<p>Just had a thought ... should we recommend our kids make sure it is squeaky clean??</p>
<p>Your thoughts?</p>
<p>Well, I have a facebook and a lot of my friends don't have squeaky clean profiles but they still get into Princeton and whereever. But I read that once a student got rejected from Reed in 2006 because he had posted rude comments about it on his LiveJournal. So it wouldn't hurt.</p>
<p>If your kids don't want to mess around with removing "unclean" pictures/comments/whatever, just remind them to set high privacy options for their profiles - I know there is a way to prevent those who aren't in your networks from finding you in search, prevent non-friends from seeing your profile, etc. It can't hurt to up the privacy, even though adcoms probably aren't searching Facebook for every applicant, why risk it?</p>
<p>I have high privacy settings, so I don't even come up in searches, and people who aren't my friends can't see my friend list. I also make sure my profile/comments are squeaky clean. Facebook is great if it's used intelligently.</p>
<p>Thanks I'll let her know ... as a parent, you never really know if what you've said in the past sunk in or is remembered when it needs to be. I really do not mind being told "you already told me that" ...!</p>
<p>During the admissions season, I made myself unsearchable. My facebook is pretty clean anyway, but some of the comments of my friends sort of revealed my first choice or talked about colleges and I didn't want that stuff seen.</p>
<p>top schools get 20,000 applications... do you think the 6 or so people at admissions would really take the time to look at someone's facebook when:</p>
<h1>1- they could be analyzing the applications</h1>
<h1>2- their facebooks probably have the same smut as yours?</h1>
<p>if you bring this question up, you've crossed the line of paranoia</p>
<p>(if you're applying for a job, on the other hand...)</p>
<p>im pretty sure there's way more than 6...but I see your point anyway</p>
<p>Absolut3: a student once got rejected from Reed after the admissions office saw that he posted rude comments about them. I don't even know why he applied then. The point is, it has happened before.</p>
<p>"According to Yale sociologist Burton Clark, Reed is one of the most unusual institutions of higher learning in the United States"</p>
<p>its a freak chance, man</p>
<p>THX she is not intending on applying to school's who receive 20,000 apps and it is amazing what people forget about their own actions ... such as the smut that might be on an admission's officers own page. </p>
<p>When a regional rep is trying to sell her/his list of kids to the "committee" and needs to shorten the list, I know that I would Google the kids if I needed more info.</p>
<p>Not only should you keep your facebook generally clean during admission season, but while in school as well. At my uni, I've heard they kicked students out for having not-so-savory photos of themselves on facebook. Even if you're not doing anything, just being in the image with illegal substances (or red cups while underage!)can land you in front of the disciplinary board. It may just be a way to scare us out of doing anything, but I'll take it rather seriously and up my privacy levels.
Just something to think about.</p>
<p>I'm an alum interviewer,and I always Google students before interviewing them.</p>
<p>^ I think that's a good idea, honestly. Its scary how much goes up on facebook. Some things should be left offline.</p>
<p>Absolut3: Obviously the adcoms will probably never actually look for someone's facebook page, but it certainly can't hurt to spend two minutes to privatize it, just in case.</p>
<p>I had the chance to meet an adcom from Emory a few months ago and asked her a similar question; she sort of hinted at what Absolut brought up, that they just don't have the resources to check up on everyone. An interesting point she made, though, is about the applicant's e-mail address. <a href="mailto:firstname.lastname@gmail.com">firstname.lastname@gmail.com</a> is probably a better option than <a href="mailto:sexybunnygirlxxx@gmail.com">sexybunnygirlxxx@gmail.com</a></p>
<p>^ Haha yeah, that's true :D</p>
<p>I went to the college road show where a Admission directors/ assistant directors spoke to a group of GCs/College counselors. and the facebook/my space question did come up.</p>
<p>More than one did state that they do occasionally google, facebook and check out my space pages of applicants. One even stated that he used someone's my space to advocate and eventually admit a student (student was a musician and had his music on his my space page). </p>
<p>The advice that we were given to take back to our students is that they should clean up their profiles especially if they exhibit behaviors the schools are not looking for in its prospective class (photos of students drinking, scantily clad, making racist, homoophobic or sexist remarks, etc). Remember that the internet has made the world very small.</p>
<p>Northstarmom- Do you google image them too, or just google 'em? ;)</p>
<p>if your kid has pictures of him drinking, scantily clad, or making racist, homophobic remarks on a public domain then i suggest you get rid of his facebook in general</p>