<p>When schools look you up before accepting you, can they crack through private MySpaces and photos?</p>
<p>I don't have anything incriminating on mine, but still.</p>
<p>um, i really really don't think t hey would. but they could if they relaly really really wanted to..which they dont. keep in mind there are 20000+ ppl applying</p>
<p>i'm not sure if they can crack through your privacy settings, but people have been turned down from colleges, scholarships, internships, and jobs because of what is on their facebook/myspace. for college i've never heard of a general applicant being turned down because of their facebook, but i have for recruited athletes.
if you ever have any "incriminating" photos/quotes/ANYTHING delete them and keep your profile private</p>
<p>I don't think they'd care and I mean, you wouldn't use your MySpace e-mail to contact schools, right? My e-mails for friends are odd, like my screename, but my college e-mail is my first and last name. I wouldn't use an e-mail I use for my friends for college too. Narcissa makes an excellent point, though. I doubt they'd check everyone to see if they were posting half naked pictures of themselves on Myspace.</p>
<p>My high school actually goes through Myspaces to find incriminating evidence of school-banned activities. You can't access Myspace at school (if you are a normal, non-geek), but one can get in trouble for Myspace information. </p>
<p>I seriously doubt that colleges, with their thousands upon thousands of applicants, check everyone's Myspace.</p>
<p>i've had friend who post naked pictures of them online =O</p>
<p>Officials</a> at institutions nationwide using Facebook site - News </p>
<p>Read this, it talks about colleges that have used Myspace, Facebook and the like against students</p>
<p>I don't think so. Unless someone tells on you or something =/</p>
<p>I think they should look at people's online profiles.</p>
<p>Perhaps then they will figure out how each year's class filled exclusively with unique intellectuals and volunteers ends up at drinking parties every night of the week.</p>
<p>don't think its common practice for admission officers to check online profiles. Not yet anyway. But there's info out there indicating that some schools do check. Here's another article that discusses the issue</p>
<p>DaytonDailyNews:</a> Dayton, Ohio, news and information</p>
<p>Maybe they'll look if they have a reason to? Or if someone tips them?</p>
<p>Some schools make it a policy to not look at outside websites... saw that on a viewbook once.</p>
<p>my classmate said her dad (who knows adcoms of some irish school) had the program, but i've been skeptical about it..
didn't we agree to some terms where they WOULDN'T let out confidential stuff if we CHOSE to hide our profile and only to display it upon friend acceptances?</p>
<p>thanks, guys.</p>
<p>thing is, my best friend posted on her MySpace that she had a crush on a certain history teacher. her MySpace was private, but our vice principal still got through it and called her out on it. </p>
<p>I find it odd that a high school vice principal is looking through the private profiles of A & B students.</p>
<p>Bear in mind that there isn't much real privacy on the internet. Even if settings are restricted to friends there is nothing to stop someone from copying and pasting info/photos, taking a screen shot or simply talking about what they've read (this may be what happened to your friend with the crush.) </p>
<p>From a recent Washington Post article entitled Ten Stupid Ways to Ruin Your College Application:</p>
<p>"Don't worry about your postings on social networking sites -- college admissions officers understand your need for individual expression and will probably never look at them. I know, I know. What you put on Facebook or Myspace is your private business. College officials appear to share that view. They say they do not make a habit of looking up their applicants. But there are enough exceptions to make me think care should be taken when posting photos from your last rollicking beach party. Not everybody loves you. Those who don't could send anonymous notes to your first-choice school suggesting it inspect a certain Web site. There are no rules that say they can't."
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR2007101600543.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR2007101600543.html</a></p>
<p>Read through this thread, there are tons of comments and opinions on the subject of social networking sites and college admissions:</p>
<p>If you'll read the articles you'll see that most schools don't claim to do this routinely. But some will follow up on leads (sometimes sent by competitors or "friends" of the student.) I think the schools don't have a problem with "kids being kids" or "normal human beings" but things that indicate serious legal or integrity issues may be. Bottom line, people are responsible for what they put on the internet and how they present themselves.</p>
<p>How do schools see private MySpace profiles anyway? Do they get another student to show them or something? Because someone at my school pulled the fire alarm and they had apparently posted they would on their MySpace and the principal found it.</p>
<p>Any "friend" who has access to your page can copy and paste content or take a screen shot of your page. It's then a simple matter to print out or email the page to anyone they like. Sad to think that this happens sometimes, but it does.</p>
<p>Ultimately nothing is guaranteed to be private on the internet. Nothing. At a minimum the techies can access it all. And, so can a number of others who get rights. Plus the fine print is not often read when people signup for stuff. And it often says something to the effect that "the site owns the content". That means they can do whatever with it. School may or may not look, unless prodded, but companies are using it more and more.</p>