adcoms snooping on SDN, Mdapps, facebook, etc

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stat3113

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So on the pre-DO thread, they're having a discussion on to what extent adcoms snoop on applicants, ie by Googling them, checking their facebook, myspace, sdn, etc. I think mdapplicants is the real problem.

Any adcom can go search by university, gpa, mcat score and find an applicant (ie probably no two kids have the exact same gpa, mcat score, and college of graduation.) They can then see where else he applied and his rejections/interview invites etc. It could get dangerous if a school is trying to stay competitive and they see he was rejected from X school which is LOWER-ranked than theirs, and say well if we accept him / invite him for interview, people will get the wrong idea about our school, etc, and thus reject him. Also if an adcom sees someone has been accepted somewhere, they may be more-willing to reject him.

do you think this is possible and is it unethical? Does this make you guys think twice about posting on md-applicants?
 
They wouldn't find much on me in google. I've checked. Myspace on the otherhand would show a much more colorful side of me, however there is nothing there that would make me look bad.
 
MirrorTodd said:
They wouldn't find much on me in google. I've checked. Myspace on the otherhand would show a much more colorful side of me, however there is nothing there that would make me look bad.
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The question seems a little different. He's not talking about "remove all crazy drunk pics from your myspaces," but rather your acceptance and rejection record and how schools can use those to weed out people.
 
I've been on 5 interviews and interestingly on 3 of those SDN was mentioned by the admissions directors. Now I don't know if adcoms have all that time on their on their hands to search for individual profiles. However, policy makers in many schools do come here to see what is being said about their schools so that they can adjust or make some changes. For instance, the director of admissions at Meharry mentioned to some of us during our interview there that they read some negative things about their school on mdapps and they made significant changes to their interviewing process.

Some are just here to read what is being said about their school. They consider opinions here more honest since they were dished out under the cover of anonymity.
 
I went to a pre-med conference, and I recall a few Deans that mentioned Myspace.
 
Is it just me (and yes, I probably am in a b!tchy mood) but hasn't this very topic come up like 25 times already this cycle?


For the last )#(*%)#in time, if you don't want to worry about your parents, stalkers, adcoms, employers seeing all the nasty things you do in your personal life, well then, don't put those orgy and keg stand pics up on the internet. It's pretty simple.

I have an mdapplicants profile in my sig because 1.) I find the site helpful and wanted to contribute 2.) admissions staff have better things to do with their lives than stalk 5,000+ applicants on the internet.
 
I've also heard deans mention SDN - but primarily for the interview feedback. They are most interested in what people have to say about the school and the interview process. One of the schools I interviewed at said that they have made an effort to improve their interview reputation on SDN over the past couple of years.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - don't post specific questions about your interview. I am aware of a situation in which an interviewer found some feedback and wasn't too happy about it. I won't get into specifics, but do your best to remain anonymous.
 
PugMD said:
I've also heard deans mention SDN - but primarily for the interview feedback. They are most interested in what people have to say about the school and the interview process. One of the schools I interviewed at said that they have made an effort to improve their interview reputation on SDN over the past couple of years.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - don't post specific questions about your interview. I am aware of a situation in which an interviewer found some feedback and wasn't too happy about it. I won't get into specifics, but do your best to remain annonymous.
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Agreed. It's easy to post helpful feedback without revealing too many details about yourself.
 
PugMD said:
I've also heard deans mention SDN - but primarily for the interview feedback. They are most interested in what people have to say about the school and the interview process. One of the schools I interviewed at said that they have made an effort to improve their interview reputation on SDN over the past couple of years.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - don't post specific questions about your interview. I am aware of a situation in which an interviewer found some feedback and wasn't too happy about it. I won't get into specifics, but do your best to remain annonymous.
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I agree with you PUG, this is what I think as well. On interview days the stress seems to be interview feedback. Sure, some adcoms are on here, but we are all human. I think if you wanted to make sure that you are not in any "danger" then don't use your real name or try not to be too mean on SDN. Just because we are anonymous, doesn't give us the right to blurt everything out.
 
Severus said:
I have an mdapplicants profile in my sig because 1.) I find the site helpful and wanted to contribute 2.) admissions staff have better things to do with their lives than stalk 5,000+ applicants on the internet.
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This may come across as a little creepy, but I have definitely checked facebook profiles out when I have had to make selections for the various groups that I hold positions in at my college (ie. small scholarships, appointments, etc.). Many times it comes after meeting the individuals that are up for a given position, so it leads me to believe that if you interview a person (and of course you are going to want to use the best information possible to make the most suitable selection) then you would end up going to Facebook. If I were a student interviewer at a med school you'd better believe that I would consult FB, Myspace, etc. before/following an interview. As to how much I would use it when putting in my two cents...I mean, we all have inappropriate things on our Facebook page. Let's be serious.

So I would think that it's much more common for these sites to be referenced once someone has an interview with a student interviewer. As for the other people on the admissions staff, not so much. They have more important things to do. If you're a student interviewer you have that and studying. A Facebook break takes 5 minutes.
 
Severus said:
Is it just me (and yes, I probably am in a b!tchy mood) but hasn't this very topic come up like 25 times already this cycle?


For the last )#(*%)#in time, if you don't want to worry about your parents, stalkers, adcoms, employers seeing all the nasty things you do in your personal life, well then, don't put those orgy and keg stand pics up on the internet. It's pretty simple.

I have an mdapplicants profile in my sig because 1.) I find the site helpful and wanted to contribute 2.) admissions staff have better things to do with their lives than stalk 5,000+ applicants on the internet.
Click to expand...

I agree with Severus, what's the deal with all the threads? Is this a new kind of cyber-neurotic?

I have an mdapp with no specific info; I'll add it back in at the end of the cycle. I got kind of paranoid a few months ago and I figured that info isn't really helpful to people until I finish the cycle anyway so I might as well take it out and retain some kind of privacy.
 
boo-yeh said:
This may come across as a little creepy, but I have definitely checked facebook profiles out when I have had to make selections for the various groups that I hold positions in at my college (ie. small scholarships, appointments, etc.). Many times it comes after meeting the individuals that are up for a given position, so it leads me to believe that if you interview a person (and of course you are going to want to use the best information possible to make the most suitable selection) then you would end up going to Facebook. If I were a student interviewer at a med school you'd better believe that I would consult FB, Myspace, etc. before/following an interview. As to how much I would use it when putting in my two cents...I mean, we all have inappropriate things on our Facebook page. Let's be serious.

So I would think that it's much more common for these sites to be referenced once someone has an interview with a student interviewer. As for the other people on the admissions staff, not so much. They have more important things to do. If you're a student interviewer you have that and studying. A Facebook break takes 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

That's all fine and stalkerific, but that's exactly what security settings are for.
 
stat3113 said:
So on the pre-DO thread, they're having a discussion on to what extent adcoms snoop on applicants, ie by Googling them, checking their facebook, myspace, sdn, etc. I think mdapplicants is the real problem.

Any adcom can go search by university, gpa, mcat score and find an applicant (ie probably no two kids have the exact same gpa, mcat score, and college of graduation.) They can then see where else he applied and his rejections/interview invites etc. It could get dangerous if a school is trying to stay competitive and they see he was rejected from X school which is LOWER-ranked than theirs, and say well if we accept him / invite him for interview, people will get the wrong idea about our school, etc, and thus reject him. Also if an adcom sees someone has been accepted somewhere, they may be more-willing to reject him.

do you think this is possible and is it unethical? Does this make you guys think twice about posting on md-applicants?
Click to expand...

Member of two admissions committees here and member in good standing of SDN since 2001. If you post personal information (and add stupid stuff) on public websites, it's not "snooping" for you to be the subject of a website search. The information is public and open to be searched.

If you don't want your actions and posts to be public, don't post them on-line. Yes, there have been people who have been rejected from medical school for on-line stupidity. It has nothing to to with prior acceptances but with some particular applicants being idiots or trolls. With the huge number of well-qualified applicants out there, medical schools are not obliged to accept folks with social problems and stupidity.

I have a wonderful collection of idiot posts from (other sites) in my office right now. They have been the subject of discussion in both my commttees. Bottom line: Have fun but don't be stupid and don't post any information that you would want to be public because it can and will wind up there.
 
LifetimeDoc said:
I would guess any opinion you express on SDN then would be considered part of your application (assuming the adcoms could take all of your posts, cross-reference them with their database of applicants) as if you had included it in your personal statement.
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Not "would be considered" but "could" be used to evaluate you by anyone who wants to. If you post something on a public website, it is public. This is the "age of electronic information" and information is out there to be gathered and may be used in any manner that is not unlawful.

It is always wise not to post personal information on a public website. Certainly all of those "Dateline NBC" shows about sexual predators being lured into to traps by police should let you know that anything you post is part of public domain and can be used by the public.

SDN has a wonderful PM (Private Message) system. You can exchange any information that you wish and it remains private but posts on a public message board are just that "public" and subject to any legal use within the public domain.
 
LifetimeDoc said:
Just a question, and not meaning to upset a current adcom, but is it ethical for a supermod on SDN to also be an admissions committee member? That means that some medical school admission committees have special access to SDN records. Do you have access to our real email addresses and zip codes (given during SDN registration) etc?
Click to expand...

Both of my schools know fully about my role at SDN and are quite happy about it. SDN knows well about my roles on admissions committees. Both are quite separate and I maintain that separation just as I maintain patient confidential information within the scope of my medical practice as I am a practicing physician.

SDN registration records are private and are kept private (not accessed without court order) along with your private messages (PMs). That being said, anything that you post on the public forums is just that "public".

In 2006, it is wise to keep any personal information off of public websites and message boards as it can be accessed by the public. You may want to re-read SDN's Forum Usage policies.
 
njmd how did you make lifetimedoc's post disappear? or was it you?
 
stat3113 said:
njmd how did you make lifetimedoc's post disappear? or was it you?
Click to expand...

I wrote asking about access, then decided to delete the message. Guess it's not deleted on admin screens.

I would hope that SDN would add to their usage policies, for the purposes of full-disclosure, that some current admission committee members have access (though I'm not accusing anyone of using the data inappropriately) to our private records and have admin privledges on SDN.
 
LifetimeDoc said:
I wrote asking about access, then decided to delete the message. Guess it's not deleted on admin screens.

I would hope that SDN would add to their usage policies, for the purposes of full-disclosure, that some current admission committee members have access (though I'm not accusing anyone of using the data inappropriately) to our private records and have admin privledges on SDN.
Click to expand...

How do you delete a post?
 
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