Joining Grad School on Facebook

[cardnav]

Many of us have been using facebook for a while and many of us have come up with some interesting theories regarding it.

Who joined the network of their graduate school? Who is waiting to do so?

What are people's thoughts.

I thought this would be a welcome break from the serious conversations.

[boneh3ad]

I would if I had the email from my school yet. Otherwise I can't join the network.

[thepoorstockinger]

I would if I had the email from my school yet. Otherwise I can't join the network.

Same with me.

[fuzzylogician]

Why would I want to join my school's network? What are the advantages? All of my friends already know where I'm going anyway (posted numerous conflicted updates and a happy decision update )...

[thepoorstockinger]

Why would I want to join my school's network? What are the advantages? All of my friends already know where I'm going anyway (posted numerous conflicted updates and a happy decision update )...

So you can lurk your future grad students/faculty members/random people who attend your future school.

[fuzzylogician]

So you can lurk your future grad students/faculty members/random people who attend your future school.

I do that already without having join the network..

[belowthree]

I joined the school's network a few minutes after I set up the new e-mail drop.

No reason except that odd desire to have things correctly filled out everywhere.

[washdc]

I want to I want to!

but! I don't have my permanent grad school email yet just a temporary one. sigh..

[leetchisgod]

I joined as soon as I got my university e-mail account set up. I want to get to know something about the people who'll be around the department before I show up.

[boneh3ad]

I joined the school's network a few minutes after I set up the new e-mail drop.

No reason except that odd desire to have things correctly filled out everywhere.

I have that same odd desire. Haha.

Just out of curiosity, how long did it take you guys to get your school email after sending in your signed acceptance letter saying you were attending there?

[belowthree]

Just out of curiosity, how long did it take you guys to get your school email after sending in your signed acceptance letter saying you were attending there?

Well I submitted mine online, so it took only a few moments after I bothered to find the button that said "register for your ID" at which point I got my e-mail account.

I was a bit surprised at one institution that gave me an e-mail account just for *getting* an offer of admission without waiting for me to accept it. I was even more surprised at another fairly well known institution that gave me an e-mail account just for applying! That seemed odd!

So overall I ended up with three new e-mail accounts. I imagine two of them will be deleted soon enough. Naturally I only joined the facebook network at the one school I actually decided to go to.

[boneh3ad]

Yeah Georgia Tech gave me an account just for applying, but it is probably shut down by now, haha.

I have my NetID for the school already, it just doesn't work when I try to use it for the email system... weird.

[MaximKat]

I have my NetID for the school already, it just doesn't work when I try to use it for the email system... weird.

Express Email login page says "Attention: New students for fall 2009 will be able to log in starting May 21, 2009."

[wantaphd]

My career account information (which includes email and student ID number) came with my acceptance letter. The pin to set the account up came separately. I set everything up as soon as I accepted the offer, which was about a month or so later.

[boneh3ad]

Express Email login page says "Attention: New students for fall 2009 will be able to log in starting May 21, 2009."

That would be useful if I wasn't just about to LEAVE UIUC, haha.

[MaximKat]

That would be useful if I wasn't just about to LEAVE UIUC, haha.

oops, my bad

probably smth similar applies to your new university

[jasper.milvain]

I wouldn't do it.

If you're going to be teaching, the easiest thing you can do to keep students from seeing your page is to belong to absolutely NO networks. If the grad network just requires a school address, there's nothing to keep an undergrad from entering their address and temporarily switching into the grad network in order to scope out what all their TAs are doing. Unless you're willing to police your profile to keep all bitching about students/marking/papers as well as all compromising photos off of it, it's not worth the risk.

We just had a local political candidate have to withdraw from the race because his drunken facebook photos weren't as private as he thought they were. I know grad students are held to a lower moral standard (heh), but you never know.

[zourah]

Or join the network, but adjust your account settings so only friends can see your wall and photos. Facebook privacy settings have gotten more sophisticated over time, and there's no reason to think of network membership as anything more than a convenient way to make yourself more search-friendly for people in the same group. I'll join my grad school network and keep my membership in my current employer and undergrad networks, too - not that anyone I haven't friended can see anything more than my basic resume info and music preferences, anyway.

[wantaphd]

Zourah,

I agree. I only belong to my undergrad and master's alumni networks, and only people I approve as friends can see my profile. I'm not a big social network person, but I think it can come in handy for keeping up with former classmates and current/potential colleagues. A professor I met at a conference invited me to be his friend on facebook. I was a little surprised, but I realized that is how he keeps connected with colleagues and former students who are in different parts of the country. My rule of thumb is that my profile is "clean" enough that I would not be embarrassed if my parents or future employers were to take a look. It's just common sense.

[belowthree]

I don't post things on the Internet I would be too embarrassed to stand behind later if I had to.

That said, I could probably never run for political office.

[Stories]

Or join the network, but adjust your account settings so only friends can see your wall and photos. Facebook privacy settings have gotten more sophisticated over time, and there's no reason to think of network membership as anything more than a convenient way to make yourself more search-friendly for people in the same group. I'll join my grad school network and keep my membership in my current employer and undergrad networks, too - not that anyone I haven't friended can see anything more than my basic resume info and music preferences, anyway.

Bingo. My profile is limited to ONLY my friends. The way it should be. Employers, students, and lurkers can't lurk that way.

Yes, I did join my (second) grad school's network

[kdilks]

I heard about a GSI at my school that was trying to look up one of their female students, and accidentally typed the student's name into the "update status" box instead of the search box. They got flustered, didn't know how to undo it (because it would probably stay in people's feeds even if you deleted it), so out of desperation they decided to disable their account to prevent it from being seen. The next day they remembered their facebook was registered under their undergrad e-mail address, which they no longer had access to, so their facebook page was gone forever.

[Jakrabite]

I heard about a GSI at my school that was trying to look up one of their female students, and accidentally typed the student's name into the "update status" box instead of the search box. They got flustered, didn't know how to undo it (because it would probably stay in people's feeds even if you deleted it), so out of desperation they decided to disable their account to prevent it from being seen. The next day they remembered their facebook was registered under their undergrad e-mail address, which they no longer had access to, so their facebook page was gone forever.

I left facebook quite a while back..haha..not for the reason specified above. I just feel that the status quo in such things is always moving. So what was not compromising in undergrad suddenly is when I become a TA and so on and so forth. The almost endless accumulation of information can seem daunting. Plus restricting to friends only doesn't seem to be a good solution. First of all, the idea of 'friends' on facebook is fairly ambiguous. Plus I'd rather not have an account than have an account and having to keep on fiddling with what information is available to whom.

[Fromageball]

I actually hadn't even thought of this! I just got my new email yesterday so I might as well join, I think it will be interesting if I can find people in my class. I don't have my undergrad on there at the moment, I took everything off except for the university where I studied abroad because of too many random people friending me, but I guess I will make it private and put everything back. If your profile is private I can't see any disadvantage to joining the network.

[Aceflyer]

I left Facebook recently due to much the same reasons Jakrabite did. I initially joined to help keep connected with my friends, but over time I found that I didn't need Facebook to keep in touch with my 'core' (or 'actual') friends anyhow, and friending acquaintances on Facebook didn't really help me get to know them better. Plus I had to constantly keep a close eye on things to make sure nothing embarrassing or confidential was leaked, and had to keep fiddling with what information to make available to whom. It also didn't help that 'netiquette' dictated that rejecting someone else's friend request was considered to be rude, so I ended up with a few Facebook 'friends' who I would have preferred to stay further away from. So in the end I decided Facebook was a time and energy drain that was not worth any small benefits it may have given me, so I deactivated my account.

(On an interesting note, I did remember to change my Facebook account to use my permanent email address (instead of my school email address) just before deactivating the account, so that I can retain the option of reactivating my account in the future.)