Admissions committees use social media to check out applicants

[gstudent26]

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This might be a coincidence but I was looking at my linkedin views and there was a spike on May 15 where my profile got 4x as many views as I normally do (~20 views). I don't have any significant events around may 15 and I didnt add a whole bunch of people around that date. However, I am at the tail end of my application cycle but am sitting on a couple waitlists. You guys think adcoms are using social media to check out their applicants before making waitlist decisions?

 

[tantacles]

This might be a coincidence but I was looking at my linkedin views and there was a spike on May 15 where my profile got 4x as many views as I normally do (~20 views). I don't have any significant events around may 15 and I didnt add a whole bunch of people around that date. However, I am at the tail end of my application cycle but am sitting on a couple waitlists. You guys think adcoms are using social media to check out their applicants before making waitlist decisions?

No. It's unlikely unless your linkedin was mentioned in your AMCAS.

However, keep in mind that it isn't impossible. I know that for undergrad, many schools have students from the institution friend prospective students on facebook and then report back if they find anything interesting.

 

[alerk323]

This might be a coincidence but I was looking at my linkedin views and there was a spike on May 15 where my profile got 4x as many views as I normally do (~20 views). I don't have any significant events around may 15 and I didnt add a whole bunch of people around that date. However, I am at the tail end of my application cycle but am sitting on a couple waitlists. You guys think adcoms are using social media to check out their applicants before making waitlist decisions?

weird facebook was running a bit slow on may 15th too...

 

[UCFKnight]

Wouldn't surprise me one bit.

 

[ronathan]

This might be a coincidence but I was looking at my linkedin views and there was a spike on May 15 where my profile got 4x as many views as I normally do (~20 views). I don't have any significant events around may 15 and I didnt add a whole bunch of people around that date. However, I am at the tail end of my application cycle but am sitting on a couple waitlists. You guys think adcoms are using social media to check out their applicants before making waitlist decisions?

I find it kind of hard to believe that adcoms are sitting around looking at the Facebook postings or LinkedIn profiles of hundreds of applicants, but who knows? If you're really worried about it, change the privacy settings of your account just to be sure.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

I not only believe it, I expect it. Obviously they're not going to do this for everyone, only for the applicants on the "short list" so to speak. Think about it: You're an adcom member. You want to know as much about an applicant as possible. Why wouldn't you type an applicant's name into google/facebook/linkedin/etc. and see what comes up? Who knows, maybe you'll find out they're the kind of person who posts pictures of themselves plastered and half naked (not exactly the kind of student you want representing your school). Maybe when you look at their linkedin profile or facebook you'll see they were lying about all those hours they put in at the clinic. Maybe the kid who said she always wanted to be a doctor in her PS still has her old linkedin account left up that makes it quite clear that up until recently she was deadset on a completely different career, or maybe that guy who told you he definitely planned on pursuing a career in primary care in underserved areas has his facebook page littered with stuff that indicates his real career aspiration is to be an anesthesiologist at a large urban hospital.

It's an established fact that both employers and school adcoms at least attempt to look up applicants online to see what they can dig up. I don't know why anyone is surprised by this at this point. You should always treat your social media accounts as public and liable to be seen by employers/adcoms. Same goes for your SDN account. Most of us have probably posted enough information to make it clear who we are to an adcom member with our application in their hands. Obviously they can't easily search for you on here, but it's not unreasonable to think that they might accidentally stumble across a post you made on SDN during another search, see what your account name is, and look at all the other posts you've ever made.

 

[Verum]

Probably, probably not but when i was reading the requirements for an NIH internship it said that your social media stuff will be used to see the kind of person you are so make sure your name when googled is clean. All that i ask is that adcoms do the same. Say they are doing it and be transparent about it.

 

[kpcrew]

probably a good time to change your name to john smith

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yeah, a representative from Jefferson told me flat out that while they don't do it, there are plenty of schools that will check up on your Facebook and make sure there's no photos of you red-faced and flaunting a red Solo cup. Just be sensible about what you display on your page, and you should be just fine.

 

[NickNaylor]

I will very occasionally look up an applicant I'm interviewing on Facebook. All social media stuff is fair game, but the reality is that there's an almost non existent chance that someone will actually look you up.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos and brevity)

 

[davidb25]

It is absolutely possible. Think about it, a facebook profile can be a goldmine of information relevant to institutions deciding on whether or not to invest/depend in/on you.

I'm actually very curious as to how this is going to play out for the future of society. These images/facebook statuses arn't going anywhere anytime soon and with future generations becoming more and more tech-savy, entire live's are going to be able to be archived/ researchable to anybody interested, including curious kids wondering what mom&pop did in their teens early 20's. :|

 

[Verum]

Protip: a week before you send in your application, close your fb/twit/youtube etc and when you get accecpted open them back up again. I think fb allows you to reactivate ur account but ns about twit/youtube.

 

[FattySlug]

What if people set everything to friends only in fb? Nobody can find anything about them right? Through fb at least. I set everything to friends only and can't even find myself on fb. Even pasting the direct link to the address bar gives an unavailable message.

 

[gettheleadout]

What if people set everything to friends only in fb? Nobody can find anything about them right? Through fb at least. I set everything to friends only and can't even find myself on fb. Even pasting the direct link to the address bar gives an unavailable message.

You're fine then.

 

[Narmerguy]

What if people set everything to friends only in fb? Nobody can find anything about them right? Through fb at least. I set everything to friends only and can't even find myself on fb. Even pasting the direct link to the address bar gives an unavailable message.

Yeah they're not going to try that hard.

 

[thelaw986]

haha people still use facebook?

 

[syoung]

I am thinking of quitting FB sometime in the next year. Just because of all the damn privacy changes in the past few years.

 

[ronathan]

I not only believe it, I expect it. Obviously they're not going to do this for everyone, only for the applicants on the "short list" so to speak. Think about it: You're an adcom member. You want to know as much about an applicant as possible. Why wouldn't you type an applicant's name into google/facebook/linkedin/etc. and see what comes up? Who knows, maybe you'll find out they're the kind of person who posts pictures of themselves plastered and half naked (not exactly the kind of student you want representing your school). Maybe when you look at their linkedin profile or facebook you'll see they were lying about all those hours they put in at the clinic. Maybe the kid who said she always wanted to be a doctor in her PS still has her old linkedin account left up that makes it quite clear that up until recently she was deadset on a completely different career, or maybe that guy who told you he definitely planned on pursuing a career in primary care in underserved areas has his facebook page littered with stuff that indicates his real career aspiration is to be an anesthesiologist at a large urban hospital.

It's an established fact that both employers and school adcoms at least attempt to look up applicants online to see what they can dig up. I don't know why anyone is surprised by this at this point. You should always treat your social media accounts as public and liable to be seen by employers/adcoms. Same goes for your SDN account. Most of us have probably posted enough information to make it clear who we are to an adcom member with our application in their hands. Obviously they can't easily search for you on here, but it's not unreasonable to think that they might accidentally stumble across a post you made on SDN during another search, see what your account name is, and look at all the other posts you've ever made.

You’re probably right that this is the direction that med school admissions are going to head towards in the future, as more of the tech-savvy generation becomes older, established doctors that serve on these adcoms. But for right now, I don’t think that’s really the case, and I’m basing that on two primary pieces of evidence: the fact that my mom (who works as an assistant dean at a New York hospital) has served on medical school admissions committees for several years, and my own experience serving as a student representative to a graduate admissions committee when I was in grad school. I can tell you that most committee members view their responsibilities to the adcom as a complete waste of their time. Don’t forget, what they do while serving on the adcom is in addition to their other administrative duties, filling out paperwork, teaching classes, attending lectures, serving on other hospital committees, and everything else that keeps them away from seeing patients. Is it any wonder, then, that adcoms only meet once every 4-6 weeks at most schools? In order to really go over each and every application with the due diligence that you seem to ascribe to them would require them meeting far more often than that, don't you think? Do you really think the members are spending every waking hour in between their meetings going over 5000 applications with a fine tooth comb to find the 40 best? The answer is of course not.

And if you think about it in those terms, the whole process of med school admissions start to make a lot more sense. After all, is it any wonder that the first round of cuts are made solely on stats (GPA, MCAT, etc.)? The reason why is because it’s the easiest way to make the pile of applications smaller, and because it requires the least amount of effort on their part. Conversely, that’s also why the cuts in the later stages (after the interview) always seem so arbitrary (in terms of why one candidate gets in versus another). It's because it IS arbitrary! At that point in the cycle there is very little difference between candidates, so they just pick their favorites using any metric that takes the least amount of time, even if it’s simply picking every fifth application in the pile. These guys are first and foremost doctors, who have already have a full-time job delivering medical care. Whatever they do on these committees is on top of that, so they are obviously going to make it as quick and painless for themselves as they possibly can. So I really can't see them tacking on hours of internet searching to the process if they feel they don't have to in order to make an admissions decision.

 

[LPpostbacc]

You’re probably right that this is the direction that med school admissions are going to head towards in the future, as more of the tech-savvy generation becomes older, established doctors that serve on these adcoms. But for right now, I don’t think that’s really the case, and I’m basing that on two primary pieces of evidence: the fact that my mom (who works as an assistant dean at a New York hospital) has served on medical school admissions committees for several years, and my own experience serving as a student representative to a graduate admissions committee when I was in grad school. I can tell you that most committee members view their responsibilities to the adcom as a complete waste of their time. Don’t forget, what they do while serving on the adcom is in addition to their other administrative duties, filling out paperwork, teaching classes, attending lectures, serving on other hospital committees, and everything else that keeps them away from seeing patients. Is it any wonder, then, that adcoms only meet once every 4-6 weeks at most schools? In order to really go over each and every application with the due diligence that you seem to ascribe to them would require them meeting far more often than that, don't you think? Do you really think the members are spending every waking hour in between their meetings going over 5000 applications with a fine tooth comb to find the 40 best? The answer is of course not.

And if you think about it in those terms, the whole process of med school admissions start to make a lot more sense. After all, is it any wonder that the first round of cuts are made solely on stats (GPA, MCAT, etc.)? The reason why is because it’s the easiest way to make the pile of applications smaller, and because it requires the least amount of effort on their part. Conversely, that’s also why the cuts in the later stages (after the interview) always seem so arbitrary (in terms of why one candidate gets in versus another). It's because it IS arbitrary! At that point in the cycle there is very little difference between candidates, so they just pick their favorites using any metric that takes the least amount of time, even if it’s simply picking every fifth application in the pile. These guys are first and foremost doctors, who have already have a full-time job delivering medical care. Whatever they do on these committees is on top of that, so they are obviously going to make it as quick and painless for themselves as they possibly can. So I really can't see them tacking on hours of internet searching to the process if they feel they don't have to in order to make an admissions decision.

FWIW, I heard an adcom speak to a group of students about 1-1 1/2 years ago. She mentioned twice that she checks social media for questionable info. Inappropriate pics and such....

 

[NonTraditional3]

What ronathan says has some merit, and I generally try to adhere to this school of thought. However, is it impossible that an admissions office might outsource this to medical student representatives of admissions, or perhaps even to a background check service, that would also do things like Facebook, linked in, myspace, google searches in addition to the typical authorities that would-be contacted when doing an ordinary background check? No. I do not think this is impossible.

 

[Kuuaku]

I occasionally look up applicants on Facebook before or after the interview (before submitting my evaluation). I have been to conferences where program directors specifically ask residents to search the web before and during residency interview season. Be smart: take down stupid pictures or make things private.

 

[TheShaker]

I will very occasionally look up an applicant I'm interviewing on Facebook. All social media stuff is fair game, but the reality is that there's an almost non existent chance that someone will actually look you up.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos and brevity)

Just wondering, how often does this actually make a notable difference in your opinion of the applicant and the overall decision?

 

[linebacker57]

At an information session at my undergrad with Adcom members from 3 different highly ranked med schools, this issue was brought up. They told me that adcom members themselves dont actively look up applicants on social media sites, but that if something is brought to their attention by a 3rd party, they will take a look. Duke's dean of admissions even shared a story of a time they had accepted a student, only to receive an email from that students classmate (another pre-med, so im told), who was most likely jealous with a link to some highly questionable facebook material, and upon seeing it, Duke rescinded the students acceptance.

 

[NonTraditional3]

dean of admissions even shared a story of a time they had accepted a student, only to receive an email from that students classmate (another pre-med, so im told), who was most likely jealous with a link to some highly questionable facebook material, and upon seeing it, Duke rescinded the students acceptance.

WOW. What a jerk. Not the dean, the classmate. I mean, yeah - don't have stupid and incriminating material of yourself on the public wires, but still...that's pretty underhanded of the jealous classmate. SMH.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

You’re probably right that this is the direction that med school admissions are going to head towards in the future, as more of the tech-savvy generation becomes older, established doctors that serve on these adcoms. But for right now, I don’t think that’s really the case, and I’m basing that on two primary pieces of evidence: the fact that my mom (who works as an assistant dean at a New York hospital) has served on medical school admissions committees for several years, and my own experience serving as a student representative to a graduate admissions committee when I was in grad school. I can tell you that most committee members view their responsibilities to the adcom as a complete waste of their time. Don’t forget, what they do while serving on the adcom is in addition to their other administrative duties, filling out paperwork, teaching classes, attending lectures, serving on other hospital committees, and everything else that keeps them away from seeing patients. Is it any wonder, then, that adcoms only meet once every 4-6 weeks at most schools? In order to really go over each and every application with the due diligence that you seem to ascribe to them would require them meeting far more often than that, don't you think? Do you really think the members are spending every waking hour in between their meetings going over 5000 applications with a fine tooth comb to find the 40 best? The answer is of course not.

And if you think about it in those terms, the whole process of med school admissions start to make a lot more sense. After all, is it any wonder that the first round of cuts are made solely on stats (GPA, MCAT, etc.)? The reason why is because it’s the easiest way to make the pile of applications smaller, and because it requires the least amount of effort on their part. Conversely, that’s also why the cuts in the later stages (after the interview) always seem so arbitrary (in terms of why one candidate gets in versus another). It's because it IS arbitrary! At that point in the cycle there is very little difference between candidates, so they just pick their favorites using any metric that takes the least amount of time, even if it’s simply picking every fifth application in the pile. These guys are first and foremost doctors, who have already have a full-time job delivering medical care. Whatever they do on these committees is on top of that, so they are obviously going to make it as quick and painless for themselves as they possibly can. So I really can't see them tacking on hours of internet searching to the process if they feel they don't have to in order to make an admissions decision.

I don't think that adcom members are sitting there looking up every single applicant. Like I said, it very likely only happens to short list applicants, the people who have already been interviewed and not outright rejected after the interview. Granted a lot of adcom members probably don't care enough to bother, but adcom members are individuals and there are bound to be some who do take their roles very seriously and are liable to put in a lot more effort than the average adcom. I see it at the med school I work at. Some professors despise having to do adcom work, while others relish it.

When you're applicant (for anything) you should just be safe and assume that people are going to look at your social media profiles. It's not hard to set everything to private and/or clean things up.

 

[Praefectus]

I not only believe it, I expect it. Obviously they're not going to do this for everyone, only for the applicants on the "short list" so to speak. Think about it: You're an adcom member. You want to know as much about an applicant as possible. Why wouldn't you type an applicant's name into google/facebook/linkedin/etc. and see what comes up? Who knows, maybe you'll find out they're the kind of person who posts pictures of themselves plastered and half naked (not exactly the kind of student you want representing your school). Maybe when you look at their linkedin profile or facebook you'll see they were lying about all those hours they put in at the clinic. Maybe the kid who said she always wanted to be a doctor in her PS still has her old linkedin account left up that makes it quite clear that up until recently she was deadset on a completely different career, or maybe that guy who told you he definitely planned on pursuing a career in primary care in underserved areas has his facebook page littered with stuff that indicates his real career aspiration is to be an anesthesiologist at a large urban hospital.

It's an established fact that both employers and school adcoms at least attempt to look up applicants online to see what they can dig up. I don't know why anyone is surprised by this at this point. You should always treat your social media accounts as public and liable to be seen by employers/adcoms. Same goes for your SDN account. Most of us have probably posted enough information to make it clear who we are to an adcom member with our application in their hands. Obviously they can't easily search for you on here, but it's not unreasonable to think that they might accidentally stumble across a post you made on SDN during another search, see what your account name is, and look at all the other posts you've ever made.

I doubt that you could find an applicant from SDN, unless they frequently posted about something like fishing and centered their personal statement on fishing.

 

[09ine]

At an information session at my undergrad with Adcom members from 3 different highly ranked med schools, this issue was brought up. They told me that adcom members themselves dont actively look up applicants on social media sites, but that if something is brought to their attention by a 3rd party, they will take a look. Duke's dean of admissions even shared a story of a time they had accepted a student, only to receive an email from that students classmate (another pre-med, so im told), who was most likely jealous with a link to some highly questionable facebook material, and upon seeing it, Duke rescinded the students acceptance.

Utterly ridiculous, I wouldn't blame the kid if he decided to go postal after that.

 

[thlaxer]

I doubt that you could find an applicant from SDN, unless they frequently posted about something like fishing and centered their personal statement on fishing.

For most posters that's probably true, but it's pretty easy to identify some people on SDN from their post history, username and/or mdapps info (especially when they give out their college, major, GPA, MCAT, EC's, etc.). I recognized a few people from SDN quite easily actually on second looks 😛

 

[MedPR]

I saw someone have this disclaimer on her FB that no one could use her FB information in any kind of unauthorized way (e.g her employer, school, whoever). She cited some US legal document, though I don't know if it was legit.

I disabled my facebook last week for this very reason. That, and I almost never use it anyway. I'll reactivate after I commit somewhere.

 

[MedPR]

WOW. What a jerk. Not the dean, the classmate. I mean, yeah - don't have stupid and incriminating material of yourself on the public wires, but still...that's pretty underhanded of the jealous classmate. SMH.

Spoiled rich kids (vast majority of premeds) can't handle when someone else gets something awesome.

 

[Arbor Vitae]

 

[NonTraditional3]

I would sell all my books, and move to Perth, and try and be an Aussie doc.

 

[linebacker57]

I saw someone have this disclaimer on her FB that no one could use her FB information in any kind of unauthorized way (e.g her employer, school, whoever). She cited some US legal document, though I don't know if it was legit.

I disabled my facebook last week for this very reason. That, and I almost never use it anyway. I'll reactivate after I commit somewhere.

that was just bogus false information. The people who put that up just made themselves look stupid. The ownership status of facebook has nothing to do with how they could use your information, which has to be layed out in the terms of service, which did not change. Its the equivaltent of saying that because Allscripts is a publicly owned company they can release everyones protected health information to anyone. Just dont be an idiot.

 

[09ine]

that was just bogus false information. The people who put that up just made themselves look stupid. The ownership status of facebook has nothing to do with how they could use your information, which has to be layed out in the terms of service, which did not change. Its the equivaltent of saying that because Allscripts is a publicly owned company they can release everyones protected health information to anyone. Just dont be an idiot.

^^^^

I had a whole rash of friends post that as their status and an equal amount of people correcting them. It's funny to see people trying to be all "against the establishment" and failing.

 

[NickNaylor]

Just wondering, how often does this actually make a notable difference in your opinion of the applicant and the overall decision?

It hasn't happened yet. Most of the time I'm unable to find the person. Even if I do, they're usually smart enough to have everything hidden so that, at best, all I see is a profile pic. If I happened to find some VERY questionable stuff, though, I would without a doubt mention it in my report. I'm talking something absolutely ridiculous, not pictures of you drinking or even going to a house party. People with more sensitive sensibilities would likely be more easily offended, though.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos and brevity)

 

[Irish Football]

Negative reviews from when I was a new and awful teacher, that I was a sex advice columnist back in college (a while ago), and two interviews in which I discussed teen suicides and video gaming.

Link please?

 

[ShenanigansMD]

Umm... Name change?

Problem solved.

 

[IslandStyle808]

There have been cases of medical adcoms using social networks to find out about their applicants.

I went to an AMSA conference at UC Davis and one of the admission's committee members (I don't remember which school) stated he did look at social networks for certain applicants. One person was actually denied because he put up racist comments on his facebook account. The person did sue and was still denied by that school.

So if the possibility of them seeing your facebook or twitter profile is there, then it can be used against you.

 

[Craigular]

What is up with the people saying, "Oh I don't think they d0," "Oh it takes too much time"

Are you ******ed?

It takes you seconds to type a persons name into google and if the first 3 results arent them after you click through, then you move on to the next person. All of thats done in less than a minute and gives you more information than any application could.


For example, I could type in "Drake" into google and instantly find out hes a phaggot without having to click the first link.

Don't be stupid and stop posting stupid pictures to make yourself get attention that you so crave.

 

[tonguetalker]

So I have a fairly uncommon name however there is another guy on FB around my age and of my same ethnicity on facebook with my exact name with lewd pictures of himself posted. There is no affiliation to my home school but when googling my name, he's the guy who comes up. What would happen in an instance like this? Should I message him and ask him to private his profile?

 

[LPpostbacc]

weird facebook was running a bit slow on may 15th too...

I heard an adcom speak about 1.5 years ago, and she said she absolutely checks social media. Looks for inappropriate stuff.

Funny thing is, I looked her up on LinkedIn and fb after the weekend. She had a pic up on both accts that looked MUCH more appropriate for a dating website. Unbelievable.

 

[LPpostbacc]

So I have a fairly uncommon name however there is another guy on FB around my age and of my same ethnicity on facebook with my exact name with lewd pictures of himself posted. There is no affiliation to my home school but when googling my name, he's the guy who comes up. What would happen in an instance like this? Should I message him and ask him to private his profile?

And, no, absolutely not. There's nothing you can do. It's not your responsibility to police every "(Insert your name)" and censor public data. If a school can't tell you from some clown, you probably don't want to be there anyway.

 

[SisterDisco08]

Keep in mind that while every single adcom may not have the time to do this, your student interviewers (like NickNaylor and myself), will likely make it a point to do so...

 

[areserine]

I know there used to be a way, but I haven't been able to check since they made changes, can you see your facebook as someone who isn't friends with you sees it? I think I have all of the security settings right so they can only see my profile pic and timeline picture, but is there a way to visually check this? (Short of logging in as someone you're not friends with and looking at yourself?)

 

[tonguetalker]

And, no, absolutely not. There's nothing you can do. It's not your responsibility to police every "(Insert your name)" and censor public data. If a school can't tell you from some clown, you probably don't want to be there anyway.

I'm black and quite often people confuse me with other black people just because of that when imo we look nothing alike so it could be possible. My facebook is fairly clean and I almost want to make it public for that reason.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I know there used to be a way, but I haven't been able to check since they made changes, can you see your facebook as someone who isn't friends with you sees it? I think I have all of the security settings right so they can only see my profile pic and timeline picture, but is there a way to visually check this? (Short of logging in as someone you're not friends with and looking at yourself?)

Assuming you have timeline:

- go to your profile page
- click on the little gear on the bottom right-hand corner of your cover photo
- click "View as..."

I have no idea how to do it on the normal profile; I've had timeline for so long now.

 

[LPpostbacc]

I'm black and quite often people confuse me with other black people just because of that when imo we look nothing alike so it could be possible. My facebook is fairly clean and I almost want to make it public for that reason.

There is NO WAY an adcom could make a call like that without knowing DEFINITIVELY, beyond a shadow of a doubt that is was your profile.

Facebook and other soc-nets have ramped up privacy features dramatically in the last couple years, and many more people take advantage of it now.

 

[areserine]

That's exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!

 

[MedPR]

I not only believe it, I expect it. Obviously they're not going to do this for everyone...

+1.

There's no reason to have things on your facebook that you wouldn't openly show to an ADCOM.

 

[Ruhroh]

Question for student interviewers: do you ever feel someone NOT having facebook is a bit of a red flag? I'm social, outgoing, etc. but I stopped using mine like 2 years ago and I never looked back. But now I feel like I almost need to have one just so people will think I am normal :-/