Social Media Question.

[Ziggy213]

I'm planning to apply for next year. I just recently logged into my Facebook for the first time in maybe 3 years to wish a friend happy birthday. I happened to notice that I still have one of my old posts an old song lyric "I still wanna sell kilos" from high school on my news feed. I came to delete it immediately as looking back the song was pretty stupid.


But do admissions do deep background checks in applicants social media, specifically Facebook? Are they able to retrieve old deleted posts? How seriously do they take quoted posts such as I made above?

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[Cornfed101]

I'm planning to apply for next year. I just recently logged into my Facebook for the first time in maybe 3 years to wish a friend happy birthday. I happened to notice that I still have one of my old posts an old song lyric "I still wanna sell kilos" from high school on my news feed. I came to delete it immediately as looking back the song was pretty stupid.


But do admissions do deep background checks in applicants social media, specifically Facebook? Are they able to retrieve old deleted posts? How seriously do they take quoted posts such as I made above?

Make your profile private and don’t accept any adcoms as friends

 

[GoBlue2019]

Are they able to retrieve old deleted posts?

Lol, no

 

[AnMDtoB]

I mean everything you post online is technically permanent and retrievable in some form or other, but if adcoms did in-depth searches of people's social media then they'd never get anything done

 

[Seihai]

I'm planning to apply for next year. I just recently logged into my Facebook for the first time in maybe 3 years to wish a friend happy birthday. I happened to notice that I still have one of my old posts an old song lyric "I still wanna sell kilos" from high school on my news feed. I came to delete it immediately as looking back the song was pretty stupid.


But do admissions do deep background checks in applicants social media, specifically Facebook? Are they able to retrieve old deleted posts? How seriously do they take quoted posts such as I made above?

YMMV, but I've met an adcom that said that once an applicant has made it to the "possible acceptance" pile, they look them up (they usually only have around 300-400 applicants in this pile, so it's not nearly as involved as searching every applicant). If they find something really dumb (like underage drinking, joking about sensitive topics, etc.) they toss you out.

This adcom was at a very conservative school, though, so this may not be a common thing.

 

[AnMDtoB]

YMMV, but I've met an adcom that said that once an applicant has made it to the "possible acceptance" pile, they look them up (they usually only have around 300-400 applicants in this pile, so it's not nearly as involved as searching every applicant). If they find something really dumb (like underage drinking, joking about sensitive topics, etc.) they toss you out.

This adcom was at a very conservative school, though, so this may not be a common thing.

believe I have also heard about this double check on applicants they plan to accept from other adcom member, but not 100%.

 

[907914]

YMMV, but I've met an adcom that said that once an applicant has made it to the "possible acceptance" pile, they look them up (they usually only have around 300-400 applicants in this pile, so it's not nearly as involved as searching every applicant). If they find something really dumb (like underage drinking, joking about sensitive topics, etc.) they toss you out.

This adcom was at a very conservative school, though, so this may not be a common thing.

Just googled myself and all I could find was a LinkedIn account I haven’t touched in 4 years and a 5 year old YouTube video of me playing Sméagol arguing with Gollum that I didn’t know existed.

This brings up a separate question: As applicants, beyond googling ourselves, what else can we do to find our online presence that we may not remember or are unaware of or whatever?

 

[On_The_Way_Up]

At a school club as a guest speaker my schools admissions director told us they check social media if they’re thinking of accepting someone.

 

[Ziggy213]

YMMV, but I've met an adcom that said that once an applicant has made it to the "possible acceptance" pile, they look them up (they usually only have around 300-400 applicants in this pile, so it's not nearly as involved as searching every applicant). If they find something really dumb (like underage drinking, joking about sensitive topics, etc.) they toss you out.

This adcom was at a very conservative school, though, so this may not be a common thing.

Aren't most schools pretty conservative.

 

[Seihai]

Just googled myself and all I could find was a LinkedIn account I haven’t touched in 4 years and a 5 year old YouTube video of me playing Sméagol arguing with Gollum that I didn’t know existed.

This brings up a separate question: As applicants, beyond googling ourselves, what else can we do to find our online presence that we may not remember or are unaware of or whatever?

Googling yourself is probably enough. I doubt they really take the time to go through in serious depth unless they have a reason to be concerned (if you have an IA or something like that).

 

[Seihai]

Aren't most schools pretty conservative.

When I say conservative, I mean conservative even by medical school standards. Think Loma Linda brand of conservative.

 

[Cornfed101]

Luckily my name is too common... can’t even find myself on google haha

 

[Seihai]

Luckily my name is too common... can’t even find myself on google haha

Do keep in mind that adcoms have all other pieces of information about you to narrow you down. You might not show up if I searched "joe smith", but if I searched "joe smith [college] [high school]", I'd probably find you.

 

[AnMDtoB]

Aren't most schools pretty conservative.

No - depends on location & other factors. Like everything else in life, a range of viewpoints exists.

 

[deleted972488]

Googling my name shows my publications. Not so humble brag.

 

[Dr panda]

No facebook = no problems. Seriously, how do you guys use it, that interface really sucks, and that eternal "Do you know this person?" after you declined him 10 times...

 

[Cornfed101]

Do keep in mind that adcoms have all other pieces of information about you to narrow you down. You might not show up if I searched "joe smith", but if I searched "joe smith [college] [high school]", I'd probably find you.

Just LinkedIn... no publications so I’m not quite as cool as @EmbryonalCarcinoma

 

[ciestar]

No facebook = no problems. Seriously, how do you guys use it, that interface really sucks, and that eternal "Do you know this person?" after you declined him 10 times...

Well, to start a lot of pre-matriculation information is put on the class fb group.

For me, it is a lot of stuff regarding rotations (swaps and whatnot) and sublets.

 

[907914]

No facebook = no problems. Seriously, how do you guys use it, that interface really sucks, and that eternal "Do you know this person?" after you declined him 10 times...

I am currently using my Facebook to keep my family and friends up to date on my applications status so that they hop on the hype train and are more than willing to write me a check to help me move wherever I end up TBH.

 

[907914]

Turned out the parents were freaked about a photo from a drunken frat party taken some 10 years earlier was posted on a social media site with this doctor tagged.

Any idea what action was taken by the residency program? I genuinely didn't think patients google their doctors or any of the like...

 

[AnMDtoB]

I genuinely didn't think patients google their doctors or any of the like...

I've heard that it is actually very common but usually it's more of a google search than a FB one - but tbh everyone should definitely change their privacy settings because this kind of thing is avoidable in a lot of ways. (e.g. make yourself unfindable for non-friends/friends of friends, slightly misspell your name, and untag yourself from that kind of thing... etc etc)

but also FB stalking your doctor is just...weird - I wonder how they would feel if their doctor FB stalked them??? (though whether it's weird or not I 100% get that you prepare for it anyway )

 

[Dr panda]

Any idea what action was taken by the residency program? I genuinely didn't think patients google their doctors or any of the like...

In today’s world people google everything. Some careers are more “morally obligated” than others. I remember a story at my home town that some conservative parents were pissed off because elementary school teacher who taught their daughter posted a photo where she was wearing a swimsuit... If this happens to teachers, imagine how people could be obsessed with physicians, especially pediatricians.

 

[Tenk]

Putting your Facebook on private is usually all you need. If you have a lot of stupid stuff on there put it on private and change your name to a pseudonym.

In the future, assume everything you put on the internet could find its way into a courtroom. That’s reality as a physician. Best to start early.

 

[chlorocruorin]

this reminds me from when a dean from a school i got accepted to followed me and DM'd me lmfao

 

[AnMDtoB]

this reminds me from when a dean from a school i got accepted to followed me and DM'd me lmfao

lol what school was this???

 

[chlorocruorin]

lol what school was this???

By NO MEANS can i say lmaooooo that **** was funny as hell i don't think he would want that out there tbh....(we are tight now)

 

[AnMDtoB]

By NO MEANS can i say lmaooooo that **** was funny as hell i don't think he would want that out there tbh....(we are tight now)

haha fair enough

 

[wb100]

Most people recommend to hide or delete your fb... instead I allowed some things to show because it added a more “human” layer. My FB is mostly for family so it’s very PG with just pictures of travel, family, and public health articles that I’ve shared (I allowed a few of these posts to remain public). I felt that it made me more personable and showed that I had a life outside of being a pre-med kid (I think of it like a social LinkedIn profile). My first name and last name is also pretty unique so there’s no way to confuse me with someone else.

My Instagram is a different story lol.

 

[907914]

Is it...your Instagram story?

 

[wb100]

Is it...your Instagram story?

Guilty