do universities look at gradcafe?

[afg500]

Is there any history of this?

 

 

I feel that I acted too overconfident about one of my universities, claiming i was going to be accepted. After a while I got notified of being waitlisted and I cant' help but think that if they looked at my comments they would be like 'who does he think he is?? lets teach him a lesson!'

[fuzzylogician]

We know that some professors know about the grad cafe. We get occasional visits from them. It's possible that they also read the relevant forums sometimes. 

 

The chances that anyone will go to the trouble of trying to identify an anonymous poster on the board and enact "sanctions" on them are probably fairly low. You would have to post something pretty outrageous on the one hand, and revealing on the other, for someone to go out of their way to identify you and to do something about it. If it were me, I'd be wary of misidentifying a student based on anonymous posts and accidentally punishing someone wrong.

 

However, it's a good time to remind everyone that everything you post on the internet is there to stay, and with enough time and effort, you could be identified even if you think you're anonymous. Think about how much personal information you post and how you behave online.

[rising_star]

I would just add that I kinda hope they do look at the site as it could give them information about their department they might not have otherwise (like how their funding compares, how applicants perceive the program on visits, etc.). 

[afg500]

i think its pretty easy to get to my identity, especially as i did the sync with facebook option. will be more cautious in the future

[uselesstheory]

As soon as we post even remotely identifiable information online, especially on an online community so related to out future careers, we pose the risk of our employers reading what we post.

 

That being said, everything I post on here isn't objectionable, and my interactions on this forum helped me learn about compiling an application and everything that comes with that. Conduct yourself like a pleasant human and don't gossip, and you shouldn't worry.

[yellowmint]

They absolutely do peruse the forums. Every hour. Every day. They're not busy, you know.

[Sigaba]

I think that members of this BB need to do a much better job at keeping personal information out of their posts while also scrubbing their on line presence at other BBs and social media. The effort to find someone is as time consuming as highlighting a username, right clicking, and telling TinEye to do a search.

 

I think that aspiring graduate students should consider that just as members of a department might do some on line research on an applicant, so might other students who are looking for every edge they can find to improve their chances for admission.

 

My $0.02.

[yellowmint]

I try to put as much identifying information about myself out there as possible, including using my actual picture.

Edited March 11, 2015 by yellowmint

[Crucial BBQ]

Grad programs might perform an Internet search of the applicant's name if the applicant indicated they published papers, attended conferences, worked with Rock Star Researcher X, and so on.  I suspect this would primarily only be done with the more attractive applications and other than that I highly doubt that grad programs are tracking down applicants and combing through their on-line presences.  Logistically, to do so would likely not be possible, and, there really would be no point. When applying to a job in industry it could be possible to indicate you graduated from Princeton without need of proof (HR might not run a background check until after you've been hired, if even then) yet if an applicant told a grad program they earned a 4.0 at Princeton then the program will have an official copy of that transcript in their hands.  If not, the application is deemed incomplete and will not be processed.  If the applicant  discusses being accomplished or driven in the SOP than surely their LORs would reflect that, too (hopefully).   Grad programs also do not need to worry about their image/brand as much as industry does. 

 

In business, your brand is your everything and word-of-mouth advertising is king. A grad student who posts disparaging words towards their program, PI, school, etc. will cause little damage.  Even if this student is asked to leave the program there will still be a mile-long list of applicants waiting in line.  Research dollars are also not likely to fall off, either. Talk smack about a restaurant and they could lose customers. 

 

Perhaps a bit extreme for the OP, but rest assured, your adcomms likely did not search you out and make a decision based on what they may have found.  Also, about the TinEye thing, how can if find user information?  I thought it was for images, so perhaps if someone had the same avatar on GradCafe and Facebook, perhaps...

 

As for adcomms/profs hanging out on GradCafe, aren't there a few in the some of the Humanities sub-forums?  Not sure how this will come out, but there is a particular Q/A website that starts with a Q and has a good number profs, adcomms, and so on who provide answers to particular questions.  I've been wondering for quite some time why Grad Cafe does not have a few of its own resident "professionals" hanging out in the forums. 

Edited March 11, 2015 by Crucial BBQ

[rising_star]

 I've been wondering for quite some time why Grad Cafe does not have a few of its own resident "professionals" hanging out in the forums. 

 

It does. There are several in the Political Science, History, English, and Sociology forums. There are probably more who lurk and don't post simply because the questions people ask are not things they can or should be answering.

[jujubea]

I doubt you got waitlisted because of your overconfidence, however, I do think that you learned a lesson: never celebrate until its over. The reason I say this is because most academians are way too busy for stuff like this, but it's possible someone read your bio. Still, its probably not the reason you were waitlisted.

 

I love your signature. So candid!

[WhatAmIDoingNow]

Is there any history of this?

 

 

I feel that I acted too overconfident about one of my universities, claiming i was going to be accepted. After a while I got notified of being waitlisted and I cant' help but think that if they looked at my comments they would be like 'who does he think he is?? lets teach him a lesson!'

 

I know my profile is easy to figure out if someone from the admissions committees at the programs I applied to saw my activity.  The academic world is rather small, and I am likely the only person who applied to the combination of schools that I chose with the area of interest that I have. I am sure that the people who got into the programs that I got into have or will figure out who I am too. But I don't know why anyone would care too much unless I said something inflammatory. 

[twentysix]

Is there any history of this?

 

 

I feel that I acted too overconfident about one of my universities, claiming i was going to be accepted. After a while I got notified of being waitlisted and I cant' help but think that if they looked at my comments they would be like 'who does he think he is?? lets teach him a lesson!'

 

Professors may read gradcafe. You are being ridiculous though, completely ridiculous. What you experienced was karma, not a vindictive graduate committee.

[afg500]

Professors may read gradcafe. You are being ridiculous though, completely ridiculous. What you experienced was karma, not a vindictive graduate committee.

 

I blame waitlist paranoia.. you constantly ask yourself if the way you said 'Hello' in the interview was too friendly or not enough