Seriously guys? Who thought of the “genius” idea to change your name on Facebook so, supposedly, colleges can’t find you?

For those who didn’t change their name and do not know what on earth I’m talking about, let me fill you in a bit.

Oh and if you can’t handle brutal honesty, then you might want to stop reading now.

As many of the seniors know, colleges sometimes like to do a little bit of a background check when it comes to admitting the future fill in the college’s mascot here. So what do they do? They go through your Facebook profile, of course!

Those photos of you holding a blurred out beer can—jig’s up guys, we know you’re holding a can of beer, so don’t waste your time creating a blurry blob–although maybe that’s what it looks like to you after drinking it. The sloppy party poses, the one picture of you helping out kids–colleges see through all of it.

Yep, they can see it all.

So what’s the solution? Change the name of your Facebook profile to something a university wouldn’t think of looking up when they go to find the applicant online.

For example, let’s say Holden Caulfield, from the novel The Catcher in the Rye, is a senior this year and he doesn’t want colleges to see pictures from the nights he became beyond wasted that he so stupidly put up online. So he decides to change his name to Hold In Call-Field.

Oh wait, there’s more.

Some seniors do not think phonetically spelling their names will do the trick so they rename themselves using a movie character or an actor/ actress’ name.

Who knows, soon we all may find that we are no longer friends with Jane Doe, but in fact we have been “upgraded” to being friends with Minnie Mouse.

If any senior were to ask me my opinion, (and if you didn’t, I’m going to tell you anyway) this is all way too much work. On top of schoolwork, college essays, applications, and down time, how do those seniors have time to think of fake names?

Wouldn’t it be way easier just to delete the pictures? Even more mind blowing, how about not even putting them up in the first place?

And what happens if a university goes to look a student up to make sure he or she is as awesome on the internet as that person is on paper and they can’t find their profile?

Think about it.

These days almost everyone our age has a Facebook page. Therefore, I believe it’s pretty safe to say that when a college goes looking for Jane Doe and they cannot find her, those administrators may assume the worst.

What if there is only one spot left for admission at your dream college and it comes down to your application and someone else’s. They can find that other person, let’s call him John Smith, on Facebook and he is a nice boy who looks like who he says he is on paper. However, they can’t find you.

Bummer.

Do you know what those tired, worn out university people will do and say to your application?

DENY and hasta la bye-bye.

Think about all of those hours that seniors put in to their applications to make themselves look like angels. Think about the many hours teachers and mentors put in to write a shinning recommendation for them. Every single minute of every single hour that was put in to crafting the perfect, one-of-a-kind application could go down the drain all because of a name change on a social media site.

I get that teenagers like to do risky activities, but do you really want to take a risk that big? A risk that holds the key to your future?

Think of it this way.

This whole college process is sort of like a Magic Eight Ball. The shaking of the ball represents all of the energy seniors put towards their applications. Waiting for the prism to settle symbolizes waiting for a response after submitting the years of hard work, and the answer is the decision. Deny, accept, wait listed, or need more information.

In most cases, you will only get one shake and if you mess with the game, the result may come back to bite you.

So don’t screw things up by changing your names on Facebook. It’s just not worth it.