ADCOMS checking out your Facebook?

[neopentanol]

This topic comes up every now and then. Apparently some ADCOMs search your e-mail on Facebook to take a peak into you as a person. How much truth is there to this?

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[Lukkie]

pay your friends to post some things on your wall, like "thanks for giving me open heart surgery on saturday, luv ya XOXO~~"

 

[Abilene85]

If you are worried about it, change your privacy settings so that only friends can see your profile.

Honestly, I don't think adcoms waste their time checking out facebook sites. Still, be careful of what you put on the internet, because it can come back to haunt you. (I know a girl who put a little striptease on youtube and now her name is affiliated with porn sites...oops!)

 

[MDee]

Don't they have to be on your friends list in order to see your profile? Otherwise, if they search you, only your picture with some links to poking/sending a msg/adding as a friend will come up, but no profile (Unless you are in the same "network" as the adcom)

 

[vicinihil]

that's awesome....Hi thanaks for delivering my baby!

Then another post, thanks for donating all your blood so my relative can live!

Then another, thanks for jumping in front of a car and saving my baby! I owe you!

 

[illixir]

I think the standard is they have to be in your network, but I make everything friends only anyways.

 

[pakbabydoll]

I know undergraduate schools check your My SPace to see, and my old job people checked my my space. My manager told me.

 

[DrMattOglesby]

I know undergraduate schools check your My SPace to see, and my old job people checked my my space. My manager told me.

the easy way around it...aside from changing all your profile settings to private, is simply to use a different email that you reserve for your professional life!

 

[SilverMoon]

Honestly, I don't think adcoms waste their time checking out facebook sites.

I don't see it as a stretch for student interviewers or student hosts to facebook you though. And if either of them find something worth flagging, that could cause complications for your app. Better safe than sorry, up the privacy or just take down all controversial material for a couple of months.

 

[Abilene85]

Better safe than sorry, up the privacy or just take down all controversial material for a couple of months.

If you are worried, my vote goes to privacy settings. Even if your site is professional perfection, someone so interested in collecting data on your life that they decided to look you up on facebook might link to friends, find something bad, and consider you guilty by association.

 

[smeagol]

Do you people have something to hide?

 

[Depakote]

Keep in mind, lots of admissions committees have students on them. I know that a huge chunk of my class are facebook fanatics so I could easily see a student adcom member just plugging in a name to see what pops up.

Now, would what they see make them chuck your application... I'd hope not, but as a rule of thumb, you probably don't want anything on the internet (MySpace, Facebook, even SDN) that you wouldn't want linked back to you.

 

[neopentanol]

Keep in mind, lots of admissions committees have students on them. I know that a huge chunk of my class are facebook fanatics so I could easily see a student adcom member just plugging in a name to see what pops up.

Now, would what they see make them chuck your application... I'd hope not, but as a rule of thumb, you probably don't want anything on the internet (MySpace, Facebook, even SDN) that you wouldn't want linked back to you.

How about this: You put a shirtless picture flexing your arms on facebook. Pretty casual and harmless right? Med school sees it and thinks its unprofessional, tosses out your app.

 

[Abilene85]

How about this: You put a shirtless picture flexing your arms on facebook. Pretty casual and harmless right? Med school sees it and thinks its unprofessional, tosses out your app.

I doubt that would do it. Maybe an album dedicated to body-shots in Mexico or saying obscene things in your interests/about me sections. One of my female friends has a ton of pictures of her showing panties to the world. I dont' know why she feels the need to do this, but med schools might count that kind of thing against her if it came down to her and another applicant.

But seriously people, if you're worried about it, don't put anything on facebook that you wouldn't want your mom to see. Even though my page is completely PG-rated, I still put strict privacy settings on during the application process.

 

[Depakote]

How about this: You put a shirtless picture flexing your arms on facebook. Pretty casual and harmless right? Med school sees it and thinks its unprofessional, tosses out your app.

"unprofessional" has become a bit of a dirty word at my school actually... some of the more senior administration really laid it on thick during orientation that we are now professionals and must behave strictly in a manner reflecting that.

I don't think that these are the same people judging your app (could be) but it the mindset could easily be shared.

Now again, are the ones that are likely to have the more conservative professionalism standards the ones that are going to find you on facebook? Probably not. But, don't give the student something anything so serious they need to question bringing it to the rest of the committee.

 

[foreverLaur]

like said before...

... i don't get all the people who get rejected from interviews or fired from jobs because their boss or whatever found something on Facebook or MySpace. if you are stupid enough to put something up there that would get you fired/rejected and then not put any privacy settings up, i think you deserve to get fired/rejected.

 

[nosugrefneb]

This topic comes up every now and then. Apparently some ADCOMs search your e-mail on Facebook to take a peak into you as a person. How much truth is there to this?

It seems most schools don't make a habit of it, but if they come across it, they're going to look, and yes, they're going to pay attention to it if there's something they need to be paying attention to.

I actually talked about this with Joni Huff on the podcast I put together (link below). Straight from the source.

 

[senseiturtle]

Yes, adcoms check out your facebook.

"OMG, I CAN"T BELIEEEEVE THEY FOUND THAT PICTURE OF ME ON THE TOILET !!!"

Well stupid, you put it on your facebook.


Medical school is NOT undergrad. You are required to act like, dress like, and BE a doctor from day one. When you put on that white coat, you are a RESPECTED member of society, not some ***** who revels in drunken photo sessions.

 

[Abilene85]

Medical school is NOT undergrad. You are required to act like, dress like, and BE a doctor from day one. When you put on that white coat, you are a RESPECTED member of society, not some ***** who revels in drunken photo sessions.

And this seems to be an issue for some people coming to medical school straight out of undergrad.

 

[Ookluh]

I know I've heard the stories on the radio about people getting rejected from jobs based upon their MySpace (apparently someone thought it was a good idea to talk about how hungover and high they are every weekend). As always, use your own discretion people.

 

[Bacchus]

"unprofessional" has become a bit of a dirty word at my school actually... some of the more senior administration really laid it on thick during orientation that we are now professionals and must behave strictly in a manner reflecting that.

I know what you mean. My undergrad is a health-professionals school and professionialism is not taken lightly. If it is seen, someone will do something about it. It is up to the participant to not flaunt or display anything incriminating. It has "gotten so bad" that non-matriculated freshmen have had discussions with administration already and notices will be sent out through the end of October about anything found questionable.

 

[THP]

For the love of God people - Stop doing MySpace and Facebook. Those websites routinely mess up people's chance for careers. I know for a fact that business check the internet for applicants. My wife used to work in HR for a very large company.

 

[mindquick]

i'm curious, do ADCOMs also check these forums?

 

[ADeadLois]

i'm curious, do ADCOMs also check these forums?

Yes. It's hard to talk to an admissions officer or school representative without hearing them start a sentence with "Despite what you may have read on SDN..."

 

[foreverLaur]

(1) even with no privacy settings, the only people who can view your profile are those that are your friends and in your networks (facebook).
(2) don't post things on facebook you would feel uncomfortable with anyone seeing.
(3) use the privacy settings (facebook & myspace).

unless you add your potential employer or potential med school as a friend or network, they can't see your profile.

i swear, people who get busted for things on Facebook and/or MySpace have to be complete idiots...

 

[postbacker]

As much as I enjoy browsing MDApps, I think they are a bad idea, too...especially when someone all but gives their name out and reveals their identity...and then they proceed to bitch about how some school f@@ed them over...not smart.

There was a regular here just a few months ago who evidently got burned for what he posted on SDN, in combo with a very revealing MDApps profile - he may have even lost an acceptance, but in the very least I seem to remember he posted that he had at least had an "uncomfortable" conversation with the dean of some med school, post acceptance, over some of the stuff he had been saying on SDN...

 

[Bartelby]

There was a regular here just a few months ago who evidently got burned for what he posted on SDN, in combo with a very revealing MDApps profile - he may have even lost an acceptance, but in the very least I seem to remember he posted that he had at least had an "uncomfortable" conversation with the dean of some med school, post acceptance, over some of the stuff he had been saying on SDN...

Can you link to that thread? Sounds interesting.

 

[Jolie South]

yikes, guess i'm changing my mdapps then!

 

[postbacker]

Can you link to that thread? Sounds interesting.

Sorry, I can't remember who this dude was and not sure how to find it...he did a lot of "cleaning up his tracks" on SDN though (this was back in March or April, I think), and he deleted a bunch of his crap (but when people "quote" you, it still gets preserved in the threads)...he erased his mdapps, too, and it was one of those that had such specific information that it would not have been hard at all to identify him...in fact I do recall that his SDN name had his first name in it, along with a number...just really dumb. I never saw a post here again from him after about late May...hopefully he made it to med school after all of that...

If I remember anything else, I will post it here...

 

[foreverLaur]

my screen name on here certainly has a part of my name in it, but not enough to identify me. i'm going to keep my mdapps information hidden (university, major, etc) so that i cannot be identified!

 

[Brigade4Radiant]

Doesn't facebook give universal accounts to employees that can even look at private accounts?

 

[foreverLaur]

Doesn't facebook give universal accounts to employees that can even look at private accounts?

I had an Ernst & Young account and I couldn't view anyone but the other E&Y employees and I couldn't even view all of them because they made their profiles "friends only"

 

[Bartelby]

Doesn't facebook give universal accounts to employees that can even look at private accounts?

It's funny because my first impulse reaction to that is something along the lines of "no way that can be legal!" Then I thought again and realized I never read the license when I signed up. Didn't even skim it. And I would bet none of you did either. If they are doing it, we probably checked a box saying we understood they were and approved of it! And if you think of it, they might be able to generate some revenue by selling these accounts. Somebody should go read the license agreement, wade through the legalese, and let us know.

 

[postbacker]

I had an Ernst & Young account and I couldn't view anyone but the other E&Y employees and I couldn't even view all of them because they made their profiles "friends only"

But the question is, could someone in management look at your stuff without you wanting them to? I don't know - I don't do facebook or myspace or any of that stuff...there is so much invasion of privacy going on today that I decided I didn't need to increase my chances of having a problem...

I hope all of you do realize that many companies monitor their employees email messages - they can actually "read" the content of your emails with sophisticated computer programs - anytime you use their computers, even if you are using a yahoo account and not the company's email system, this is still true...and there have been plenty of cases where people have been fired over this kind of thing...and thus far it has held up in the courts that companies have this right to do this...

 

[Depakote]

But the question is, could someone in management look at your stuff without you wanting them to? I don't know - I don't do facebook or myspace or any of that stuff...there is so much invasion of privacy going on today that I decided I didn't need to increase my chances of having a problem...

I hope all of you do realize that many companies monitor their employees email messages - they can actually "read" the content of your emails with sophisticated computer programs - anytime you use their computers, even if you are using a yahoo account and not the company's email system, this is still true...and there have been plenty of cases where people have been fired over this kind of thing...and thus far it has held up in the courts that companies have this right to do this...

My old employer told me about this... anything you access on their server becomes their property. If you've written it or accessed it from one of their computers, they have the right to review it.... as it stands now.

Honestly, I don't know that a lot of people need to worry about this, the majority of it is for continuity of business should you up and leave the company one day without warning, but it's good to know.

EDIT: this doesn't apply to passwords, IIRC.