Think about it; I don't think it makes any sense for either side.
What amount of money would reasonable for a school to pay for this service? I don't think that much, honestly. First of all, not every user out there has harsh privacy settings; a decent number of users, they have access to for free. Second of all, there is a MAJOR difference in manpower necessary between looking up 3-5 applicants for a job from the perspective of an employer and 500+ interviewees from the perspective of a school; we already hear about how understaffed an admissions office is just trying to read all the applications and review all of the candidates, where are they going to find the time to sift through 500+ facebook pages. Thirdly, how many facebook pages do you think they run across that they really think brings up such a major red flag that they remove them from consideration? 1 in a thousand? 1 in ten thousand? People applying to med school, in general, aren't dumb; they're not going to have crazy partying pictures up on Facebook for the exact reasons you're worried about here. So how much is it REALLY worth a school to MAYBE screen one student each year in their applicant pool via that manner--especially given that even if they happen to find something, there's nothing guaranteeing that they can't be a perfectly good med student who also happens to party? It just seems to me like the benefit here couldn't possibly be worth a very high price to a school.
On the other hand, what number would be enough for facebook to risk the trust of its millions of users? There already are plenty of paranoid people like yourself and scaper who are hesitant or outright don't use facebook as it is; if it got out that they had those kinds of deals, the user backlash would be huge and, IMO, the ad revenue lost from decreased user usage of facebook would certainly outweigh whatever small amount they might be able to squeeze out of a school. And mind you, it seems HIGHLY likely to me that it would get out; it seems like some adcom member somewhere would tell their kid to take down their facebook while they're applying because they know about this, and then the kid would let it leak and there'd suddenly be a huge problem on Facebook's hands. So I think if this sort of deal existed, we'd probably know.
So ultimately, yes, by all means watch what you put on your facebook. But there's no way I'm going to believe there's some shady deal between schools and facebook; what it would be worth to a school would be worth such a tiny fraction of what facebook makes from ad revenue, there's just no way I see it making any sense for either side. 🙂
Unfair! You posted this after I'd left my computer! I'm all about a good debate.
Firstly, I wasn't necessarily arguing that schools would
pay for this service. Rather, I said that they would and probably do search and review profiles of applicants.
Secondly, the manpower involved wouldn't be as extensive as you argue. Sure, if one person was in charge of 500 applicants and had to review them within one day's time, then you're right, there simply wouldn't be enough manpower. However, this is most likely
not the case. Example: After an interview with a faculty interviewer, the interviewer takes 1 minute to search google and/or facebook for the interviewees name. They take an extra minute to review or skim through what they find. End result? An added 2 minutes to interview time. Not too much manpower involved at all, eh?
Thirdly, the point of looking at a facebook page may not be to "raise red flags." Rather, it could be to get a better picture of the applicant and see if they represent themselves consistently through their application and through a social-networking site. That could provide insight into the character of the person without necessarily raising any red flags. So you ask, how much is it really worth to check into facebook? An extra 2 minutes, at probably no extra cost, to confirm the impression you received after interview. I think it would be very worth it in the minds of several interviewers.
From the aspect of facebook, assuming that there was some sort of monetary transaction to grant schools/employers access, then it would make sense financially to allow it. They could profit from such a transaction (think of how many schools/employers might potentially invest in this), and so long as this transaction was kept quiet or under the radar, it wouldn't make a difference to facebook users. Furthermore, you are implying that the transaction would be expensive for schools to use, when really, with low prices to allow access to profiles, facebook could profit greatly from the mere quantity of schools/employers willing to pay a low price for such great access. Besides, as I mentioned already, I am pretty sure it is already within the user agreement that they have rights over the information presented on their website, so they would not be required to notify anybody about such a transaction whatsoever.
Moreover, concerning facebook's perspective, you're assuming here that there is a monetary transaction. If there isn't and interviewers simply view that information or those profiles which are public or semi-public, then facebook would have no reason to notify users. Also, you say that an adcom member would let it slip that they've used Facebook to a student. Now, why would you think this would happen? And even if it did happen, why would you think that this one leak would become public enough to cause Facebook to suffer and invariably not allow these types of transactions (if that's what's happening) to continue? Then, there's the assumption that the student would further reveal this "slip" so that Facebook would even be aware of or care about the problem. If this "slip" occurred, would the student care to reveal that it had happened? Probably not, especially if something embarassing or incriminating had been raised to question in the interview.
And I agree, watch what you put on facebook, regardless of whether adcoms check your profile through a public search or through some transaction through facebook.
Love Mitch. 
