Google search results and applying

[purplecricket]

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Hi everyone! I've been searching through the forum for a while and haven't quite come up with the answer to this one.

I'm sure that at least some programs do try to find applicants on Google or Facebook. My question is what is it that they are looking for, and what could possibly be a red flag to them? I'm asking because I posted something pretty stupid when I was in high school on a Facebook group and this post comes up when I Google search my own name (I have a very unique name ). It's embarrassing and unprofessional, but I was also 16 and not in a good place in life when I wrote it. Aside from that there's nothing out there, no criminal records or drunken photos or anything like that.

Could this possibly have a negative effect on my application or am I being paranoid 😕? As it stands I'll be 22 or 23 years old when I apply, so will they even see that as a problem since I was young when I wrote it? I have deleted the post, but as everyone knows these things tend to stick around on the internet.

 

[PunkmedGirl]

Hi everyone! I've been searching through the forum for a while and haven't quite come up with the answer to this one.

I'm sure that at least some programs do try to find applicants on Google or Facebook. My question is what is it that they are looking for, and what could possibly be a red flag to them? I'm asking because I posted something pretty stupid when I was in high school on a Facebook group and this post comes up when I Google search my own name (I have a very unique name ). It's embarrassing and unprofessional, but I was also 16 and not in a good place in life when I wrote it. Aside from that there's nothing out there, no criminal records or drunken photos or anything like that.

Could this possibly have a negative effect on my application or am I being paranoid 😕? As it stands I'll be 22 or 23 years old when I apply, so will they even see that as a problem since I was young when I wrote it? I have deleted the post, but as everyone knows these things tend to stick around on the internet.

Just lock up or shutdown your Facebook for a while if you are worried. No one here knows the answer to how it may or may not turn out for you, but to be in the safe side just ramp up your security settings which include disable the search engine functions.

 

[willen101383]

^^ THe issue is that google crawls the internet for stuff...and cashes the results it finds. So even if you delete the original post it will still come up in searches for a while until google "recrawls" that part of the internet

OP I was in the same boat as you. In my younger years I was very active on a particular car forum and posted TONS of stupid stuff...and my username was my name. I did a blitzkreig style mission to remove all these posts...but it took like 6 months before it was all gone from googles indexing system.

YOU WILL BE FINE. Lets just take my school for example. PCOM has something like 6000 applications a year. Something like 800 to 1000 people are interviewed. Something like 400 people are accepted. Do you really think the adcom members have enough time to do a comprehensive internet search for everything you have posted? Absolutely not. They have too much other crap going on during the admissions season to waste their time doing this. Your name may be "unique" but I can guarantee their are others out there with your name...and adcoms will have a hell of a time proving it was you that wrote this and not the other dude with your name. RELAXXXXXXXX X eleventybillion

 

[sustentacular]

Hi everyone! I've been searching through the forum for a while and haven't quite come up with the answer to this one.

I'm sure that at least some programs do try to find applicants on Google or Facebook. My question is what is it that they are looking for, and what could possibly be a red flag to them? I'm asking because I posted something pretty stupid when I was in high school on a Facebook group and this post comes up when I Google search my own name (I have a very unique name ). It's embarrassing and unprofessional, but I was also 16 and not in a good place in life when I wrote it. Aside from that there's nothing out there, no criminal records or drunken photos or anything like that.

Could this possibly have a negative effect on my application or am I being paranoid 😕? As it stands I'll be 22 or 23 years old when I apply, so will they even see that as a problem since I was young when I wrote it? I have deleted the post, but as everyone knows these things tend to stick around on the internet.

Delete the post you made then in a week or so if it still shows up in google search results report the link to google as a dead link. Also, even if your personal profile is on privacy lockdown any comment you make in a group or on someone's wall that is public is searchable.

I too have a pretty unique name and that's what I've done to get rid of stuff that I don't want to show up in google results.

 

[purplecricket]

Thanks guys! My profile is definitely at the highest security setting it can be so no worries there, I would deactivate it but the pre-med adviser and clubs I'm in are extremely active through fb. Although I'm relieved after reading your post willen. 🙂

 

[willen101383]

Thanks guys! My profile is definitely at the highest security setting it can be so no worries there, I would deactivate it but the pre-med adviser and clubs I'm in are extremely active through fb. Although I'm relieved after reading your post willen. 🙂

Good! Thats why I stick around on SDN. To make people realize when theyre letting their neurotic premed tendencies get the better of them. Just be careful of what you post in the future (although I am sure it wont end up mattering). This stuff can come back to bite you in the ass for job apps however...where you are one of maybe 3 or 4 applicants...and people may definitely look around the internet just for ****s and giggles to see if you are an avid stormfront poster or something haha.

And I dont know about you...if there was a school out there that was willing to reject me in the setting of excellent credentials for crap I wrote on a forum when I was 16, I wouldnt want to go to that school anyway.