adcoms use facebook?

[SoCuteMD]

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Members do not see this ad.

Thank you. These were my sentiments. You just confirmed what I've been saying all along. People are paranoid wayyy too much. And if work places have done something like this, then that's pretty pathetic because there are such things as real and official background checks.

Certainly the Internet can provide far more insight into a person than background checks.

Think what you want, but I would realize that younger adcom members are more likely to be tech savvy and curious. It doesn't have to be REL or LizzyM, it could be your interviewer who looks you up (as they only interview a smaller number of students than those who work in admissions committee process the applications of).

Exhibit A
At my old job we were hiring someone and were curious as to an experience he listed on his resume. We googled him, found his blog, read it and read the entries where he talked about how desperate he was for a job and his reflections on his interview with us. I believe the quote was, "I am so in!" We were a bit turned off and offered the job to an equally qualified but less public-blog-inclined candidate. We didn't start off to read his blog, but that's what happened.

Exhibit B
I know I mentioned before the whole facebook scandal involving some summer interns. I don't believe the quotes were anything significant, but enough that they were unflattering to the author. More whining about the long hours and some immature statements (as college juniors are prone to make, and of which investment banks tend to be wary).

To date, most med schools DON'T do background checks before matriculation. They may be required at some point during the clinical years depending on hospital policies (especially if the school is affiliated with a VA hospital).

Oh, and the best example of a person's Internet persona affected his/her medical education that I've ever heard from SDN. It's more rumor than anything (heard from multiple, relatively reliable SDNers) but I do believe that one school actually threatened to rescind an acceptance based on some (relatively inflammatory) posts on SDN. I don't know how it was resolved, but it was a headache that could have been prevented by a) remaining more anonymous or b) remembering that there are things you do in public and there are things you do in private and there is a VERY fine line between what is appropriate.

 

[riceman04]

I made my profile invisible to everyone except my friends. So if they searched for me is as if I wasn't there.

And yes, people with 900+ friends (I know some) are just insane. Nobody has 900+ FRIENDS. I have about 35 and these are people I actually talk to, not just the people to whom I say "Hi, how are you?" occasionally, or the guy that sits next to me in biochem who borrowed a pencil from me last week. 🙄

no one really has 35 friends...."Hi how are you? Can I borrow a pencil?"

 

[baylormed]

"Hi how are you? Can I borrow a pencil?"

No.

 

[Guile]

Do I need to tell you again that I understand?

No, because it won't go through. 🙄 Why the heck is being invisible a choice if it is so useless in your opinion? Oh, I know, because some people might want to choose that option. I have all the friends I need on facebook, and I'm in contact with all the people with whom I want to be in contact from my 2 years of high school in the US (no childhood friends of mine are on facebook).

Actually, you could just demonstrate that you understand once. That would be fine. And why is there an invisible option? Because there might be people out there who would want to be invisible. But the reasons that you just gave don't warrant being invisible--you just want your profile to only be seen by your friends which can be accomplished much easier. I was just trying to help you out, but you kept coming back with smartass comments.

And just FYI, I have a friend who only spent one year of HS in the US, and got on Facebook only to get Facebooked by a dozen of her childhood friends from home who had gone to the States for school. So it does happen.

"Never argue with a stupid person. People might not be able to tell the difference."

On that note, I'm done here.

 

[Rafa]

I think I've figured it out. MilkofMagnesia = Mark Zuckerberg!