Do adcomms Google applicants?

[EricaMarie]

I, thankfully, do not show up on the interwebs. I google'd myself, and pipl'ed myself and google image'd myself---I do not exist on the interwebs really, and the two social networking sites I'm on, nobody can view without being my friend.

Thank God for privacy settings. I don't have a lot of risque or taboo behavior on my myspace or facebook anyway (especially because my MOM is on my facebook), but it's still good to know that I won't really be embarrassed.

[ydg23]

Does it make a difference what email address is used?

[singlecell]

Thank you for the pipl.com reference. I had not heard of that before. My search there showed my LinkedIn profile, and an abstract. Not too shabby...

[zjwah]

Thank you for the pipl.com reference. I had not heard of that before. My search there showed my LinkedIn profile, and an abstract. Not too shabby...

No problem. I appreciated my guidance counselor letting me know, so I thought I'd pass it along.

[OnceAndFutureGrad]

I have a fairly common first and last name (I'm also a Native American singer, apparently!) but if you search for my first name-initial-last name you get my professional LinkedIn account and my senior thesis published online by my undergrad institution. To be honest I wish adcoms could see my Facebook profile because it is incredibly geeky - nothing but living history photographs and witty medieval jokes - but it's under very strong privacy locks.

[katerific]

my Facebook profile because it is incredibly geeky - nothing but living history photographs and witty medieval jokes

I sense the force is strong with this one.

You'll be a fantastic grad student.

[lechatgris]

According to Pipl, a 2-week-old baby with my exact first, middle, and last name died 10 years ago. In addition, the baby lived in a city with the same name as mine, but in a different state. Now I'm sad. And a little creeped out.

[HyacinthMacaw]

Googling my name yields a testimonial by someone with severe depression who had attempted suicide. Fairly or unfairly, will this place me at a disadvantage if committees Google me? Thanks for your comments!

In an ideal world of course, even if the testimonial were my own, I think most people would agree that admissions committees should not penalize people for suffering from a medical condition such as depression; doing so just further stigmatizes mental illness. What do you think?

[warpspeed]

Luckily theres a variety of men with semi pointless lives with my name. Good thing is I'm female. If you search my name and University all that comes up are Dean's List awards and articles I wrote for our school paper from being a journalism major. I did check my facebook a few weeks ago to see what it looked like publicly to find the only activity listed was "not wearing pants." Oops.

[katerific]

I did check my facebook a few weeks ago to see what it looked like publicly to find the only activity listed was "not wearing pants." Oops.

Wait, but isn't that everyone's favorite activity?

They can't hold it against you.

All this talk makes me wonder why they'd even bother to google applicants, if they even do... I mean, with all the name twins in the world, and incorrect information floating around the nets, how could that be useful to them?

OH, oh, I forgot to tell a funny story related to googling applicants. So my department recently hired a new professor, right? Apparently there's a porn star with the exact same name. He never knew about this until our department chair let him know. So me and some grad students and professors went to a regional symposium, right? and we were all sitting around outside drinking/eating after the talks and posters. I don't even remember how this came up, but our dept chair casually said, "yeah, so when I was googling the prospective hires, I was a bit startled with the results for your name..."

[Trin]

I keep track of my Google results and take steps if I find something I don't care for. I also don't let people tag me in pictures. :-) As a result, searches on my name show that I'm active in science fiction fandom and costuming, that I wrote a well-reviewed role playing game guide on the medieval church, and that my ex-husband doesn't like me that much. :-)

I also taught my children to manage their online presences from a very early age. We had a rule in our house that if I could Google them and have them show up, they were in trouble. (They have a unique last name.) As a result, all of their online stuff is mostly since they started college, and is all very tame -- pictures of art projects, that sort of thing.

[neuropsych76]

I actually wouldn't mind it if they googled my name. It shows all my publications and poster presentations at conferences

However, there is a person with the same name as me who has been arrested multiple times.... that can't be good.

[radagast]

The first three links that show up when you google me are a video profile of a day in my life at my undergraduate institution. Honestly I think this is a pretty great thing as it shows both my personality and my passion for history. I would probably even benefit from a google search.

[natsteel]

I actually wouldn't mind it if they googled my name. It shows all my publications and poster presentations at conferences

The first three links that show up when you google me are a video profile of a day in my life at my undergraduate institution. Honestly I think this is a pretty great thing as it shows both my personality and my passion for history. I would probably even benefit from a google search.

This is exactly what I was talking about. If these kinds of things don't show up automatically, you want to do what you can to raise them up to first-page status. Basically, you want professional type links as high as possible like the publications and presentations above. But even if you don't have much in the way of professional achievements yet, you still want the most favorable things to come up like the video mentioned above. For those with very common names, however, it can very often be a moot point.