Has social media ever doomed a strong applicant in your experiences?

[Gandyy]

I hope adcoms find my Facebook...my Timeline is chock-full of awesome. Honestly, I think my social media presence paints a better picture of me than my application.

SDN on the other hand...no.

Sadly, since my facebook has never been in my full name (I joined using my nickname), the username is nicknameemantsal, my privacy settings are high, and oh yeah, nobody cares that much about me to spend the time hunting me down...odds are they'll never see it. They're more likely to see my SDN, since I've not really been trying to hide who I am on here.

Same. Half my facebook pictures are from medical mission trips.

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[mehc012]

Same. Half my facebook pictures are from medical mission trips.

Mine aren't medically related in the slightest, which I like even better. It's just good snapshots of me, as a person, from my friends or the things I choose to repost (mostly nerdy stuff, but some is just fun!)

 

[Gandyy]

Lol. My point was that its better than having pictures of being belligerently drunk slammed all across your facebook wall.

 

[deleted393595]

I post lots of photos of myself on SDN

Wanna go out for drinks? We can have a good time

 

[familyaerospace]

Do you know or have seen a strong applicant get rejected due to his posts on FB or instagram?

I've seen it

Would you all recommend we deactivate these accounts during the application cycle, or only should people who have pics of them underage drinking, smoking, etc have trouble with these sites?

Depends on what is on them. All my really "this would possibly sink me" stuff is under so many filters that more power to the adcomms to find them. Ie, while I've never smoked, done drugs, I rarely drink, and I have literally never been to a party, I do tend to get overly passionate about some issues in ways that might not always be becoming of a future physician. Those are usually behind a filter or two or ten. I am tempted to move back to livejournal when I really want to gripe about things that would really and truly sink me.

Addtn: If so, please elaborate on what the social media user did that sealed their own fate

I've heard it happen on Facebook and SDN.

@FrkyBgStok Also, I thought the moderators wrote that SDN never discloses the identity of any of its members unless specifically issued a subpeona?

I had the dean of MSU literally comment on something I posted on SDN to my face. I had posted the day before my interview (I think) about how horrible the weather was. Even by Michigan standards it was horrible. and how I was worried about driving that I was going to get into an accident or something. He said to me privately that he hoped I didn't get into an accident or anything. I was a little creeped out. I think I actually used my FB profile at the time as my photo for the interview.

Just because SDN doesn't give out names does not mean people can't figure it out who you are. I have had so many people (almost certainly from SDN) hit my Linkedin it isn't even funny.

Joke is on people who were looking to sabotage me by looking at my social media, I am almost impossible to sabotage. I am very similar online as I am in person. Most of my friends are respectable. I think my online persona is probably more professional than my IRL one though!

 

[Goro]

I'd say you're pretty bullet-proof by now, given all you've been through.


Joke is on people who were looking to sabotage me by looking at my social media, I am almost impossible to sabotage. I am very similar online as I am in person. Most of my friends are respectable. I think my online persona is probably more professional than my IRL one though![/QUOTE]

 

[Axes]

What if there's pictures on twitter of you doing certain things that are legal in a few states but not others

 

[Spinach Dip]

What if there's pictures on twitter of you doing certain things that are legal in a few states but not others

Then only apply to schools in states where those things are legal.

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

.

 

[BABSstudent]

Don't put pictures on FB of you smoking weed

It's legal in Washington but we still get drug tested in the clinical years and sometimes in the preclinical years. But that never stops one or two applicants asking about it during the interview day or during the student/interviewee lunch.

 

[familyaerospace]

I'd say you're pretty bullet-proof by now, given all you've been through.

From your lips to G-d's ears.

Admittedly it can be a curse, my tending to be public. When I was writing a draft of the book you wanted me to write, I asked my rabbis if they had any questions that maybe I never answered. (I was looking to hit my Nanowrimo word count.) They said I was too good at pre-answering the questions and that I was too much of an open book. ;-) Luckily it was another person who gave me questions which my answers pushed me over.