High school seniors generally spend hours on college applications. They likely do not spend nearly as much time considering what they post to social networks, though their profiles could be considered by admissions officers.
A recent 2012 survey by Kaplan Test Prep found that 26 percent of college admissions officers use Facebook or other social networks to gather information about applicants, which is a significant increase from 10 percent in 2008. That number will likely continue to rise as more and more teenagers flock to Facebook.
“I think a lot of people post things to Facebook that they would never want a college to see,” Caty Grahf, senior, said. “Facebook is supposed to be a place to socialize with friends, not to apply to college.”
Nancy McDuff, associate vice president for admissions and enrollment management at the University of Georgia, says in a TIME article about the study’s findings that an applicant’s profile on a social networking site is fair game for an admissions officer trying to understand the student’s personality.
“If a student mentions something in their application that isn’t well explained, and you’re looking for more information, you may check their Facebook,” McDuff said in the article.
The study also found that 35 percent of the schools that check Facebook said a candidate’s social network profile had negatively affected their admission chances, whether it was a post with vulgar language, a photo involving alcohol consumption, or otherwise.
“In some ways I think it could be good for colleges to check Facebook, because it might prevent someone from getting admitted who doesn’t deserve to be. Plus, you can always change your privacy settings,” Grahf said. “But I also think it could be bad because someone’s Facebook profile doesn’t tell you everything about them, and the person might be unaware that colleges ever check Facebook.”
McDuff defends the rights of college admission officers to look at Facebook or other social networks to learn about an applicant.
“[On Facebook, applicants] are writing about themselves. That’s no different from what a guidance counselor may write about them when they ask for someone to write a letter of recommendation,” McDuff said to TIME.
Jeff Olson, vice president of data science at Kaplan Test Prep, recognizes the potential danger posed to applicants if college admissions officers have access to social networking profiles.
“We’re seeing a growing cultural ubiquity in social media use, plus a generation that’s grown up with a very fluid sense of privacy norms. In the face of all these trends, the rise in discovery of digital dirty laundry is inevitable,” Olson said in Kaplan Test Prep’s press release. “With regard to college admissions, the traditional application — the essays, the letters of recommendation — represent the polished version of an applicant, while often what’s found online is a rawer version of that applicant. Schools are philosophically divided on whether an applicant’s digital trail is fair game, and the majority of admissions officers do not look beyond the submitted application, but our advice to students is to think first, Tweet later.”