<p>I heard that some colleges look at your social media accounts... what are also some ways to prevent it and many things to avoid writing (is cussing okay?)</p>
<p>That wouldn’t be a top college, in my book.</p>
<p>All your future employers will look at your social media accounts, so get in the habit now of keeping your comments clean. </p>
<p>I know of someone who applied for a departmental scholarship and the person reviewing the app tried to contact the student and discussed her qualifications with her mom. The college rep told her mom that she had done some research and new all about the student from what was posted on various websites, youtube, facebook, etc about her daughter. It was favorable stuff because her EC was competition dance and she had won some recognition in her EC. The college rep made it obvious to the mom that they do research the finalists before granting the scholarship.</p>
<p>Keep up with all privacy settings, and keep set to maximum. Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want a college or employer to see. </p>
<p>If I was a young person these days I’d have an official facebook and a the one I really use with friends under a fake name. Even now I don’t use my real name on FB, although it is close enough people I know have been able to find me but an employer or college likely wouldn’t. I don’t use my name in any part on twitter.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t think that top schools have time to check tens of thousands of social networking profiles, but if you’re really paranoid, you can just change your Facebook name to something else. Use your middle name in lieu of your surname, adopt another spelling of your first name, etc. Good luck! </p>
<p>Edit:
You should also stop using your full name (assuming your screenname is your real name) on websites in general.</p>
<p>Well, there’s a so-called tradition in our school where we have “senior names” on FB. While it’s usually for the kids who drink at parties (my grade is especially bad), I’ll definitely make a very creative senior name. I don’t have anything overly controversial on Instagram, and I deleted my Twitter account last summer after almost two years of rants and frustration.</p>
<p>I’ve been told that colleges look at your email though </p>
<p>lbad96, thanks for posting. What do you mean by looking at my email? Do you mean my name, or actual emails and chats that I send/receive?</p>
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<p>Where did you apply? NSA-U?</p>
<p>If a College hacks your account and reads your email, you can sue them for everything they’re worth. </p>
<p>Some say they don’t look at social media and stuff, but they probably do an unofficial google search. If there is a picture of you snorting cocaine off a math textbook, don’t be surprised if you don’t get in. They may not explicitly say that is why you were rejected, but yeah.</p>
<p>@lbad96, it’s your email address that some colleges (especially small LAC’s) look at, so many high school seniors set up an account like <a href="mailto:jsmith@gmail.com">jsmith@gmail.com</a> to use exclusively for correspondence with adcoms, potential employers, etc. </p>
<p>Never forget about those frenemies who are also a rival for your spot in an Ivy that can drop a dime on your fake Facebook name to the college of your choice. And forget about just changing your name or deleting an account - the internet never forgets. If it was out there once, it’s out there forever.</p>
<p>Wow MrMom,</p>
<p>I have told my DD this many times. </p>
<p>What I can’t understand is this…why do teens/younger folks have such a need to expose all of their unflattering dirt online? is it really that important to risk so much? It will be interesting to see what FB & IG does with all the pictures that they have collected, they must have billions by now. A very scary thought if you ask me.</p>
<p>I just heard a story on NPR, where Yahoo images/video chats(many nude) were being looked at & watched by some government agency over seas. Americans were in the files as well. We must remember, when you hit “submit or post”, your information is going to parts unknown. </p>
<p>You must have a “professional” or “college” email account that you use to communicate with colleges, especially if your email address contains “dumb@ss” or “cutiepie”, anything involving a profanity, or something that sounds outrageously hilarious to your friends. Basically, an email address with your first name/1st name’s 1st letter + last name + a random number is what you need.</p>
<p>They can’t read your email, but I strongly agree with what has been said before. A professional email address won’t have a positive connotation, but an unprofessional email address will have a negative connotation. As far as social media is concerned, anything questionable should be removed immediately, or better yet not put up in the first place. </p>