Do sororities really look at your Facebook page during rush?
 

I happened to stumble across that blog where the sorority girl gives PNMs advice about rushing and being a part of the Greek system. I've already read a forum on here saying that what she says is false or inaccurate, but she said that we should clean up our facebook pages and make them open to the public during rush so that the sororities can look us up. I don't feel very comfortable with having my facebook open to everyone even if it is just for a week, so I'm wondering if this is true? Do sororities really take the time to look at your facebook page?

Yes.

Yep. Sure do.

Oh yeah....so watch what's on it. You never know who is a friend of a friend....I first started looking PNMs up on Facebook for the recs I was doing last year...and will continue to do so....lordy, the things I'm finding....

Okay, that's good to know!! What kind of things should be deleted? I have my parents on facebook, so I don't have anything inappropriate anyway otherwise they would kill me(!) but in that blog in said to delete any pictures that you don't look your best in. That seems a little shallow to me....

To clarify all the yes's, some might disagree with me, but I don't think there's any reason to make your page public. Clean it up, don't assume that any of it is 100% private, but don't open it up to all and sundry either.

Ditto on the yes.

Agreed. You'll find many PNMs with successful recruitments who do not make their pages completely public. Accept friend requests if appropriate. Don't have anything inappropriate on your page.

I would make all your pictures (maybe besides profile pictures) private, your entire wall (statuses and posts, etc) private. Only make it public enough so that everyone can search and find you, and see your hometown and a few pictures (maybe activities and interests.) Just my .02, not a rush expert, and someone else may very well know better/I may be wrong.

You can open it up more to people in your school's network. That way total strangers won't be able to look at it, but sororities will still be able to find out what they are looking for. You don't have to open everything, but pictures where you look pretty and are having fun in a good(not trashy) way, hobbies, hometown and what high school you went to would be enough.

This is all WAY after my time, but I can really see how it could help. You can pick and choose what is public, even down to individual pictures. That picture of you winning national cheerleading championships? Yeah, make it public. The one of you vomiting at the football game? Delete completely.

The thing is when you think you are completely anonymous, you're not, so you want to clean up even the pictures that are private. But you can make a sorority member's life easier by giving her a few details about you without having to dig. And by the way, I'd be doing that NOW. They won't be doing this (or I can't imagine anyway) during recruitment, but probably before.

Good luck!

/edit. Yes, as Lady Pi said, you can expand your network without making it utterly public.

Completely agree. If you were smart enough to have a private page previously, why would you want to be dumb and make it open to everyone now? If anything, I think that just makes you look like you're trying too hard.

Be very careful with friend requests, as the minute you have your college on your profile, you'll get creepers who say they are students but who are really dirty old men who want to leer at college girls. If you don't know a person in real life, don't accept their friend request.

Just as a request: please put a picture up where your face can clearly be seen.

Faces tend to blur. So we might remember "OH I liked Susie PNM, but what does she look like? Was she the blonde?"

It was always nice when I could see the face again.

Yes. And so do future employers...look at your facebook.

I want to see a picture of you. By yourself, not with your honey or a bunch of buddies.

You're responding to a different question than she's asking. She already has a private facebook and wonders if the questionable advice on a questionable blog to "clean it and make it public or no one will bid yooooouuuuu!" is correct.

I seriously doubt if an employer would ever not hire you if you didn't have a public facebook, or if you had no facebook at all. This is what the dipshit blogger is implying.

FB posts on non private pages (tv shows...politicians....bands)
 

OK...some advice...I just found this out, as I'll be applying to grad/school for education. So I want my iterate profile to be very nice.

Even if you have a private FB...anything you post on a PUBLIC FB page is available to anyone who Googles your name. I put in "Monica Winter" (not my real name obv) and in the search I found stuff like this: "Monica Winter" commented on Teen Mom's Status...and whatever I wrote ("I love Maci" or "April is evil"...whatever!) was there, word for word. So...if you are one of the peoe who go on there (we will go with this one for an example) badmouthing so-and-so as a B and horrible person...first of all...STOP- everyone on Earth can see this, and two- it paints a negative opinion of you. So... Go through your FB and trash these comments. Honestly that is where they belong anyway!!!

(Fortunately mine are mostly about animal rights or education reform so I'm good!) but I honestly did not know this until I googled my own name.

I've found that in my school, "facebook creeping" is almost a second hobby. I NEVER did that until I got to college. I thought it was so strange when someone invited me to their dorm to look at boys (and other girls, usually roommates) on facebook. I mean, REALLY look at them. Some girls went through every single public album and looked at all the notes and videos and updates from way back in the day. They would even creep on the girl/boy's significant other! It's so insane!

We all creep on the XYZ University Class of 20- - page. DO NOT PUT YOUR RUSH PREFERENCES HERE! That is embarrassing and rude. Everyone can read it...

I'd clean it up well before rush. I'd do it before you ask for rec letters. I just got asked to write a rec letter for a local young woman that is going to go through rush at a very competitive school. First thing I did was google her. Found her Facebook, and the wall portion was private but her pictures were public. All were in good taste and appropriate. Props to her!

I'm dating myself here, but when I was in college, it was a few years before facebook first came out (I remember joining, it was www.thefacebook.com, and only college kids could join). Anyhow, my college already had an online database of every student's name, year, and student ID picture for us all to browse. The college also allowed it to have capabilities to search for, say, the Top 10 viewed out of all the girls or the guys. Which obviously became a big ass popularity contest. But I definitely remember creeping on that... so I can only imagine how it is now.

If you want dated, the world wide web was 2 years old when I started college.

Young'un. :p

yes, yes, yes!!! my daughter(and i am sure every other sorority woman at her school) and i would go look at the poor ignorant freshwomen, who had joined the ABC University class of 20xx, saying which sorority they "were going to rush" or the one that they "would probably join"-oh, foolish freshwomen! and guess what? rarely did the girl actually join the one she thought was her top choice before rush started.

So I'm a little late on this post, but I still have a few things to say.

Do we check facebooks? Oh, absolutely. Will it hurt you if yours is private? No, but like many people have said--if it's online, it's never completely private. And--make sure your default pic (the one that everyone CAN see) is classy and shows you--not a picture of your dog.

Now, keeping it private won't hurt you--but, if we creep on a girls facebook and we like what we see & read, that gives us a good idea about her, and before she walks through the door, she could already be one of our top choices. That could obviously change and favorite girls fluctuate throughout the week, but it's a good way to be remembered.

I think it would be best to try to act in good character at all times social network wise.

Do most sororities check out Facebook pages before or during rush? If before, do they continue to check up on it or is it a one time thing?

Hopefully I'm not stepping on any toes - I'm trying to decide whether to open up some aspects of my profile now, wait till later, or not at all.

thanks!

They will check it before, during, and probably after Recruitment! You will be the subject of serious stalking, if you're lucky!

Talk about dated. When I went through RUSH, there was no internet. Computers used punch cards. Recs had to be mailed to the chapters well ahead of time since e-mail did not exist. We did not have to worry about a post we wrote 10 years earlier or a picture we took in HS showing up for the entire world to check out. Chapters had to go strictly by the impressions they got of you during the parties and your rec-- no way to creep around a Facebook, Myspace or any other page. Bid matching was done strictly by hand.

DaffyKD

Am I the only one who misses when you had to have a college email to join FB? It was the ONE thing that separated FB from MySpace. I think FB got really big my junior year of college. Now, everyone can have a page. What's worse is when people give their 5-year-old a page and think that's acceptable. I miss the good 'ole days of FB.

AnotherKD, where did you go to school that they had a page like this? That does sound pretty weird and most likely like one big popularity contest. I see, in the spirit of things, how it could have been viewed as a good thing, though.

I agree with everyone on here. Discretion is key. Also, while we are on pictures and putting yourself in a good light--OP, please do us all a favor and don't have a bunch of pictures with Duck Face. Ugh! Also, if grammar isn't your strong point, please have someone look it over on your FB profile. You could be a beauty queen and sweet as pie but, if you have something like "Love of my life-YOUR my everything" then I lose (NOT loose) all respect for what you just wrote and have a hard time taking you seriously :rolleyes:<--- just a tip.

lol @ duckface.

I know...I know but, it seems like every young girl feels it's a sexy look. I'm sick of seeing "duckface" in EVERY other picture on FB. Bleh! I can't wait until that movement goes away!

They all look like they have gas, this must be what DrPhil means by gas face.

This is so MySpace 2006 bathroom photos.

Facebook Rant
 

Do sororities look at your Facebook page? Yes.

Do they continue to look at it? Yes - some have created a new office for electronic communications. Part of the job is to creep Facebook and send emails to ladies who have pictures that may not be considered appropriate. Anything that you would not show your grandmother, anything that you would not use for a slide show during recruitment, may get an email. Anything really bad may get you called in to discuss your choices.

Its all about what image to you want to project. There is a line between fun and trashy. You do not know who will be looking at your Facebook. Employers look at Facebook. Graduate school admissions committees look at Facebook.

The same company that owns Fox News owns MySpace. Read the fine print = anything that you put on MySpace can be used by Fox News.

Athletes on my campus get a 2 hour presentation about how what they have on their Facebook page reflects them, their club, and their university. This might be good for any freshmen out there.

You need to think about what image you are presenting for yourself. Who do you want the world to see? What you put out there can be hard to get rid of. Do you really want that picture from freshman year of you being goofy come up when you apply to law school? Google the beauty queens that have had their crowns called into question because of goofy pictures of them on Facebook or the school teachers who were suspended for pictures of them drinking on Facebook.

Anything listed as "private" is merely not easily accessible. I know of students that have recently done an internships in DC who were confronted with inappropriate pictures they thought were private that were found on background checks.

You don't necessarily want to show the world everything about you. Save us a little mystery so we want to get to know you. Its just not safe to let any random stranger know TOO much about you. :)

Does anyone even HAVE MySpace pages nowadays, other than bands?

Irrelevant information is irrelevant.

FYI - not anymore. It's now owned by Specific Media.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace

Mea culpa.

Thank you for the correction. Still, it is a concern that photos posted on a forum can become the property of the forum, something that is in the fine print that is often overlooked.

Not disagreeing, just clarifying ;)

We look through the profiles. I enjoy when girls have their profile pictures public so that we can see a couple different photos and remember your face easier. That being said, there isn't a reason to open it up further. Unless you spent your summer volunteering abroad or something, your interests on FaceBook aren't going to stand out because most girls have more or less the same things on them.

Things that a lot of girls DO forget to hide:
- Notes: The "16 Things About Me" you filled out while mad at your ex-boyfriend could come back to haunt you.

- Videos: Sometimes girls do little videos that are funny to you and a friend or two, but a weird inside joke can give a chapter the wrong vibe. I recently saw PNM with a video of her wearing a chicken head rolling on the floor. That's my only impression of her; she is already going to be the Chicken PNM.

- GROUPS YOU JOINED: A lot of girls will join something like "University of XYZ Dance Marathon" which is great but don't forget to quit the groups you joined back in the 9th grade or that could show your personality wrong. There is already a girl we have flagged because she joined about 50 groups like "Drinking and forgetting what I did...Seeing your girlfriend makes me feel bad you downgraded...Shots by Lil Jon is the story of my life...Crap delete my inbox...etc". I know it doesn't seem like a huge deal, but we read that and kind of have already flagged her as potentially dramatic.

** Remember you are impressing women. Where your super sexy FB profile picture may have gotten 10 likes and comments from guys, if I can see half your cleavage or almost what color underwear you have on, delete it.

I'm the recruitment chairman of a fraternity at a school where Greek life is not at all competitive, and even we research people's Facebook pages before giving them a bid. My advice would be to make everything 100% private, delete anything incriminating or that you wouldn't want your grandparents to see, and maybe don't even log in during the rush period. You can even stop the page from showing up in searches. No one is going to go so far as to not considering you because you gave too little information on a web site, but any little tidbit of information is a potential liability. Choose carefully.

The wonderful thing about Facebook for chapters is that most new prospects are not nearly as conscientious as you are. From now until the end of time, people will be posting stupid things on Facebook, and they'll be self-selecting themselves out of Greek life. Half of the work is already done for chapters now.