<p>At my school today the Dean and Principal talked to all the theology classes about the ills of putting your personal information on blogs and myspaces, which I understand. But he mentioned that Harvard could google its applicants and if something unprofessional pops up they could be rejected. I thought that Harvard really would not do this since millions(hyperbole) of people apply there. What do you all think.</p>
<p>I have no idea if they do this. However, they wouldn't have to check for everyone who applied, just those they are considering admitting, a much smaller number.</p>
<p>I have been preaching about this for a couple of years now. Future employers could certainly "google" you, as could the government if you need a security clearance, want to work for an alphabet agency, etc.</p>
<p>If I were an adcom and I had the time (i.e. Amherst, Williams, etc.), I would do this without a doubt.</p>
<p>key phrase, if I had the time. I doubt most, if any, do</p>
<p>I really doubt it. I talked to some deans of admissions today and somebody asked about the writing section of the SAT. Basically, they don't even read your essays because it just takes too long. So I doubt they're gonna google your MySpace to see if you dropped the f-bomb or something. Your criminal/behavioral record will speak for itself. They would be very naive to think that their kids are all perfect little angels.</p>
<p>Why would they do this? I like to separate my personal life from my academic/business life...and just because I may act a certain way in my personal life, it should have no bearing on how i act professionally.</p>
<p>That's the stupidest thing ever.</p>
<p>First of all, you can't get your Xanga/MySpace/Facebook through Google.</p>
<p>Second of all, what would they reject you for? Funky journal entries? Weird pictures? [Most] colleges want quirky individuals, not boring studymaniacs.</p>
<p>Third of all, they really wouldn't have time. But if they did and they actually took the effort to Google their applicants to learn more about them, I doubt I'd want to go to that school.</p>
<p>or you can have a really common name and hide forever among the 26,000 other chinese last names that are out there like i do :) yea, stereotypical :sigh: here's to being unique.</p>
<p>it just wouldn't work--how would they know it was you? i mean, there could be 1000 people with your name. it would be a totally unreliable, unprofessional, and unfair way of screening applicants.</p>
<p>Adcoms.do.not.google.applicants. End of story.</p>
<p>Funny, someone told me this rumor too today LoL (that adcoms check high school facebooks [I laughed]) and our tech head gave us the same speech today in the calc room :-p</p>
<p>Yea right, Googling names? Manby many ppl have the same name</p>
<p>yeah, i guess facebook would be an easier thing to check up on. but still not likely. oh well--as long as you don't do anything stupid, you have nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>This has come up a lot...there was a new york times article about it a couple of weeks ago, maybe why there's so much controversy over it lately?</p>
<p>ummm... I think the point was that they COULD google you, not that they routinely do it. If an admissions officer actually went to the trouble of googling your name , they wouldn't necessarily know if the information they turned up was really yours anyway, or it could be slander posted by someone else. However, the valid point is that anything you post on the internet can come back to bite you in the ass someday, so be careful! Maybe the admissions officer won't Google you, but one of your friends might print off your homepage and anonymously mail it to Harvard on your behalf.</p>
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Yea right, Googling names? Manby many ppl have the same name
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<p>Yeah but not the same IP address,Harvard could easily find out if it was you or somebody else with the same name,unless you live next to each other and have the same provider.</p>
<p>how would harvard get your IP address from a myspace?</p>
<p>Am I the only one that doesn't use their real name on their myspace, but rather their nickname (which has no correlation with my real name)?</p>
<p>Haha if they googled my name they'd think I was a 50-year-old retired Indian actor. Or a professor at the University of Rochester.</p>
<p>And that could only help me. :P</p>
<p>WHy would anyone put their full name on myspace anyway...if someone wants to find my Ds myspaces, its gonna take some work, ie groups, etc</p>
<p>So what lesson have we learned?</p>
<p>Don't use your full name</p>
<p>Which is also a place for identiy thieves to go</p>