<p>I say no--they just don't have the time, and it's not that easy to figure out which John Smith is which. My husband is appalled and says of course they do--he thinks of it as a job application,and his workplace does online searches on potential employees.</p>
<p>(This is academic; I'm not worried about our kids. We are just curious.)</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>No. </p>
<p>Maybe, MAYBE at the tippy top schools but in general, no. </p>
<p>You are joking…25,000 people applied to each of those tippy top schools. I seriously doubt that a google search is part of the college admission process.</p>
<p>Routinely? – probably not.</p>
<p>Occasionally: probably yes. I think one should assume that in any context, there is the potential that someone will Google them. With regard to college apps, it might come up if there is something in the app that arouses curiosity or makes a factual claim worth verifying. </p>
<p>I think it makes sense these days for people to be aware of what others will find with a Google search. </p>
<p>What calmom said. Routinely? No. Occasionally? Yes.</p>
<p>If I were an admission person, before I say yes to an applicant I would do a quick search. If an applicant claimed he/she cured cancer, I would want to google to see if it is true. If you google D2, you would see newspaper articles she wrote (editor), her track record and maybe few other ECs. I think with today’s technology, I would be surprised if adcoms wouldn’t try to utilize it. I wouldn’t google every applicant, but only ones I feel I may need/want to.</p>
<p>Any red flags gets a Google. Routine? I doubt it. Frequent? More so than a few years ago.</p>
<p>An essay on “what I learned while being booked for a felony” gets a Google. A comment from the GC on “Despite frequent brushes with law enforcement, little Joey has matured a lot over the last year” gets a Google. Claiming to be a Presidential Scholar nominee gets a Google (you either are a nominee or you are not… and there is a nice website which lists every nominee by state).</p>
<p>And it is pretty easy to find John Smith- remember, the Adcom has the home address, name of the high school.</p>
<p>Like your H, my company does a LOT of Googling of job candidates. I’ve seen it all- near naked photos at Mardi Gras, a candidate posed in front of a Klan sign with neo-Nazi regalia, etc. It is not hard, even with a very common name, to quickly zero in on the right person.</p>
<p>Probably depends upon the school. St. Joe’s University tells potential students that they do. </p>
<p>
<br>
Me too.</p>
<p>Related, not exactly on topic: <a href=“http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/bad-behavior-on-social-media-can-cost-recruits/article_41c4ee79-e8d8-5dc9-bb54-699caec7f3ce.html”>http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/bad-behavior-on-social-media-can-cost-recruits/article_41c4ee79-e8d8-5dc9-bb54-699caec7f3ce.html</a></p>
<p>“Routinely?” Certainly not, but I attended a presentation by an admissions officer from a respected liberal arts college who said that at least once a year they will receive some sort of “tip” from a “concerned party,” and they will check social media. They strongly recommend that students clean up their profiles and watch what might turn up. </p>
<p>I’d say that it’s always best to keep your social media & other profiles as clean as you can–you never know who will search and don’t want them to find anything that will have them wondering, especially if they are a potential employer, funder, scholarship, or other party you are trying to impress.</p>
<p>I doubt that they have time to google everyone, but wouldn’t be surprised if they at least assign a student employee to google the students they are planning to offer admission, having them print out anything that the student feels deserves more thought or consideration.</p>
<p>Here is an article that says some indeed do. I think it’s crazy to think they look up EVERYONE but I don’t have any doubts that it happens here and there. My kids have a very unusual last name… there are maybe a dozen people in the world with it and none with the combination of first and last. All but maybe one of D’s activities were verifiable with a google search. Did anyone actually do it? Can’t say. Always better to be smart than sorry though.</p>
<p><a href=“Is the admissions office Googling you? More colleges screening applicants' online profiles - nj.com”>Is the admissions office Googling you? More colleges screening applicants' online profiles - nj.com;
<p>My kids (and I) all have common first and last names. Indeed, there are other kids with S’s name who attended his school. I should think it very easy to “find” the wrong one. </p>
<p>Ditto what others said. While its unlikely they will, they may on occasion for some reason, so any applicant should be careful about what is out there on the web about them. One should assume they could, even though its unlikely they will.</p>
<p>I think it happens when someone “claims” something that is easy to confirm. (or not) online. </p>
<p>Not routinely but when they have something in doubt. Obviously, if one claims to win a state champion, it should be mentioned somewhere on the web.</p>
<p>I think college admission officers google just like real people do. :)</p>
<p>So for example, we just posted an open spot for a position here. I didn’t google any of the initial 400 candidates…but once we narrowed it down to 7 or 8 candidates, sure I looked them up. Seems hard to believe an admissions officer wouldn’t do the same…to flip the question around, why wouldn’t they? It takes 30 seconds and can help decide whether or not to put a kid in. </p>
<p>Southern hope…the difference is you narrowed your field down to 7-8. Adcoms are narrowing their fields down to thousands, even tens of thousands.</p>
<p>Thumper, yes and no…and i’m basing 100% of my knowledge on Tina Fey’s role in the movie Admissions 
but I believe that each admin brings 20 or 25 kids to the table on any given day…and then tries to sell that kid to the larger team…so, sure, I’d google all of my finalists before I went into that room. </p>