A coach searching social media for a handful of prospective athletes is quite different from the admissions officer searching the internet for tens of thousands of applicants. Having said that, obviously the message should be: Don’t put anything out on the internet that you would not want your college/employer/parents to see.
He: “I Hope You Think of Me Fondly…”
She: “But I Don’t Think of You…”
The key is not to type anything on the internet you wouldn’t want published in the New York Times or played on a loudspeaker at your high school or workplace.
But it is highly unlikely anyone would be stalking you. Unless you are a highly recruited D1 athlete, or perhaps someone who is in the running for a prestigious scholarship or program.
BUT if anyone is caught cheating at college or anything else raising a red flag, THEN there might be an investigation, and anyone bragging about “lying” or “cheating” to get into that college will be in big trouble. I know people who have been fired because they lied on their job app and thought “no one would check” but a small administrative issue led to a check and the firing, taking down several others with him.
Or red cups…
I read a story a few years ago written by an AO about how a candidate who had been deferred Early Decision posted a series of rants about the college being racially biased etc. Apparently, it was pretty easy for the AO to match his profile (small rural town in Iowa, etc) with who he was. Needless to say, he wasn’t accepted RD either…
If one decides to make one’s life public enough, and be vitriolic enough, yes, one might garner negative attention.
Anyone who is dumb enough to publicize many many specific and tangible intimate details on the internet gets what they deserve. Just like people who file frivolous lawsuits. One of the teachers in our town, that my children know well, had a DUI. No job action because of it, but he thought it would be wise to contest the DUI so the court case was all over the papers. One of his parents passed away, and upon doing a search on the teacher’s name, to read his parent’s obituary (who we didn’t have the name of), we found the DUI immediately. The DUI was not listed as a matter of public record, but the court case was.
Don’t do stupid stuff. Don’t tell people about stupid stuff you did.
I would say that even for those applicants who are squeaky clean, posting detailed info like your precise test scores and SAT 2’s are enough for AO’s to narrow your app down to 1-2 out of many thousands.
It also pains me to see kids use their real pictures and real names on here with their chance threads, especially when they have a D-baggy or humble brag tone.
As if a stranger could really chance you…?
Also, it seems the ultra high achievers who humble brag in posts and whine about whether they should retake a 2390 usually regurgitate a laundry list of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in the form of unique EC’s, abilities, or contests they won.
The bottom line: Don’t give away your PII!
(Or your pie, either - especially pecan pie).
One more story that is a bit off post but somewhat related:
When we visited Princeton last year, a girl showed up for the tour about 10 minutes late - she just strutted into Nassau Hall into the big wooden room and plopped down among the already assembled group with the blonde AO already into her introductory speech (which caused a bit of a distraction) - plus this girl had the audacity to strut in wearing a Yale shirt.
Then, during the tour, the girl in the Yale shirt even brought up how she didn’t like the Princeton grade deflation which got other kids and parents into a tizzy who didn’t even know about it. (Yes, I know the grade deflation policy is gone now).
The funny thing is that during the campus tour, another person from the AO that accompanied the group on the tour was scribbling furiously on a clipboard the whole time - but the loudmouthed girl didn’t seem to care.
When we had arrived earlier that morning, the AO had asked that one person from each group sign in.
Since the Yale girl was the last to arrive, she would have been the last person to sign in for the morning tour.
I would bet my a** that they went in right after the tour and looked at the last person to sign in and figured out who she was.
After having the nerve to wear a Yale shirt on the tour, I often wonder why she even bothered to show up and tour or if she even applied. I also wonder if she got into Yale.
Anyway, that got me thinking about how much an AO might try to identify applicants in other situations - for instance, if they made enough of a negative splash in the CC forums - in which case, I would use caution about putting any PII in a chance post.
Agreed. One of the many reasons why I have never started a discussion in a chance forum.
And that’s another reason. 
Except for Facebook and LinkedIn, which require real names, many of the kids I know through my son have alter egos they use for posting on various social media and forums. They are generally careful not to provide more than time zone info about the physical location of that alter ego. My son has done searches to make sure he couldn’t connect his alter ego to his realname. Some of them have multiple alter egos, but my son and daughter each have one that they use frequently. Their friends do typically know their alter ego names. My daughter has a couple extra, because she publishes fan fiction and tweets about fan fiction under those names.
Some of the kids who are applying to colleges have to think about whether to breach the wall between themselves and their alter ego when applying. For example, my son enters 3D modeling competitions under his alter ego, and will probably want to submit some of that work to some colleges. Some computer science related stuff also, though he has separate GitHub accounts for his alter ego and his realname, and the more polished stuff goes under his realname. He says he’s had discussions with some Class of 2014 friends about how they “merged” their personas after high school.
FB may “require” real names but it doesn’t check. My own profile is not under my real name.
If I worked on an admissions committee, I suspect I’d occasionally Google an applicant–but because I was curious about some interesting thing they described in the application. If they won an award, I might want to know what it was, or might want to know about the summer program they went to, or about the charity they started. I guess I might also Google (or call the guidance counselor) if something in the application made me smell a rat.
True, however typically your FB friends would know your real name. So, he wouldn’t use the alias for FB, because that would breach the wall. While his actual friends may know his alter ego, his FB “friends” are mostly acquaintances who he doesn’t want to know his alter ego. And, he doesn’t spend much time on FB anyway; it’s more a way to see what his adult relatives are doing.