I've heard that colleges google you to see what kind of things you're involved in...

Applying to College
1

<p>How deep in do colleges go?</p>

<p>When you google me one of the top results (right behind Quiz Bowl scores) is from a discussion on a blog (the MIT Admissions blog, no less!) that makes me look unfavorable. The person right below me had posted about smoking marijuana but, due to the way google displays results, if you don't click the link and just read the excerpt shown in google it looks like I was the one who posted about marijuana. Do colleges (and potentional employers!) go in that far or is it pretty much just a cursory scan? If it's a cursory scan, I'm worried...</p>

2

<p>That sounded like a fun thing to do at 2 in the morning... so I did as such and found that there are more than 300 thousand hits for my name, but when I added my town I found out that my dad has a patent... I never knew that...</p>

<p>A lot of my other hits are from totally random unrelated things though (Irish politics, bodyguard service, Hollywood acting...) so don't worry about it too much</p>

3

<p>If you google my name, you come up with a famous Malaysian pop singer. There are so many John Does in the world, how will they they know it's you?</p>

4

<p>Well... some names are shared by multiple people (sometimes a great many); other's aren't. As far as I know no one besides me uses my name; it sounds like that's the case for Jarn as well. So we have to be somewhat more careful with where we display our full names.</p>

<p>Jarn, I wouldn't worry about it much. I'm sure some substantial number of admissions officers (or committees, as aggregates) do make use of Google as a way of gathering background info, but if they see a blurb about pot smoking it's probably safe to assume that they'll look further instead of just sticking your app in the shredder. =)</p>

5

<p>i really dont think they have the time to do this...plus my name is too common. ppl say they can 'hack into' your fb and see photos of you etc. i doubt it. didnt fb agree to keep things confidential until further notice? (like adding another friend)</p>

6

<p>That security hole was closed a while back after some tool leaked it to the AP. No more stalking for me :(</p>

7

<p>Colleges usually Google your name only if you mention things like "Interntional Olympiads" or other very huge accomplishments. Google provides a quick and easy way to verify such achievements.</p>

8

<p>
[quote]
Colleges usually Google your name only if you mention things like "Interntional Olympiads" or other very huge accomplishments.

[/quote]
That's a relief. :)</p>

<p>
[quote]
As far as I know no one besides me uses my name; it sounds like that's the case for Jarn as well.

[/quote]
It is. Googling for my name produces only me. ;)</p>

9

<p>Mine just shows my Model UN stuff, my school newspapers website, my old website, some sports articles I wrote for some places, and then my information about my great grandpa, a WWI hero.</p>

10

<p>hopefully they do. I just googled my name. Had my letter to the editor on The Economist's website, my debate rankings, being in my high school's Principle Message, and being quoted in one of my state's major newspapers about the 2008 elections.</p>

<p>BUT, I highly doubt they'd google your name with 20k+ applicants at top schools. Maybe in the job applications pool, but in college? Doubtfully....unless you're borderline and they literally are choosing between you and somebody else to give admission to.</p>

11

<p>do they spend time on collegeconfidential forums?? do they check out people's stats profiles to see where their number one college is?? because i hadn't updated mine in forever and im really worried AHHHH</p>

12

<p>Wouldn't it be highly impractical? With the commonness of names, it's incredibly difficult to prove that the person that you are reading about is the person that you searched for.</p>

<p>For some applicants, it might work like if your name was "Sunny Wildflower" or some highly uncommon name but even if you had an uncommon name but shared it with just one noteworthy person, it doesn't work. Now if your name was John Smith or John Jones or any remotely common name, it won't work period. </p>

<p>So ethically, colleges cannot do that because it is difficult to prove that the author of the message is the person that you're looking for.</p>

13

<p>People like alumni interviewers may Google your name and hometown. I know I've done that, and have found some hits (interesting things, not embarrassing things) on people whom I was going to interview. Usually Internet hits for high school students contain the name of their high school.</p>

<p>BTW, it's also a good idea to Google your interviewer before the interview. Gives you a good idea of things to highlight about yourself that may be of special interest to the person.</p>

<p>It is a very good idea to Google yourself regularly so as to remove from the Internet anything that may be embarrassing. For instance, a college professor friend of mine Googled a student in order to quickly get some additional info related to the student's resume, that the student had passed in for an assignment. </p>

<p>To the prof's surprise, what came up on the Internet were pictures of the student that basically were similar to soft core porn. The site included the student's full name (unusual name) and the college town where she lived.</p>

<p>Another of the professor's student's put a link on the student's resume that was to a porn site that the student had created. The professor found out about that when a company called the professor (who had provided the student with a glowing written recommendation) to explain why they were not hiring the student for an internship.</p>

<p>And, yes, some college admissions officers are obviously on CC since they post here under their real names and school affiliation. There probably are plenty of others who lurk. And there probably are plenty of spouses, partners and friends of admissions officers who are on this site, and may inform the admissions officer if they see something interesting like, "I forged my transcript and that's how I got into XXX U" or "I'm applying ED to XYZ College, but that's really my back-up to Ivy College that I'll go to if I get in RD even if I get into XYZ ED."</p>

<p>It really is possible to identify people on CC. I've seen friends of my son posting on CC even though they were using an Internet name. I'm sure that there are people who know me in real life who recognize me on CC.</p>

<p>I highly doubt if busy admissions officers are going to bother, though, checking someone's stats profile on CC.</p>

14

<p>Do people realize how impractical this is? Colleges get tens of thousands of applications each year; they don't have time to google each one on top of reading a pretty long application. Not to mention that googling a high-schooler would likely not bring any useful information unless they've done something very notable.</p>

<p>Colleges don't stalk your every move.</p>

15

<p>nstarmom: hey! you're giving away our secrets! LOL</p>

<p>Googling me would be funny as I share the same name as a Taiwanese pop star/TV personality.</p>

16

<p>my name is very uncommon. >100 ppl w/ the same name on facebook alone</p>