<p>I once called a college senior to offer him a job at my company and got the following VM:</p>
<p>"Hi it's me, I'm not here, probably out getting wasted so just leave a message."</p>
<p>How naive can you be???</p>
<p>Adcoms may not go looking but forwarding unflattering information happens from time to time. Even if privacy settings are used there's nothing to stop a facebook "friend" from copying info and sending it wherever they like.
<a href="http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/businesscareers/4939.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/businesscareers/4939.html</a>
<a href="http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/businesscareers/4938.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/businesscareers/4938.html</a>
Duke's career center advises caution too...
<a href="http://career.studentaffairs.duke.edu/undergrad/find_job/consider/start_here_jobs.html%5B/url%5D">http://career.studentaffairs.duke.edu/undergrad/find_job/consider/start_here_jobs.html</a></p>
<p>Ouch! copying facebook! </p>
<p>There is a young girl we know who was being recruited for a Div 1 sport whose facebook picture of herself is of her and her bong. Someone copied it and emailed it to the sport's state chair. Those Div1 recruitments (for Ivy league and several other top schools) are in tremendous jeopardy. I don't know that this girl ever failed a drug test, or even if she ever had one, but most of these colleges don't want to take a chance now.</p>
<p>So I suppose "social networking" also includes this site then? Hmmm.</p>
<p>i disagree with 6. Use your application essay to expand upon how great your grades, scores and activities are. I think an activity is a fine subject to write about if its your passion.</p>
<p>most of the list is just common sense...not very helpful at all.</p>
<p>darn. i've done number 1 lol</p>
<p>
[quote]
There are many state universities just as good as Yale or Princeton that don't have the time to consider much of anything on your application but your grades and test scores.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>As the parent of a kid in State U., I would like to think that the above statement is true. But it strikes me as being a bit broad.</p>
<p>Also "missed" on the list is:</p>
<p>Don't worry about how much longer your essay is over the required word count, colleges understand that you have a lot to say and are willing to read all of it!</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>^^^
Haha. Good one!</p>
<p>i agree with master if an EC is your passion you should write about it</p>
<p>So they will or will NOT look at your accounts on social networks like Myspace or Facebook?</p>
<p>
[quote]
So they will or will NOT look at your accounts on social networks like Myspace or Facebook?
[/quote]
Yes. They will or they won't. You will never know which. Do you want to take the chance that yours is the one they'll see? Assume they are looking at it - don't post anything you don't want an admissions committee to see.</p>
<p>It's not that hard to set your myspace and facebook profiles to private...</p>
<p>
[quote]
It's not that hard to set your myspace and facebook profiles to private...
[/quote]
Have you even read any of the posts talking about the "private" settings? You've never had a boyfriend or former best friend who's spread rumors about you? All they need to do is copy and paste something you've written and it's all over the internet. And administrators of networks ahve the right to see the stuff for everyone who's in the network. Ever hear of hackers?</p>
<p>If you think that setting your profiles to private protects you, think again.</p>
<p>D deleted her myspace without any prompting from her parents. She came to that conclusion after seeing some of her friends who posted pictures of themselves nearly naked on myspace. She tried to convince them to remove the pictures for their sake but they didn't, so she deleted her myspace page instead.</p>
<p>Question...I've been emailing admissions officers at the schools I'm applying to and my email is the same as my handle on this forum, although it's certainly not conventional, it's not inappropriate/weird enough to warrant me being rejected from schools is it?</p>
<p>Chedva, I don't think that network administrators have the right to give your personal photos/information away (except to law enforcement). Although I guess you sort of addressed that with the hackers comment.</p>
<p>And is it really fair for admissions committees to judge you based on people that may be mere acquaintances? I mean, you'd never judge somebody by the weird guy that they had to work on a group project together because the teacher assigns groups. That seems kind of messed up to me.</p>
<p>Also, what if someone makes a fake profile of you? I've seen several of these pop up. It doesn't seem fair for an applicant to be rejected because someone sabotaged him or her. Honestly, I just think that the applicant and ONLY the applicant should be evaluated for admission, not the applicant and his or her peers (as this thread seems to suggest).</p>
<p>phonyreal98--on your first point, I think the issue comes down to what I'd call risk management. Personally, I have no problem with your screen name, but who knows what a particular Adcom will think. Perhaps the Adcom just read an essay about a student's encounter with other students cheating and ever so slightly imparts a negative feeling on your application because you have "phony" in your name...who knows? Geezer-speak: I, too, wouldn't have given second thought to such things as an 18-year-old, but I know now as a "wiser" adult that human reactions are often unpredictable (but they are predictably variable) and that negative reactions can result from the most innocent of intentions....this can only be mitigated by thoughtful management of perceptions, other people's perceptions that is....cleaning up user names and facebook pages to reduce the risk of negative reactions, no matter how wrong their interpretations would be, is what we are talking about here, and although it may go against one's grain to compromise in this way (as you know you are not the bad person that some crazy adult might perceive), "wisdom" takes form in swallowing the pride, toning down the righteousness, and reducing that risk. This is all very gray, and there are degrees of risk management, but IMHO, removing questionable photos from facebook (no matter how secure you think they should theoretically be) and changing to a non-eyebrow-raising user name are reasonable steps to mitigate the risk, however small….the negative consequence is potentially catastrophic & you'll never know for sure if these factored into a rejection. These fairly easy steps are things you can do to control your fate….yes, if you are the victim of a “phony” (sorry) facebook page, you may be wrongly stigmatized, but there’s not much that I can imagine you could do about that. My advice is to control what you can control, as that’s the best that you can do, and doing your best is always something to be proud of.</p>
<p>If part of your goal is to have the adcom remember who you are, it's probably better to have an e-mail address that embodies your name.</p>
<p>um yeah, phonyreal use ur name for an email. I hv 2 emails, and I use the one with my real beautiful name :) to deal with official stuff, ig adcom, teachers etc.
So it is easier for the schools to keep track who the email is coming from. Combine ur first and last name since first names can be too common!</p>
<p>I never had a Facebook or myspace account, but I admit I blog, but under an alias. I never put any emails on my blog.</p>