Do ad-coms check facebook?

[bluesTank]

Should we remove pictures drinking pictures from facebook? Even girlfriend pictures? (my girlfriend is telling me I should...) I think it's ridiculous that they would, but I could be wrong. Anyone know?

Thanks

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[sle3pyguii]

Isnt there an option where only your friends can see your profile?

 

[sendwich]

Isnt there an option where only your friends can see your profile?

yes. go to "edit settings" and you'll see it.

 

[Law2Doc]

Should we remove pictures drinking pictures from facebook? Even girlfriend pictures? (my girlfriend is telling me I should...) I think it's ridiculous that they would, but I could be wrong. Anyone know?

Thanks

Even if a dean isn't going to waste his time looking at such things, it's not unheard of for eg a student adcom member who might be more facile with such things to peruse what they can find about interviewees on the web. Assume everything you put out there is fair game.

 

[gujuDoc]

While I doubt most adcoms will ever visit a site like facebook, I wouldn't put up stuff like getting drunk and trashed all over the place on something like that or myspace or what not.

Law2doc brings up a good point in other words.

 

[TheRealMD]

Setup your facebook to go into super hiding mode (privacy at max). Basically, unless a person is already your friend, they will never know that your profile even exists (doesn't come up in a search). It's perfect!

 

[gujuDoc]

Setup your facebook to go into super hiding mode (privacy at max). Basically, unless a person is already your friend, they will never know that your profile even exists (doesn't come up in a search). It's perfect!

Wow they have such a thing?

 

[gujuDoc]

Setup your facebook to go into super hiding mode (privacy at max). Basically, unless a person is already your friend, they will never know that your profile even exists (doesn't come up in a search). It's perfect!

You know but what if you have it set at that, but other people who are your friends don't have it at that and have pics of you doing inappropriate things?

 

[Husky85]

A friend of mine knows how to get through the privacy settings and assures me that it's not hard at all to do so...

...so any motivated adcom member could access your facebook or myspace profiles. That's not to say that they'd waste their time doing it, but is this a risk that's really worth taking?

 

[DrReo]

I've heard the fair game speech from a hospital group/shadow experience and college orientation. Also, a professor I research with said that employeers may possibly do the same.

 

[jae9970]

well, some police investigators do it..

 

[TheRealMD]

You know but what if you have it set at that, but other people who are your friends don't have it at that and have pics of you doing inappropriate things?

I also periodically check my photos on facebook. Nothing iffy yet!

 

[jae9970]

cant you change your settings so you can't be tagged in photos by others?

 

[Bacchus]

Employers will check it along with Myspace so I think Adcoms may too. A 4th year at my school, according to the Dean of Students, did not get an internship because when it came down to it, he and another student were equally qualified but he had pictures of himself with the infamous red cup, obliterated, on MySpace. It does happen, so be careful.

 

[JimmyHo286]

haha use facebook as your advantage! Show the Adcoms you are seriously about medicine. I would take pictures of myself next to homless people. Hugging them and serenading them as they eat their tomato soup. Or take pictures of myself in labs with sick people, trying to do CPR. And don't forget the kittens! Lots and lots of pictures with you and cute kittens.

 

[Decicco]

you can just delete your profile. then, when this is all over, you can return to your profile and you will have all your friends, your wall, etc intact.

 

[munnabhai]

I heard of a 20/20 or dateline report about how some firms datamine facebook and myspace. Many companies request the services of such companies before hiring employees. I don't know about med school though.

Who uses facebook anyways?

 

[Decicco]

If they datamine then we are all screwed.

 

[Bahadur]

I've actually had a previous employer lookup my Myspace before hiring me. Thank God she was a really cool and laidback person. Besides, those were my innocent days, hahah lmao.

 

[rmorriso]

Like was said, just set up your privacy settings so that anyone who isn't your friend cannot see any pictures of you (even ones others tag) and only see your limited profile.

I'm also doubtful of the whole internship/red cup thing. Most admissions people (and some prospective employers) I've talked to actually want to see that prospectives have a social life. But like said, don't risk it. Just set everything to private/friends only and don't worry about it.

And stay away from myspace. It's a hell hole. And much more open than facebook.

 

[coralfangs]

****, I better take off a pic of mine, with me standing in front of a sex toy shop pointing at th PIRATE poster. HAHA
I've already untagged all the photos

 

[crunchymilk]

I went ahead and untagged all the risky photos. It can't hurt.

 

[deleted103644]

Facebook is selling out as hard and as fast as they can. Any information you put on there is not only potentially available to adcoms and employers, but to any corporation willing to shell out a few bucks to Zuckerwhatever. Also, have you noticed the fine print for each of the "applications" you add? Yup, that gives the creators of the application full access to your info. Welcome to the information age - if you f up, everyone will find out about it.

 

[Bahadur]

Facebook is selling out as hard and as fast as they can. Any information you put on there is not only potentially available to adcoms and employers, but to any corporation willing to shell out a few bucks to Zuckerwhatever. Also, have you noticed the fine print for each of the "applications" you add? Yup, that gives the creators of the application full access to your info. Welcome to the information age - if you f up, everyone will find out about it.

Oh ya, a friend recently sent me something that was kinda creepyish. I'm not sure if the maker was being over-paranoid...but it does make you kind of ... i dunno... just weirded out.

Does What Happen In Facebook Stay in Facebook? (Click Link)

 

[durfen]

One of my interviewers said she tried to look me up on Facebook but 'inexplicably' couldn't access it (I had severely restricted it pre-application). She still saw the profile picture, and thought it was 'interesting'. It was a Douglas Adams reference. She wouldn't have understood.

 

[CTtarheel]

A friend of mine knows how to get through the privacy settings and assures me that it's not hard at all to do so...

...so any motivated adcom member could access your facebook or myspace profiles. That's not to say that they'd waste their time doing it, but is this a risk that's really worth taking?

it's a shocker to say this, but . . . . . well said

 

[Hurricane95]

Last I checked, alcohol consumption is legal for those 21 or over. There's no need to be extreme about it, within reason, of course. If you have pictures of yourself getting royally f***ed up and pouring a bottle of grey goose down a stripper's bare breasts, then maybe you might want to get rid of those. But a few harmless pics of you holding the "infamous" red solo cup with some friends in a responsible setting are no biggie. 95% of people 21 and over do it.

What's wrong with girlfriend pics? Pull those off...? Why? Come on guys, don't be silly. Last I checked, being in a relationship is relatively normal, don't sweat it.

 

[wanabdoc]

In our school, our dean has a facebook account in our school network, which means if you belong to the school network....heeee caaaaan seeeeee yooou!

 

[wanabdoc]

Last I checked, alcohol consumption is legal for those 21 or over. There's no need to be extreme about it, within reason, of course. If you have pictures of yourself getting royally f***ed up and pouring a bottle of grey goose down a stripper's bare breasts, then maybe you might want to get rid of those. But a few harmless pics of you holding the "infamous" red solo cup with some friends in a responsible setting are no biggie.

Disagree, although its not so bad, its definitely not helpful. They want to get a professional impression of you, not a party boy image.

95% of people 21 and over do it.

cough

 

[pluripotent]

Screw myspace, I deleted it months ago. As for facebook, untag all your shady photos. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Mayday]

I use LiveJournal instead - and I just made sure not to put any identifying information on it.sure, I've got pictures of myself and friends, but any adcom member would have to look at all of the profiles to be able to find me pretty much. no way to search me out.

 

[bluesTank]

This thread is like 6 months old...

 

[154465]

This thread is like 6 months old...

There is no statute of limitations on SDN!

I saw a thread a while back where a user gave another user advice. The person that received the advice responded with a "thanks" several YEARS later.

 

[GulabJamooMD]

it's best to be safe, have an appropriate profile pic, and remove all inappropriate material until May.

 

[GulabJamooMD]

i have several friends that are student interviewers, and they definetely google/check myspace, facebook, etc. before the interviews...

 

[pakbabydoll]

i have several friends that are student interviewers, and they definetely google/check myspace, facebook, etc. before the interviews...

I love you sdn Id.

 

[BMBPSU2008]

Hurricane95... is that avatar you?

 

[167649]

Please be smart about what you put on the internet. I never understood why people put stuff on the web for everyone to see, and then they don't think that it should count against them for anything. Employers, I know, do use myspace occasionally. As someone who used to interview people for employment, I occasionally checked up on them. I wouldn't be surprised if adcom members (especially students) occasionally do as well. These sites can be tools when you need to make a decision about somebody.

Locking profiles is probably all you need to do, but for any purpose I would actually recommend that you delete bad pictures and information all together, especially on myspace. There are abundant programs on the internet that can easily hack into a myspace profile even if its locked. Facebook is more secure, but not fullproof either. Be safe about what you put online.

Hurricane95... is that avatar you?

I would like to know too, but unfortunately this thread, as you may notice, was brought back from the dead and those posts are from 6 months ago. That person may not even know this thread exists still.

 

[shantster]

I know someone who went to an interview last year and the interviewer had her profile printed out in front of him.

Be careful about what goes up. Also, just because you set the privacy settings, there are ways for people to really want to see something to get around it. And Facebook is known for selling users information (apparently its policy is clear when you sign up if you actually read it) so it's not that hard for anyone, not just adcoms, to see what's up there.

 

[Kiara08]

I would like to know too, but unfortunately this thread, as you may notice, was brought back from the dead and those posts are from 6 months ago. That person may not even know this thread exists still.

the profile says that hes a male, sorry

 

[Jolie South]

what is the point of myspace and facebook anyways?

who cares about meeting random people on the internet or having your friends leave messages etc?

the only reason i joined sdn was to be more informed about applying to med school. if not for this, i would not be on here.

 

[BCLumas]

Although I have a facebook account to shut up the people who bombard me with "OMG!!11!1!! U don't have facebook?! U R nOOb! Get facebook now!!!", I find Facebook absolutely useless.

When did social networking begin to happen without the "social" part ever happening?


PS. Getting drunk and "hooking-up" with some random person does not constitute as a positive form of social networking. To each his own, I suppose...

 

[BMBPSU2008]

the profile says that hes a male, sorry

That sure rained on my parade.

 

[167649]

Although I have a facebook account to shut up the people who bombard me with "OMG!!11!1!! U don't have facebook?! U R nOOb! Get facebook now!!!", I find Facebook absolutely useless.

When did social networking begin to happen without the "social" part ever happening?


PS. Getting drunk and "hooking-up" with some random person does not constitute as a positive form of social networking. To each his own, I suppose...

I never really liked the networking sites either. I do have a facebook profile, and what I have found it most useful for is keeping in touch with my college friends, the ones in the category that I wasn't that close with and probably would have lost touch with them otherwise. But yeah, I look at some of these profiles and I see all these lame programs and people have thousands of pictures uploaded and I think man, are these people for real? To each his own...

 

[167649]

That sure rained on my parade.

Yeah, ditto. Maybe we have been eyeing his girfriend this whole time.

 

[drizzt3117]

Interesting article about facebook and drinking haha

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/12/10/face.book/index.html

 

[njbmd]

Should we remove pictures drinking pictures from facebook? Even girlfriend pictures? (my girlfriend is telling me I should...) I think it's ridiculous that they would, but I could be wrong. Anyone know?

Thanks

As a rule, No, we don't check Facebook, You-Tube or Myspace or any other social internet places. We just don't have that kind of time or particular interest in individual applicants.

Here is something for you to contemplate: Do you want anything on a public message board/photos on the Internet that shows you in less than a flattering manner? Anything that goes out into cyberspace is out there forever. While there is nothing wrong with drinking (who can tell what you have in a glass or cup anyway?), there is something that shows poor judgement when you have posted photos of yourself hugging a toilet, undressed, in a compromising position (think Britany Spears) or doing something that you are not proud of.

If you are standing around with your mates hoisting a pint, that's one thing but passed out in a pool of vomit sends a totally different message. One only needs to look at the CNN report that is out today to see some of the less than tasteful things that folks put on the Internet.

Bottom line: Don't post or put yourself in a position to have posted, anything that you are not proud of. Again, I am not talking about having a good time (legal), I am talking about going overboard or being so out of control that you don't know that you are being filmed or photographed.

Another thing to consider, we had a case where another student who was an applicant, sent in a letter telling our Dean of Admissions about a fellow applicant's Facebook photos. They were not very flattering. I do know that the Dean bothered to check out the site because of the letter from another applicant. The situation is ugly and to tell the truth, it does cast the former applicant in a bad light.

Just be careful folks and don't do anything that you wouldn't be proud of. Also realize that anything on the Internet can be there for eternity even if you erase it. Once out there, it's out there forever. A better course of action is to be sure that you don't post it in the first place unless you wouldn't mind a future employer/Dean looking at it.

 

[167649]

Interesting article about facebook and drinking haha

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/12/10/face.book/index.html

I saw that on the news last night! They even said along the lines of "It comes back to haunt these girls when applying for jobs or graduate school." Made me think of this thread....!

Pretty disturbing though. I'd be the first to admit, I made a couple mistakes my freshman year in college and found myself hugging the porcelain shrine, but I was pretty embarassed about it. I can't believe these girls would think it was cool and post pictures on facebook for their friends to see. Stupid.

 

[badasshairday]

It's funny how people are getting paranoid about their MDapps nowadays too. THey think they have to make it more anonymous by leaving out there home state and and stats. WTF. No adcom is going to waste that much time looking at your MDapps, then looking through your post history on SDN to dig up some dirt. Jeez.

 

[45408]

You know but what if you have it set at that, but other people who are your friends don't have it at that and have pics of you doing inappropriate things?

The adcom would have to be friends with your friends to even see the pictures.