turned into a tracking device more than anything else. I can hear him talking to the guy at the dry cleaners or listen to who he’s having lunch or dinner with… I tell him but it keeps happening. At least I know where he is? I should talk- I still don’t know how to use half the technology I own… and I purse dial all the time!</p>
<p>It would be nice if my kids would pocket dial once in awhile … Occasionally I’ll get a text not meant for me- which is always kind of fun, if not revealing!</p>
<p>I Googled myself after reading this. Not too bad - some community theater, a polite letter to the local paper, etc. The kids aren’t on Facebook or Twitter, and my Facebook stuff is pretty generic, and I don’t think they can see it anyway. What else? LinkedIn, Google+, a cooking blog that I rarely write in. No Twitter. I do think that in any situation nowadays in which anyone is being assessed/interviewed about anything, the interviewer might Google them, whether idly or purposefully.</p>
<p>LinkedIn tracks who has looked at your profile-- no AOs following me. It’s confirmed: I’m boring.</p>
<p>AOs probably don’t track parents on electronic media, but development office staff do. I remember an article in the NYT or WSJ about it. They size up potential donors.</p>
<p>I’m doubly boring on the development front.</p>
