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What's the Process of College Application?

Is there any rationale to changing your Facebook name for the college application process?

  • A bunch of people I know are changing their Facebook names to something ridiculous, supposedly to prevent college admissions officers from being able to find their profiles. First, does this actually do anything that stricter privacy settings wouldn't? And second, do college admissions officers even look at applicants' Facebooks?

  • Answer:

    I can't speak to college applications in the general sense, but I did read a piece about how NFL teams will use fake profiles to 'friend' Draft prospects in order to get a more complete picture of the player under consideration. The idea is definitely prevalent, but the better question is in which niches of college life. Would I do this if I were a college football coach? Absolutely. Would I do this if I was in the admissions office for a small liberal arts school? Maybe, maybe not. Does changing the name do something that stricter privacy settings wouldn't? Maybe someone from Facebook could chime in and tell us if it makes your real name not show up in the search bar. I would imagine that tags under your real name might show up, but I'm not qualified to answer on something like that. I know of a hotel front desk manager who rants about work and guests on Facebook, but she does so under a name that isn't hers. (Her employees use her real first name in the comments, rendering the entire attempt at anonymity pointless. Duh.)

Mike Holovacs at Quora Visit the source

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First point: adolescents have been changing names to evade search since ~2008 when parents first started joining Facebook. I wrote about it in my undergrad thesis, relying mostly on danah boyd's ethnographic work. Second point: it's more effective than doing nothing, and easier than getting Facebook's privacy settings to do exactly what you want. Third point: I don't think colleges should be Facebookstalking students, and I have a draft essay about this right now which should be out later this summer once the admissions season calms down.

Chris Peterson

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