<p>A quick google of both of my kids very common names and school name only (not even city) turned up correct results for both of them, and showed an accurate reflection of their school activities. I would think that any student claiming a bunch of high-profile EC’s that don’t show up on a google search, would be a cause for further research for admissions. I would think that an admissions counselor on the fence about a candidate might decide to check it out.</p>
<p>When St. Joe’s said their admissions people googled applicants, I took them at their word. I didn’t give it a lot of thought - whether that meant all of them, or most of them, or kids they were thinking about giving a lot of money to. I just figured it was something they do, like reading the common app essay more closely in some cases than others. It wasn’t until I saw people here pooh poohing the notion that applicants are being googled that I tried to figure the feasibility of such an idea. St. Joe’s has about 8500 applicants each year and an admission team of 14 people (not counting the students who help them). They admit about 80% of their applicants. Assuming only those 14 google every single applicant for 10 minutes (even that slim 20% who will be rejected), it means each full time employee might be responsible for googling an average of 607 students. That doesn’t seem like that much to me - I figure it might add 60 hours to each class’ admission process. </p>
<p>Then I went and googled my teens and their friends. The only info I used was their name, school, hometown, and activities I’m aware of that they might put on a college app. I don’t have a facebook account so I only got limited info there. But I found twitters, a few instagrams, newpaper articles, awards, some political causes and charities they’re involved with. Most of the info was new to me. For some kids there wasn’t a lot out there that I could see, but I definitely could find something on all of them. I found my own daughter highlighted or interviewed in several news articles (including her picture!), fundraising websites, awards she’s won. and a couple of youtube videos that I didn’t even know existed. Most of the things stemmed from her EC. All of them put her in a positive light. I hope they google her. I can’t say the same thing for all their friends - lot f bombs out there in the public domain.</p>
<p>If I were on an admissions committee, I think I’d google a few people from time to time just for kicks. It seems logical also that if there were a candidate that I really didn’t like for some reason, but who was likely to be admitted anyway, I might take a google or two to see if my sense about the candidate had any support from other sources. Also, if there were a very strong candidate that had credentials that seemed not to “fit” the applicant, I might google in that case too. </p>
<p>Its all just normal human behaviour, with the typical time constraints. </p>
<p>I googled my son, who has a very common name and an uncommon extracurricular. With just his first and last names and our town, he turned up several times, all in relationship to the EC. The good news is it supported any claims he’d be likely to make about awards.<br>
Of course it also turned up a man who shares his name and our street (no relation though), who died several years ago at the age of 113. So there’s that.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s any question they’re googling. I warned all my kids to clean up their pages. Our GC warned against it and I’ve heard ad cons talk about it. They’re not doing all of them but if a kid gets through the first couple of rounds and now the app is really being considered I don’t thinks there’s any question a search could take place. </p>
<p>I live in a town which is the headquarters for several large companies. There are at least 2 employees with the same name as my son. It is not inconceivable that someone could google his name and our town, and wind up with information relating to these young men, their hobbies and their social networks.</p>
<p>There are probably a couple hundred people with my first and last name in this country. If you just google it without anything else, you really won’t find me - you’ll find all of them all mixed together. </p>
<p>PG - you better tell them to clean up their act.</p>
<p>The basic issue is not about the existence of google searches but about the accuracy of the information revealed by such a search. If one assumes or expects the adcoms might rely on google for insights into facebook or linkedin, there is nothing that precludes one to create an entirely fictitious “resume” that matches the claims in the application. </p>
<p>I think that the “deep” google searches are far more the domain of moms checking the future roommates and overzealous interviewers who believe it is their mission to uncover fibs in the application package they usually never see. Go figure the irony here. </p>
<p>I tend to believe that admission decisions are made based on the mountain of tangible and verifiable information sent by the schools or the College Board, as well as, to a smaller degree, the believable activities described the students in their essays or EC lists. </p>
<p>All in all, this should have no impact on the applicants who are truthful. </p>
<p>I think its likely to have impacts on some who are naively truthful too, although infrequently. Its the old saw about “when people tell you who they are, believe them”. </p>
<p>In truth, google searches probably occur a few times when adcoms are suspicious but thats about it. No one is going to google 20,000 applicants (all of which are perfectly viable for top schools), that notion just seems ridiculous. I would however expect interviewers to google search kids/applicants. I know that during the admissions process I googled all my interviewers and learned their likes and dislikes before going into the interview and I would assume they did the same for me.</p>
<p>Volume of applications is probably too high to bother web searching every one.</p>
<p>But if an applicant claims a major award, achievement, or recognition where the list of achievers tends to show up on the web, that may induce an admissions reader to do a search for verification.</p>
<p>The sort of applicant an adcom might google is rare.<br>
They aren’t going to stop the wheels to check the one who wrote about his felony, reached some gaming level, or the kid who claimed to be on the tennis team, honor roll or that he’d raised a few hundred dollars. It would have to be some pretty unusual- and stellar- accomplishment. And, they’d have to be darned serious about the candidate, in the first place- which means the app has to be that good. And if so, likely the GC would have mentioned it. How much time do you really think adcoms take, per kid? Who’s got time to check FB to see if there’s a red cup photo? Otoh, it’s pretty clear coaches may check recruits.</p>
<p>I disagree with some of you. I think admissions people are likely to google kids pretty often, not necessarily because they are suspicious, but because the kids are interesting. I’m assuming admissions people are interested in people and are curious (like I am). If, say, a kid indicated that he’d won a major bagpiping award, I’d probably google that, not because I wouldn’t believe him, but because I’d like to know more about it. I don’t think I’d be doing this for hundreds of kids, in part because I have to believe that many, many applications get only a cursory review in the first place.</p>
<p>I always tell my D…be very, very, very careful and think twice about what you are going to post on Twitter or Facebook. </p>
<p>Assuming the admissions process for top schools is similar to that of Stanford’s, an adcom will have ~15 minutes to review a standard application. I don’t know if a google search can be included with a review of other criterion in that ~15 minutes. Maybe the adcom will conduct a google search if s/he wants to validate information provided by the applicant, but there seems to be a more reliable profile verification method, which is contacting the applicant’s guidance counselor. After considering all of the aforementioned, it seems that taking the additional step to do a google search seems extraneous and superfluous.</p>
<p>Stanford Admissions Article: <a href=“Stanford Magazine - Article”>Stanford Magazine - Article;
<p>I would imagine the really popular schools that have significantly more applicants and smaller budgets than Stanford have even more of a time crunch:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2014/07/15/10-universities-that-receive-the-most-applications”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2014/07/15/10-universities-that-receive-the-most-applications</a></p>
<p>The guidance counselor does not know everything that is going on in every kid’s life, and it would take less time for a knowledgeable person to do a manual quick “screen” via the Internet than call a guidance counselor. </p>
<p>Having said that, here is Tufts Admission’s position on checking Facebook. It suggests that at least for them, it is not a time based issue… </p>
<p><a href=“Myths | Tufts Admissions”>Myths | Tufts Admissions; an answer </p>
<p>Great article on Stanford’s admission process. Things would go so much smoother for kids and families if they would read an article like this and accept it. I’m not saying it still won’t sting if you’re child is denied but it certainly would help if people went into the process with their eyes wide open. </p>
<p>Yup. But in fairness, more colleges are now actually producing articles that better describe their processes and what they look for, than even a few years ago. </p>
<p>if you aren’t sure it’s a time based issue, look at Stanford’s comment,“Assuming 15 minutes for a standard application review, admissions readers collectively spend a minimum of 9,700 hours evaluating 38,800 student hopefuls. Add 30 minutes or more to absorb each of the most complex files.” They note about 750 apps per reader. Remember, the bulk of that happens between early Jan and early March, call it 8 weeks.</p>
<p>This is a bit off topic, but I’m concerned because many people seem to feel that it’s simply a matter of ‘cleaning’ up your pages—not being naked, not doing drugs. But Blossom touched on politics–rejecting a person they ‘posed in front of a Klan sign with neo-Nazi regalia’ Ok, that’s something everyone can agree is repulsive, but where is the line drawn then? One person may find a particular political affiliation morally wrong, while another person may feel it’s highly worthy. Some people are very pro gun, others are anti-gun. What if admissions doesn’t like guns? Do they reject someone who is an avid gun user? What if they say, “Oh they use guns so maybe they’ll crack?” Or lately, Israel has been in the news and people have very passionate views one way or the other. What if someone posts a political view that is perfectly their right, but admissions disagrees with the view, either way?</p>
<p>Doesn’t anyone else find this problematic particularly in light of college admissions, which are supposed to foster diversity in opinion and experience? Furthermore, FB is easily sabotaged. What if someone wanted to sabotage your FB, knowing colleges do a search beforehand?</p>
<p>Personally, I’d really want to know if the colleges were doing some sort of search, yes or no. I think this should be a clearly stated policy, not something we all have to guess. It seems that some colleges state it clearly, while most don’t. I think this should be a transparent part of the admissions process. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>I also think that there are programs who accept a smaller class, such as theatre will take this extra step. We were told by numerous professionals that they do indeed google those they are interested in, and it will sometimes tip the decision, one way or the other. Our college consultant told both my kids at our first meeting for each, clean up your profile, google yourself and see what comes up. </p>