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[BSP08d]

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hello everyone!
i will be applying to PT school this upcoming cycle and i was wondering if anyone knew if PT schools look at your facebook/twitter/whatever? did it come up in an interview? should i just deactivate mine now before the whole application process?? i dont have anything too scandalous to hide really maybe just some pictures with friends at a bar sometimes or at a concert or with a cup in my hand but idk you hear about people not getting hired due to their Facebook......

any advice/thoughts? 😕

 

[Azimuthal]

Not that I know of...

 

[DPTHopeful2012]

The school I'm going to said they looked everyone up on facebook. It can happen. I can't be found on facebook, so I didn't have to worry.

 

[nicolej5]

hello everyone!
i will be applying to PT school this upcoming cycle and i was wondering if anyone knew if PT schools look at your facebook/twitter/whatever? did it come up in an interview? should i just deactivate mine now before the whole application process?? i dont have anything too scandalous to hide really maybe just some pictures with friends at a bar sometimes or at a concert or with a cup in my hand but idk you hear about people not getting hired due to their Facebook......

any advice/thoughts? 😕

Every single person you interview with was in college once. Almost (if not all of them) went to bars and socialized. As long as you don't have pictures of you half naked passed out or smoking a joint, it should be a non-issue. I had an interviewer tell my group that she didn't care that we did keg stands or if we shotgunned beers...they had all be in college/been young before.

 

[greco13]

I had an interviewer tell my group that she didn't care that we did keg stands or if we shotgunned beers...they had all be in college/been young before.

funny🙂

 

[NewTestament]

I would look through all the photos you've taken or you've been tagged in, and delete any inappropriate ones.

 

[Azimuthal]

I don't understand the reasoning, most people have their accounts private. Also, not everyone has a Facebook, use the same email for login or may not have their names as they would on official documents (bias).

What I do see is that if some students had their facebooks checked and some did not, this may lead to a decision not based on scientific or historical evidence. A big no no for a profession so heavily vested in evidence. Discrimination and lawsuit, anyone? It may be difficult to prove but I see graduate institutions above that.

I'm pretty sure any faculty insinuating on such is full of it or they need to consult their legal department.

What do the rest of you think?

 

[NewTestament]

Why would you want those photos on FB anyway? I see some photos and I can't believe anyone would post them. Even if you're account is private, all your "friends" can see who you've been with and what you've been doing. Why would you want that? What's worse is that when anybody takes a photo of you and tags you, you can't do anything about that and it's there forever. It's not hard to spread information. Regardless of admissions committees and job interviews, our generation clearly doesn't value privacy as much as they should.

Kevin

 

[Azimuthal]

Why would you want those photos on FB anyway? I see some photos and I can't believe anyone would post them. Even if you're account is private, all your "friends" can see who you've been with and what you've been doing. Why would you want that? What's worse is that when anybody takes a photo of you and tags you, you can't do anything about that and it's there forever. It's not hard to spread information. Regardless of admissions committees and job interviews, our generation clearly doesn't value privacy as much as they should.

Kevin

Why do people jump out of perfectly good airplanes? Individualism. Its not our job to classify why people do what they do.

The point I was making is that I doubt adcoms expend the time or resources to do so because it has no validity.

 

[DPTHopeful2012]

Just change your name, that's what I did and friends did that too. For example, my friend Roma changed her name to Roma Tomatoes (haha). Another friend did something like Johhhnnnnn Sssmmiitthhhh.

 

[bnwj89]

I would look through all the photos you've taken or you've been tagged in, and delete any inappropriate ones.

This is what I did. I also deactivated my account for a while. Somewhat because I didn't want PT schools to look me up, but mostly because I was super busy with applications/making i was getting good grades/working.
It was amazing how much time i wasted on FB without realizing it

 

[nicolej5]

What's worse is that when anybody takes a photo of you and tags you, you can't do anything about that and it's there forever.

Kevin

You can untag yourself from photos. Just sayin 😀

 

[goyo1010]

Dunno... I hope they didn't... But with the right privacy settings, you can't even be found in a Facebook Search. Or if they somehow find you, you can set everything to private, so all they see is your name and profile pic.

 

[nomattic]

Some schools definitely check.
1). Change your name as others suggested.
2). Change your privacy settings and then verify that your pics/other scandalous things are hidden to public by utilizing "View my page as: public."

Problem solved.

 

[NewTestament]

Some schools definitely check.
2). Change your privacy settings and then verify that your pics/other scandalous things are hidden to public by utilizing "View my page as: public."

Problem solved.

I know you can change your privacy settings and use a pseudonym, but why put scandalous things online anyway? Once they're online, they're going to be online forever. Just saying. It's probably not worth it.

Kevin

 

[Myosin]

I highly doubt any school will actually take the time to do this, even the few that say they do.

It's just a general rule of DUH that you either keep private or scrub your social media of anything involving illegal activity, political/religious beliefs, or pictures of you in less than glorious situations, on the internet.

I do have to laugh when I see facebook friends with profile pictures of them doing drugs or being half naked. I'm sure that will never come back to bite them in the butt /sarcasm.

 

[nomattic]

I know you can change your privacy settings and use a pseudonym, but why put scandalous things online anyway? Once they're online, they're going to be online forever. Just saying. It's probably not worth it.

Kevin

Well, I suppose I was using the word 'scandalous' pretty loosely. I would never allow anything too inappropriate on my page ever since my grandma figured out how to use the internet and demanded that we be facebook friends. A better word that I should have used instead is 'personal.' In terms of school admissions, it sounds like once you're past grades and test scores the way you'd fit into the school plays some sort of intangible role in acceptance. So seemingly innocuous things like political or religious affiliations all the way down to activities or other pages you've "liked" on your page might rub someone the wrong way. But that doesn't mean I'm going to lie on my page, hide who I am, or make my facebook page a barren wasteland (within reason). I just decided to hide that information to non-friends so that I can go about living my sadly internet-driven life without those things affecting my chances.

I also agree that it sounds pretty unlikely that schools go through everyone's facebook page prior to making a decision about a student. I had heard a student at my top choice school say that it had been done before so I didn't take any chances.

 

[NewTestament]

I also agree that it sounds pretty unlikely that schools go through everyone's facebook page prior to making a decision about a student. I had heard a student at my top choice school say that it had been done before so I didn't take any chances.

If that's what you meant, then that's fine. You shouldn't hide the organizations, people, and groups that you 'like.' A good rule of thumb is to not put anything on your Facebook page (or write anything in your e-mail) that you wouldn't want your mother to see. Once that information is on Facebook, it's there forever. I know some companies have been snooping on people's Facebook pages, and as far as I know, they're perfectly within the law to do so.

Yes it's unlikely that they're going to look at hundreds of Facebook pages. They don't have the time.

Kevin