Should we temporarily deactivate our facebook?

[RSalha17]

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As college students, I feel that a lot of our pictures tend to be in a party setting or situations when you are in big groups of people that look like a party setting. This doesn't fully and accurately describe the type of people we are and I think that if ADCOMs look at facebooks they may get the wrong idea from just one picture they don't like.

Do you think it is important to disable facebooks while applying to school?

Post your thoughts, I think it would be interesting to hear what others think about this.

 

[Member 8586]

mine is private so that im not even searchable...i think that should be sufficient...i have to figure out how to privatize my tagged pics and albums too just in case lol..damn facebook updates make it all complicated now

 

[RSalha17]

I know! I don't really know if mine is fully private, I made everything only available to friends, but I feel like people can still see my pictures and stuff.

Do you know how to make it fully private?

 

[JAWSSS]

I went to my master's program interview and when they handed me paperwork to look over and sign for the program... the front page had "bio" information...

This included my facebook profile picture, and my twitter and linkedIn links.......

😱

they said that they pay a company to do background checks and that most professional schools do this now.

I have since gotten rid of my facebook... NOT for applications.... just because I hate it. But, it puts my mind at ease for apps.

Also... I searched my name on google and a guy has a Twitter WITH MY FULL NAME AS HIS TAG! If my name were Alan Smith, his Twitter is literally @AlanSmith....

AND HIS MOST RECENT TWEET IS:

"I hate going to the dentist... damn. #F*CKflossing"

FML.

 

[finchy86]

I don't really mind...as I have nothing to hide and I don't attend such parties.

 

[sacapuntas]

I don't really mind...as I have nothing to hide and I don't attend such parties.

^ lives in salt lake city

 

[finchy86]

^ lives in salt lake city

lol...actually no...Washington state.

 

[RSalha17]

lol...actually no...Washington state.

Hahaha yup just water for me at social functions 🙂

 

[predentlove]

Also... I searched my name on google and a guy has a Twitter WITH MY FULL NAME AS HIS TAG! If my name were Alan Smith, his Twitter is literally @AlanSmith....

AND HIS MOST RECENT TWEET IS:

"I hate going to the dentist... damn. #F*CKflossing"

FML.

LOL I hope your name is something really common so that they don't suspect it's you!

 

[Adamsswag]

Any accounts/pages with your name, regardless of whether or not they currently exist, can still be found by schools because they can search through cache versions of your account pages.

 

[zackc19]

Yeah just become Mormon and all they'll see is pictures of your spouse and kids... Jus sayin...

 

[jeffity]

Do they really have the time or manpower to bother with this? They care about felonies and academic dishonesty, not red cups and fist pumping.

 

[FaithBuild18]

Personally, and I know I'll be attacked for saying this, but if you're the kind of student who parties all the time then I wouldn't want to extend to you an invitation to come to my school, if I was an administrator.

"College student" my rear, you're supposed to be a professional. There are plenty of other things to do for leisure than getting drunk and hooking up. How you spend your time and the actions you chose is a much better reflection of who you are than some stupid self-written essay, even if you don't want to admit it.

If you had a bad past and have since made a turn for the better, that's another story. But if the reason you want to hide your hedonism is because it's a reflection of who you are, and you don't want adcoms to see who you are, ask yourself if you should even apply in the first place.

"College students," come at me.

 

[TXpredent]

^ I agree. I live under a rock and attend 0 parties. ALL of my pictures are very professional as they were taken by a professional at JCPenny. I'm professional.


but seriously, I was wondering the same thing about my facebook. Sure I've gone to a few parties and I've done my fair share of what you call being a "college student" but I don't think I have any pictures of it. I'm more concerned about what my friends and I may have posted maybe ages ago or stupid jokes that might be embarassing. I think it's completely unrealistic that EVERYTHING you've ever done is so pure and clean that if it ever came up in an interview you wouldnt ever get embarrassed. If that's the case, you haven't enjoyed life, at all. And before you even say "life isnt about partying" I'm not even talking about that. Even something innocent like an old myspace that had a song you wrote on there when you were15 is embarrassing, etc.

Also, if dental schools were full of squares with no fun in their lives, then quite frankly I don't want to go. Dental schools are made up of good students that are definitely social and not some kind of Tim Tebow type character. Even he probably has some skeletons in the closet.

 

[dentalchick2016]

Personally, and I know I'll be attacked for saying this, but if you're the kind of student who parties all the time then I wouldn't want to extend to you an invitation to come to my school, if I was an administrator.

"College student" my rear, you're supposed to be a professional. There are plenty of other things to do for leisure than getting drunk and hooking up. How you spend your time and the actions you chose is a much better reflection of who you are than some stupid self-written essay, even if you don't want to admit it.

If you had a bad past and have since made a turn for the better, that's another story. But if the reason you want to hide your hedonism is because it's a reflection of who you are, and you don't want adcoms to see who you are, ask yourself if you should even apply in the first place.

"College students," come at me.

👍

 

[DoeAdeer]

Personally, and I know I'll be attacked for saying this, but if you're the kind of student who parties all the time then I wouldn't want to extend to you an invitation to come to my school, if I was an administrator.

"College student" my rear, you're supposed to be a professional. There are plenty of other things to do for leisure than getting drunk and hooking up. How you spend your time and the actions you chose is a much better reflection of who you are than some stupid self-written essay, even if you don't want to admit it.

If you had a bad past and have since made a turn for the better, that's another story. But if the reason you want to hide your hedonism is because it's a reflection of who you are, and you don't want adcoms to see who you are, ask yourself if you should even apply in the first place.

"College students," come at me.

👎

 

[finchy86]

I know! I don't really know if mine is fully private, I made everything only available to friends, but I feel like people can still see my pictures and stuff.

Do you know how to make it fully private?

Go to the top right corner of the facebook webpage to Privacy Settings. From there you can set your default privacy and even to the point of managing past post privacy settings. If you just set your profile and information only visible to friends that should limit the amount that anyone else will be able to see.

Even something innocent like an old myspace that had a song you wrote on there when you were15 is embarrassing...

Oh boy, please share! Haha kidding. Surely with how open some social media is to the public most will have embarrassing things or stories besides partying. I don't think we need to turn this into any flame war or fight about certain lifestyles.

One school I am interested in has a kegger in the student lounge every other week (or used to)...would I go to them if I attend there? No, but that isn't going to influence my decision on whether or not to attend that school.

 

[IlDestriero]

"College student" my rear, you're supposed to be a professional. There are plenty of other things to do for leisure than getting drunk and hooking up. How you spend your time and the actions you chose is a much better reflection of who you are than some stupid self-written essay,

Actually, as a "college student", you're supposed to be a college student, not a "professional".👍
I majored in womanising, minored in alcoholism and sloth, and still killed it. In fact I took two more years off to party nearly full time before this derelict got a full ride at a top 20 medical school.
Come at me "shut in". 😀

 

[Smurf12]

Actually, as a "college student", you're supposed to be a college student, not a "professional".👍
I majored in womanising, minored in alcoholism and sloth, and still killed it. In fact I took two more years off to party nearly full time before this derelict got a full ride at a top 20 medical school.
Come at me "shut in". 😀

Aw man I need to go to my advising office tomorrow ASAP to switch majors, now that you've pointed this out!!!

 

[Red Stapler]

Actually, as a "college student", you're supposed to be a college student, not a "professional".👍
I majored in womanising, minored in alcoholism and sloth, and still killed it. In fact I took two more years off to party nearly full time before this derelict got a full ride at a top 20 medical school.
Come at me "shut in". 😀

👍

Derelict was a word on my SAT. Not even joking.

The damage has been done already, if they can restore caches. It doesn't matter if you disable the Facebook if they can just bring it back. I really doubt that they'd be able to, but playing it safe now by not posting those kinds of pictures/statuses would make it easier to brush off if they mentioned it.

Either way, what kind of stats did you have to get in on a full ride? 😕

 

[Swoops]

👍

Derelict was a word on my SAT. Not even joking.

The damage has been done already, if they can restore caches. It doesn't matter if you disable the Facebook if they can just bring it back. I really doubt that they'd be able to, but playing it safe now by not posting those kinds of pictures/statuses would make it easier to brush off if they mentioned it.

Either way, what kind of stats did you have to get in on a full ride? 😕

I can derelict my own balls.

 

[Red Stapler]

I can derelict my own balls.

You should put that down for manual dexterity.

 

[ushaseos]

Not to be paranoid, but if they REALLY want to they'll find all this stuff out. I guess it wouldn't hurt deleting your account if you really think it'll help. I am no mormon, just a boring nerd...so there isn't anything racey on my facbook profile 😳.

 

[dantemac]

I disabled my account for 2 reasons:

A) To protect schools from doing a cursory check
B) For ease of mind - seeing other people be accepted and interview other places can be heartbreaking. It was nice to turn it off for a little.

 

[TXpredent]

I disabled my account for 2 reasons:

A) To protect schools from doing a cursory check
B) For ease of mind - seeing other people be accepted and interview other places can be heartbreaking. It was nice to turn it off for a little.

Didn't even think about that second reason. I recently just activated my facebook bc I was losing touch with some friends that had moved away in pursuit of their careers. I'm hoping changing my last name might help lol. Oh well, if they really want to find something, I'm sure they will. I think judging someone by their facebook may be kinda lame, but it's probably a technique some companies/schools use.

 

[ddsmission]

Yeah it's lame, but you have to also think about how many applicants there are per school, they want to make sure you're a good candidate that can represent the dental school and dentistry to the utmost.

 

[Wiredtrix]

I personally think that if you have a few pictures of partying and having fun, that Adcoms will actually be glad to see that you are a social person and enjoyed going to college. I don't think that they care that much about things like that. However, if all they see when they go to your profile is profanity and hundreds of pictures of you flipping the camera off or making sexual gestures ( they might not pick up on some of these haha ) then that is another story. I think they wouldn't care if you are a person that likes to have fun, but they might bring it up if you seem like a disrespectful person.

But really, has it happened in interviews where Adcoms actually have pictures and quotes from facebook?

 

[JAWSSS]

...

 

[Smurf12]

Ever since I deactivated my Facebook account at the beginning of this year, I felt as if I was unchained from the shackles of social networking. However, I still go on twitter though.

I needed to do this realizing that dentists are people’s person and that strong interpersonal skill is highly critical to this line of jobs.

I literally went cold turkey on this but the effects proved rewarding. My grades were much higher for this year. I was able to apply to dental school (Something I had contemplated postponing for next year since I’m still really young, 20 if you’re curious). Most importantly I was able to spend more quality time with family and friends and build stronger relationships than Facebook could ever allow me.

Remember folks Facebook exploits some of the worst human traits such as narcissism and voyeurism.

With regards to if dental school really looks into this stuff, I wouldn’t doubt it for a second. Y’all do realize that dental schools do run background checks on you once you’re accepted. I don’t think that each school necessarily has the time to do this, but the background checking services that they hire does.

I can definitely give y’all two reasons why some schools ask a photo of you:
A. To confirm you are you and that you didn’t hire someone to do your interview.
B. To possibly run search of you over the internet using facial recognition programs.

A quote from the executive chairman of Google: “if you don’t have anything to hide, you have nothing to fear”

I’m not posting this to sound paranoid. I have nothing to fear. I hope that this applies to many of you.

Just hope they don’t find a picture of you as drunken-pregnant-nun, and I think you’re fine.

Godspeed to all in this cycle!👍

 

[RSalha17]

I can derelict my own balls.

+5 👍

You should put that down for manual dexterity.

+10 👍👍

hahahhahahaha Obviously I have a few things to learn about professionalism and college. Stupid me.

 

[11lreynolds]

For me personally, I leave my account somewhat accessible with profile pictures, and my about me. I feel like that's information they should know anyways, and also makes me look more inviting. I have nothing to hide on my Facebook. Like most people, I have a lot of family on Facebook, so if I feel it's not appropriate for them, I don't put it on there in the first place, or delete tags, wall posts from friends, etc. Also, a year ago I also deleted crude friends, and purged anything I felt appropriate. Plus, my Facebook is a great resource to get my name into the dental world. I can't imagine making it inactive. I like pages of local dentists, associations, volunteer events, etc. And like it was said before, a couple of social pictures is fine. Don't dental schools look for people that are fun and easy to get along with?

 

[IlDestriero]

👍

Derelict was a word on my SAT. Not even joking.

Either way, what kind of stats did you have to get in on a full ride? 😕

It's not always about superior numbers. People bring more than just scores to the table, something forgotten often on SDN. If they want you in the class and you have something to offer, they may tempt you to come. The only thing they can offer other than an acceptance is money. In my case I had a military scholarship and the University offered me a scholarship for the difference in the (generous) estimated cost of attendance, including reimbursing me the money lost as tax on my stipend. On the other hand my apartment mate got a list of banks to call for a loan. 😀 He wasn't too happy when he eventually found out my deal. 😉

 

[cschoet]

I'd be more worried about them looking up some of your SDN post histories than Facebook profiles.

🙂

 

[drill-and-fill]

I'd be more worried about them looking up some of your SDN post histories than Facebook profiles.

🙂

👍

"How you spend your time and the actions you chose is a much better reflection of who you are than some stupid self-written essay, even if you don't want to admit it."

👍👍👍

If you have to ask, then it's probably a good idea to un-tag yourself from those photos. Just sayin'.