<p>Do colleges pay someone in IT to hack Facebook accounts to see all the personal information to determine if an applicant is fit for their school?</p>
<p>It would be illegal to “hack” accounts. </p>
<p>However, if a school wanted to, they could go look at your Facebook if your information is not private. Although, I’m not sure how many schools actually go and stalk their applicants on Facebook.</p>
<p>If you’re worried about it though, I’d suggest either a.) you make sure there is nothing “bad” on your profile or b.) check your privacy settings and make them stricter.</p>
<p>It’s always good to be careful what you put on Facebook because future employers WILL look at Facebooks if you have yours viewable to the public.</p>
<p>I have heard (but this could just be a rumor) that Mark Zuckerburg gives colleges special axis to look at their applicants facebook pages. Again, this is just a rumor.</p>
<p>Maybe access. LOL!</p>
<p>^^ what do you mean?</p>
<p>"I have heard (but this could just be a rumor) that Mark Zuckerburg gives colleges special axis to look at their applicants facebook pages. Again, this is just a rumor. "</p>
<p>Because being the CEO of a multi billion dollar venture is so boring that he would rather engage in illegal activities on a lark to assist colleges who have been admitting students for hundreds of years. Yeah right.</p>
<p>This is entirely false. Colleges do not do illegal things to check on their students. They can barely extract info from legit sources without your direct permission (like schools or the CB).</p>
<p>What you should worry about it your privacy settings and the content you have on there. This is both for college apps and getting a job later. Google yourself and your city, see what comes up. See if what you put on facebook would be something you’d be willing to show your Mom. I don’t know if colleges do actually check your online presence, but it seems logical at least for the “finalists”.</p>
<p>I personally google myself about once a month, remove any objectionable content, don’t use real names and photos online, keep facebook and twitter locked down, and even own my own name.com with positive info which shows up first in google.</p>
<p>I’ve actually have been told by an UC admissions person that they do look you up on facebook. I recommend changing your settings to private if you have something to hide. :)</p>
<p>Yes uc admissions with oh say 100000 applicants for all the schools gp through facebbook pages and look around for pictures,etc…yup…I can see it…oh she has a red cup, must be beer, or he’s wearing a rivals shirt…tsk tsk</p>
<p>They barely have time to look at each app…and verifying gpas etc is more important then paying staff to stalk facebook</p>
<p>Also with so many people with same name imagine the confusion. My d doesn’t use her full name yet there is a girl on facebook similar age etc with same name how on earth would a college know for sure theynhave the same jane smith unless they all posted ages, high school details, etc. </p>
<p>Picture the man hours needed to hack into facebook to see if John doe has a bad picture somewhere. Uh huh…</p>
<p>I can maybe see a company having an hr person google an applicant. But colleges with budgets, time constraits, volume of applicants, common names, people who don’t even facebbok, and yes, there are many who don’t, its funny the urban myths</p>
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<p>That’s actually a really good idea…</p>
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<p>That would be illegal, seeing as UC is forbidden to use race in their decisions, and by accessing facebook accounts the reader would find out the person’s race…</p>
<p>That being said, I could see a college looking up kids’ facebooks if they’re stuck on a decision between two similar applicants and don’t want to simply flip a coin, but that is very unlikely.</p>
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<p>That is a very good point.</p>
<p>“That would be illegal, seeing as UC is forbidden to use race in their decisions, and by accessing facebook accounts the reader would find out the person’s race…”</p>
<p>It’s illegal b/c it’s a privacy invasion. UCs discovering or having race documentation is not illegal.</p>
<p>I think that they have certain permissions so that they can do it legally.</p>
<p>Hey, just stating a fact. There have been instances where they look people up.</p>
<p>Again it is impossible that they look up all 100,000 applicants. On the other hand a a college that only takes in a few thousand applicants, and is extremely selective, they will probably spend the time to look it up. Especially for the people at the bottom of their list. It’s not invasion of privacy if you have it as public (like so many people do).</p>