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Peter North wrote:
Take for example this hypothetical scenario: An applicant states in his/her application that he is a vet who lost a leg (ie. roadside bomb by insurgents) while serving in Iraq, but in reality s/he is not really an amputee. And if adcoms were to "dig up" some more on this unsavory applicant, they'd see the applicant in some rather provocative pictures at frat parties, nightclub excursions, etc. This can be somewhat problematic (for the applicant).

Thoughts?

Peter North wrote:

Holly Golightly wrote:Don't lie in your PS.
???????
Profit.

It doesn't have to be lying per se.

One can always be a victim of a smear campaign on the internet.

What if a disgruntled ex-lover made a web site about me littered with false allegations that puts me in a rather unflattering light? Then what? Will adcoms extend the courtesy to even ask me? Likely not. They will take that at face value.

cubswin wrote:
The question of to what extent do ad-comms use facebook, etc. is interesting though; I always wonder if they can somehow view my profile despite my privacy settings (I mean, there has to be some way around that stuff, right?).

Peter North wrote:

eLegal wrote:UMich's Sarah Zearfoss addressed this exact question in a recent interview she did here.

Thank you so much for this. This answers my question right to the point. And to the clowns thinking that my post is a flame/troll, you might want to read this (courtesy of the link provided by "eLegal"):

Question posed:

When making admissions decisions, do you ever go beyond the four corners of the application and do some independent research on an applicant (i.e., Googling an applicant, reviewing their Facebook page, etc.)? If so, has this process ever yielded any surprising results?

UMich's Admissions Dean Sarah Zearfoss' response

Very rarely. While I do know other admissions offices that regularly Google any applicant they are going to admit, we don’t do that for two reasons. First, we have a fairly large class so I’d probably spend my entire day doing outside research on applicants rather than reading files. Second, I just don’t think the information that you might find is all that reliable. I don’t have time to track down and verify everything I might find out about an applicant.

That said, when I have Googled an applicant, it’s almost always for the same purpose: to better understand some work experience that they might have included on their resume. For example, if someone lists a job for a company I’ve never heard of, and I’m just not grasping what they do, I might look up that company on the Internet for a better understanding. That comes up a fair amount – I probably do that at least once a week.

But the best Google story I ever had concerned an applicant a couple of years ago – I think it was a woman – who described this incredible invention she created. This struck me as astonishing because, if I recall, she did not have the strongest academic record. Nonetheless, this invention (as she described it) struck me as pretty amazing because it was a rather sophisticated medical device and she would have been worth admitting on that ground alone. But this invention seemed so remarkable that I felt like I had to do some independent research and confirm her role in creating it. So I Googled it and I came across a ton of newspaper articles that discussed the invention; as it turned out it was the applicant’s mother – a scientist -- who invented the device, not the applicant.

Note the highlighted part. Yikes!!

Trifles wrote:You do not want to work for a company or attend a school that is interested in micromanaging your activities that you do in your free time. Stop being paranoid what someone might or might not think of you someday down the road. You will never be able to please everyone, so live your life as you see fit, even if that means using your real name online to post stupid image macros and call your friend a gay man on Facebook.