Do you think adcoms look on SDN

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buffywannabe

buffywannabe

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I have noticed some people taking things down from MDapps because it is application time... Should I be more anonymous?
Members don't see this ad.
 
yes they do. Does it really matter though probably not. however I always feel better safe then sorry. So I just deleted mine
 
just dont be an idiot. mdapps and SDN are for helping those who are looking for some sort of insight into the process. as long as you keep it like that, i cant see someone associating something bad with you.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
yeah, I heard they look through SDN.:scared:
 
honestly, I think facebook and/or your blog should be more of a concern than SDN or MDApps
 
There are several active adcom members on SDN. Some are mentors over in the mentor forums and some, as noted above, are moderation staff.

Hysterics: That above staffer may be able to get your SDN IP and link it to an electronically submitted application. :scared:

I don't think its such a big deal, if you're playing on SDN nicely.
 
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I hope they do, since that way they'll know how badly I want to go to their school, but with my luck.....
 
no they don't. feel free to post nudie pics:smuggrin:
 
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Bacchus said:
There are several active adcom members on SDN. Some are mentors over in the mentor forums and some, as noted above, are moderation staff.

Hysterics: That above staffer may be able to get your SDN IP and link it to an electronically submitted application. :scared:

I don't think its such a big deal, if you're playing on SDN nicely.
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Way to be comforting, Bacchus. :p

No, but seriously, I don't think anyone has anything to worry about as long as your posts are appropriate. It'd be a whole lot of trouble for them to go searching for applicants on SDN and mdapps, so unless you're like really anti-anonymous, I doubt any adcom would link you to your app.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
What's the point of anonymity? I really don't have anything posted on the internet that admissions committees should stress over. I always think it's awkward when people have MDapplicants pages that just have "GPA: around 3.7, MCAT: 33-35 Extracurriculars: some stuff". Why put a page up if there's nothing useful on it? And what does it matter what institution you come from? That's the part I really don't get.
 
Aggro said:
And what does it matter what institution you come from? That's the part I really don't get.
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Maybe some people come from smaller schools, and they don't want their friends deducing who they are and accordingly, knowing all of their stats. i.e. maybe they're not worried about ad coms seeing the institution at all.
 
Aggro said:
What's the point of anonymity? I really don't have anything posted on the internet that admissions committees should stress over. I always think it's awkward when people have MDapplicants pages that just have "GPA: around 3.7, MCAT: 33-35 Extracurriculars: some stuff". Why put a page up if there's nothing useful on it? And what does it matter what institution you come from? That's the part I really don't get.
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Some people actually use MDApplicants to organize their own thoughts, organize schools list, etc for their own purposes.
 
I had no idea Adcom would look at our online stuff..
I thought MDApp is sort of a way to help pre-meds organize their stuff!! :scared:
 
Tildy said:
Look?

Some of us moderate the site...or so I hear.:p
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;)

buffywannabe said:
I have noticed some people taking things down from MDapps because it is application time... Should I be more anonymous?
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Yes, there are several known active adcoms on SDN and probably others who lurk. If you're a regular poster on SDN, no, you're probably not anonymous. But there's no need to take down your mdapps and stop posting. To paraphrase what others have already said, don't be a douche. You shouldn't need anyone to tell you that bashing a school all over the SDN forums is totally unprofessional. Basically, if you wouldn't say something to someone's face in real life, don't say it here, either.
 
QofQuimica said:
;)


Yes, there are several known active adcoms on SDN and probably others who lurk. If you're a regular poster on SDN, no, you're probably not anonymous. But there's no need to take down your mdapps and stop posting. To paraphrase what others have already said, don't be a douche. You shouldn't need anyone to tell you that bashing a school all over the SDN forums is totally unprofessional. Basically, if you wouldn't say something to someone's face in real life, don't say it here, either.
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:thumbup:
 
There is a user on SDN that uses his fullname as his screenname. Not the best thing to do, but he watches what he posts and has done quite well the past admissions cycle. Like QoQ said, don't be a jerk.
 
I have a feeling adcoms have better things to do than painstakingly match IP addresses to electronic submissions, or what not. Most don't even bother calling contacts listed in the Work/Activities section of the primary app.

Either way, it would not be very professional, or equitable for adcoms to incorporate extra information about some applicants into their decision making process, while only considering official documents for other applicants.

But what do I know, I'm just a pre-med.
 
BlueElmo said:
Some people actually use MDApplicants to organize their own thoughts, organize schools list, etc for their own purposes.
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Excel and word? I really don't understand it either. Why put it on MDApps, a site for people to profile applications. You can organize your thoughts just as well (or probably better--people have to fit the format of MDApps to make things work) with word or (if you have it) OneNote. I just never understood it.
 
Narmerguy said:
Excel and word? I really don't understand it either. Why put it on MDApps, a site for people to profile applications. You can organize your thoughts just as well (or probably better--people have to fit the format of MDApps to make things work) with word or (if you have it) OneNote. I just never understood it.
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I don't know. I personally use Excel and Word myself. But I've seen couple of people here who use MDApp instead for this purpose.
 
Hmm this is news. I honestly would never imagine adcoms doing this but oh well.....

I am sure when the recent SDN grads get on adcoms....they will probably hire special staff just to look up people's online portfolio....
 
HCchange said:
Some do and some don't. Remember, adcoms are doctors. Doctors are busy most of the time. So, some do and some don't. The only reasons why a person would delete the information is if they are expressing stuff they don't want others to see (aka their true self and not the lies they will put out during interviews).
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Are you kidding?
 
BlueElmo said:
Some people actually use MDApplicants to organize their own thoughts, organize schools list, etc for their own purposes.
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Oh I get that, but then they have it under their name on the forums and being the awful person that I am I can't help but check it if they're posting in the application thread of a school I'm applying to. I'm just waiting for one to be a rickroll.

Also, everyone keeps mentioning bad things about AdComs seeing posts on forums and whatnot. Maybe someone will look at you in a thread and see that you're a helpful, caring person, even to strangers on the internets :laugh:
 
It's better to play it safe though. Although, I can't imagine why adacoms would be using their time (normally reserved for seeing patients, teaching classes, writing grants, etc) on a pre-med student forum. To me, it seems like a major waste of time.
 
You could easily tell from my MdApps who I am, but I haven't done or said anything outrageous, on here, and don't feel at all threatened by the fact that an ad com could know my profile or review my postings.
 
musicaldna said:
oh hmm....interesting....

though it look suspicious....the person's post was in march and coincidently her sign up date was also march and the post count also one....

could be anyone just pretending to be her and scaring people off...
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I am an MS4 at CCLCM, and I will vouch for Dean Franco's account being legit. She was already reading SDN as a lurker for at least the past four years that I know about, maybe even before that. When her email was publicly posted without her knowledge or permission by that guy who had just gotten rejected by CCLCM, I encouraged her to register and respond, because the typo she made was blown completely out of proportion. She is not the kind of person who would ever send someone an email to insult them. In fact, she meant to be encouraging that he would eventually get in off a waitlist somewhere else, which is exactly what happened. Also, it is not just about this one post by this one guy. As a matter of principle, no one deserves to be publicly accused of something on SDN and then not have the opportunity to respond. He didn't come to her to ask for clarification, so she came to him.
 
I HATE THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO!

Oh, crap, should I not post that here?
 
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Some people read into things too much. I would have chocked it up to a typo or not even noticed, to be honest. Applicants should know not to burn bridges, but schools follow this age old advice, too I believe.
 
Bacchus said:
Some people read into things too much. I would have chocked it up to a typo or not even noticed, to be honest. Applicants should know not to burn bridges, but schools follow this age old advice, too I believe.
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We wouldn't be on this site if we didn't!
 
CCLCMer said:
I am an MS4 at CCLCM, and I will vouch for Dean Franco's account being legit. She was already reading SDN as a lurker for at least the past four years that I know about, maybe even before that. When her email was publicly posted without her knowledge or permission by that guy who had just gotten rejected by CCLCM, I encouraged her to register and respond, because the typo she made was blown completely out of proportion. She is not the kind of person who would ever send someone an email to insult them. In fact, she meant to be encouraging that he would eventually get in off a waitlist somewhere else, which is exactly what happened. Also, it is not just about this one post by this one guy. As a matter of principle, no one deserves to be publicly accused of something on SDN and then not have the opportunity to respond. He didn't come to her to ask for clarification, so she came to him.
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I totally agree to her email being blown out of proportion.
It is utter common sense to realize that she did not mean that and plain stupid to think otherwise. The neurotic nature of SDN sometimes is just a bit too annoying...
 
To answer the original poster: Don't worry about it. SDN protects it's user's identities, emails, IPs, etc.

I know this from personal experience, 2 years ago I posted about how a friend of mine said he wanted to cheat on the MCAT. He was just talking crap and it wasn't serious at all (he never even took the MCAT i later found out). Anyway, about 2 weeks later I got a email from a SDN admin saying that AMCAS officials had read my post and demanded that SDN give them my name and contact info.

SDN refused, saying their policy does not allow our info to be shared without a court order. Instead, SDN told me about the issue via email and said if I wanted to I could contact them at the following contact address. I was very nervous at the time so I made a new anonymous email and contacted them, they replied and respected my precautions and my anonymous nature so I told them what they wanted to know.


ANYWAY, like I was saying, don't worry about it, unless your user name is your real name they can in no way link your posts to you're real self.

Oh but they can (and often do) a quick facebook search. They can't read your profile, but they can see your profile picture next to your name. This is why you don't have a profile picture of you drinking out of a beer bong. lol
 
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Bacchus said:
There are several active adcom members on SDN. Some are mentors over in the mentor forums and some, as noted above, are moderation staff.

Hysterics: That above staffer may be able to get your SDN IP and link it to an electronically submitted application. :scared:
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for clarification, SDN staff members sign non-disclosure agreements. Anything we learn on SDN stays on SDN. No staff member could use anything we learn in our role as a staffer (i.e. IP address or other profile information) in any other context such as admissions.

now if you post it on the forums or MDApps... that's pretty much your own fault and I don't think you're covered by the above.
 
Depakote said:
for clarification, SDN staff members sign non-disclosure agreements. Anything we learn on SDN stays on SDN. No staff member could use anything we learn in our role as a staffer (i.e. IP address or other profile information) in any other context such as admissions.

now if you post it on the forums or MDApps... that's pretty much your own fault and I don't think you're covered by the above.
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Does Bacchus know he signed it? ;)
 
So don't be a douche UNTIL you're a med student. Gotcha.

Meanwhile, I love all these moderators and staff members. They're the best people ever. I want to hug them and go walking on rainbows, eating sunshine and drinking happiness!

Care-Bear-Funshine-Umbrella.jpg
 
Kaustikos said:
So don't be a douche UNTIL you're a med student. Gotcha.

Meanwhile, I love all these moderators and staff members. They're the best people ever. I want to hug them and go walking on rainbows, eating sunshine and drinking happiness!

Care-Bear-Funshine-Umbrella.jpg
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Aww, well aren't you the nicest SDNer ever? :rolleyes:
 
Bacchus said:
Yes. I wouldn't want my identity to be disclosed. I would never do that to a user. I don't have certain permissions to do so, anyway.
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I have to admit that that's one section of the TOS that I wholeheartedly agree with. :thumbup:
 
I sent an email to a school asking for an status update during last year cycle. They said they would reply by 1-2 days. After a week, I wrote a message on the SDN School Specific Thread about how they didn't reply to my letter.

3 hours later in my email inbox, the school sent me an email appologizing for not responding. I'm sure someone from the school looked on SDN and then checked their email to see if they skip any emails.

SO take it for what its worth. :D
 
locus000 said:
I sent an email to a school asking for an status update during last year cycle. They said they would reply by 1-2 days. After a week, I wrote a message on the SDN School Specific Thread about how they didn't reply to my letter.

3 hours later in my email inbox, the school sent me an email appologizing for not responding. I'm sure someone from the school looked on SDN and then checked their email to see if they skip any emails.

SO take it for what its worth. :D
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Yea... Probably not a good idea to complain about specific schools in the middle of your application process.
 
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