D'yer Maker

I'm pretty sure they tell you this in the long agreement that you didn't read before signing up for a College Confidential account, but please don't your personal information here -- or anyone else's. (This includes using your real life name or someone else's name.)

And don't post information that personally identifies you.

Most people get that far, but many students -- especially when it comes to chances threads -- don't appreciate this next part.

Please don't post information here that will identify you when coupled with information that people (such as Admissions Offices) have from other sources.

When you post details about your grades and ECs, there may very well be a person lurking on this forum who has your admission folder on hand who recognizes some peculiar fact and realizes that that's you! Okay, so maybe that's not so bad...considering the folder already has all that information in it. But do you really want that person searching your other posts here? What might they see? Maybe there was that time you were up way past bedtime and couldn't spell your way out of a wet paper bag. Or how about the time where -- just because you hadn't yet gone on visits -- posted that you're not really so interested in Exover Academy. Just as perilously, you might have posted you were in love with Exover Academy...which might not impress the people over at Deerkiss School who were perusing this forum.

And then there's the problem of how you post going forward once you've (potentially) given an admissions office enough information to tell who you are. Because, once you're at that place, you have to assume that they're looking over your shoulder for all your future posts here. And if you want to ask a question about some other school you're interested in...or if you want to ask a question about a school that you need to ask here because it would be rude to ask them directly...you might not feel free to do so. Or, if you do go ahead and ask, it may not be such a wise choice. You may look back and think, "Oh, well, D'yer's nuts because I wouldn't mind an admissions office seeing anything that I've posted here." But can you say that with certainty about the things you will be posting here in the future? And do you want to be constrained in your interaction here by that prospect?

If you must post a chances thread or talk about details of your admissions experience, I encourage you to alter the facts to conceal your identity:

-- We don't need to know the exact times and places of your interviews. If you tell us that it occurred sometime during the month of October (even if it was in September or this week), there's no harm in that.

-- We don't need to know exactly where you live. If you live in another town or a different state even, that's okay, it won't change the advice you get here (and, if it does change our advice, it's not like our advice can get any more misleading than it would be if you gave us precise and accurate information).

-- We don't need to know the details of special accomplishments, especially if these are things that really stand out and will be facts that an admission officer would be likely to recall about you. Generalities work fine for us.

Alter the facts a little. I have no idea if any current admission officers visit this board, so I don't know that they'd invest the time and go to the trouble of doing searches here to gather more information about you. But I believe that that's a real possibility. And there's just no need for us to receive insanely accurate details about you even if the risk of it being matched up to your admission folder is negligible.

roses&clovers

thanks. there is one thing I may have said in the 2 comments worth that I have been here, but hopfully that's not an issue

warriorboy648

Is there a way to edit an old post?

D'yer Maker

After 15-20 minutes...not without convincing a moderator that it must be deleted as a violation of a rule. If you've posted personally identifying information, that's probably covered. If, however, you (and I'm using "you" in its generic sense) have posted something stupid and have given clues to your identity to someone who possesses an admission folder (but haven't posted personally identifiable information here), you may have to do some begging to get a message deleted. I don't think they have the time or inclination to allow for editing of ancient (over 20 minutes old) messages. And I think the moderators are averse to even deleting messages as it erodes the integrity of the threads on the board.

Moral: Be careful of what you post. These things last a long time and I've noticed that College Confidential posts tend to appear very high up in the queue of search results when I use Google, so these things can get unearthed quite easily.

crickett2324

I completely agree. The less we know, the better
Just the basics are needed. We have no interest in your very very detailed life. Keep it safe!

liv&learn

Keep your cards close to your chest - especially on the internet.

D'yer Maker

Show off. 11 words?

liv&learn

ah ha ha ha ha a.................!

Annebelle

Does anyone have direct knowledge of admissions staff at the schools discussed in this forum actually monitoring the discussion on a regular basis in order to try to get info about prospective students? Yikes!

zdub08

why not just delete the chances section?

besides being worthless and repetitive, it's asking kids to do exactly what you've told them not to do here.

Chana

Is it a good idea to do Teach For America if wanting to get into a top business school?

Lexima

IMPORTANT: DO NOT POST INFORMATION ABOUT THE SSAT YOU HAVE JUST TAKEN IF THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO HAVE NOT TAKEN THAT DAY'S TEST. In the College forum, there is an embargo to make sure that SAT questions do not leak out while people around the globe are still taking the test. The same rule (for SSAT) should be applied and enforced in the Prep School forum.

Sheed30

what???^^^^^^

and the chances thread is fine if you don't reveal any personal stuff.

Tahoe

Great advice D'yer Maker. There is a certain amount of naiveté that some students have about the Internet being a safe place. College Confidential is such a professional, well-run, well-moderated board that people (students and parents) start to feel like a “family” and then start revealing too much about themselves (in my opinion).

Here’s an article from the New York Times about Facebook and applying for a job:

Tahoe

Here’s another article warning job applicants about “Invisible Tattoos” written by a recruiting firm.