80% Of College Admissions Officers Use Facebook To Check Out Students

Prospective college students, beware: There's yet another reason to make sure your Facebook profile is suitable for all. According to a Kaplan survey of college admissions officers, more than 80 percent of college admissions officers consider social media presence when recruiting students.

Although this doesn't necessarily mean that Facebook and other online profiles will be considered in making admissions decisions, All Facebook reports that at least one Harvard admissions officer -- who posted on a Quora thread in response to the question "do high school students' Facebook profiles affect their college applications?" -- said that a student's online presence "absolutely" prejudices her.

And StudentAdvisor.com editor Dean Tsouvalas wrote in a blog post that "in at least one case an admissions counselor told us they rejected a potential student based on their social networking profile."

But applicants can turn their social media presence into an advantage. Tsouvalas says that by following a school on Twitter or "liking" it on Facebook, using a personal blog as a space to demonstrate talent or making a video application for your school of choice, students can stand out in an increasingly competitive candidate pool.

Does this news make you nervous? Let us know how you feel in the comments section.

Comments

[Konrad Klean]

10:53 PM on 03/02/2011

Yeah...knowing that schools want to know who is a borderline-depressive stalker is a bad thing.

.....Yeah.

Give me a break...

[lensman3]

10:52 AM on 03/02/2011

Shame - Shame on those schools. I have bot a bachelors and an Masters degrees so I'll have to check on my two schools. If they are using Facebook to screen, then no more monies to them. I will also actively lobby the rest of my family and friends not to give money to their Alma Maters.

[candqmom]

02:27 PM on 03/01/2011

While I agree the headline is wrong (82% use for recruiting not to check up on applicants), Kaplan’s other surveys of admissions officers specifically asked if they check FB pages and if it impacts their decision-making. In 2007, 10% of responding colleges said they do check and that 38% of the time, negative information caused the student to not be selected. Kaplan also surveyed of admissions officers at business, law and medical schools. Admissions officers at 9% of business schools, 15% of law schools and 14% of medical schools surveyed report having visited applicants’ social networking sites during the admissions process. This was a 2007 survey...where are those numbers today? Of course colleges are not looking at every applicant; you're right, not enough time for that. But this extra info can be used to narrow the field of students with similar credentials. Picture many students with high SATs…with campus drinking an ever-increasing concern, pics of beer pong at last weekend’s party can certainly help narrow the field. Someone who does not get in or doesn't get the scholarship might never know it was the inappropriate postings on FB that tipped the scales against them. Bottom line, one more reason for kids to clean up digital dirt, be mindful of who they friend and set privacy settings. To say it's not a widespread problem is not the issue. It’s wide-spread enough if your dream college is one that uses this info and your dream is gone.

[whowhatwhywherewhen]

12:46 PM on 03/01/2011

Not buying it....if that was the really true, then admissions to these universities would be about 3-5%.

[J0E1]

12:23 PM on 03/01/2011

If you block non-friends from seeing your profile then the most they can see is your profile picture and some basic info.  What could possibly be seen by admission officers in this case?  If you have your profile set to public while applying for jobs or school then maybe you aren't intelligent enough to go to these schools in the first place.

[Teri]

10:48 PM on 03/01/2011

completely agree!

[Paul Scheffler]

01:36 PM on 03/02/2011

yeah, this is really confusing me. most people i know on FB keep their privacy settings on "friends only" so random creepers can't sift through photos from the last 6 years of their life.

all of these warning make it sound like FB gives employers and school admins free reign to peruse everyones profile.

i'd like to know exactly what these school admins have access to.

[TidalShadow]

09:45 AM on 03/01/2011

Social media can be used to your advantage just as it can be used against you. If you want a facebook profile for business/work purposes and a separate one for you personal life, that is probably a good way to go. However, if you publicly post embarrassing things about yourself, don't be surprised when they come back to haunt you.

[Bci Kasa]

09:25 AM on 03/01/2011

Smart move on there part. Same goes for employers who check the social website. If you are dumb enough to post foolish things on these sites that tells these organizations the kind of person you are. I am not saying you can't do foolish things, just don't post it. Another fact, we are judged by the company we keep. By making complete stranger friends, we are judged by the content they post. I have FB account but there are no pics of my face and my name and information is fictional. I use dummy email addresses and so on. Some of my personal friends know this so they friend me but I don't ever want to be judged by what I do in my personal life.

[sofiapwns]

09:19 AM on 03/01/2011

If universities and employers are using Facebook to make decisions about prospective students and employees, what does this mean for those of us who don't use Facebook and social media? Are we at a greater disadvantage because admissions officers and employers have access to more information about our competition and not about us? The fact that social media is playing a big role in these decisions has a lot of implications for those of us who don't use it.

[TidalShadow]

09:41 AM on 03/01/2011

It's part of the reason I have a facebook profile now. To be competitive, it is becoming increasingly necessary to be linked with social media. I don't care for the trend myself.

[DianaMerg]

11:16 AM on 03/01/2011

I think it's safe to say Facebook is more than just a trend...

[Spartan112]

11:57 AM on 03/01/2011

I don't know that not having a FB profile wil hurt you in the process so much as having one can.

[ndlekas]

03:42 AM on 03/01/2011

No one that isn't a friend can see my profilem, why is this concept so hard to comprehend

[Lucas Perie]

01:30 AM on 03/01/2011

That means 80 percent HAVE used FB to check profiles. It does not mean 80 percent of applications are checked through FB.

[Mountain Momma]

10:54 PM on 02/28/2011

Students better get used to it, because their future employers will also check out their online presence. In our school district, nearly every principal I've asked admits to Googling the names of prospective teachers - not so much because they want to see what the teachers are up to, but because in many schools, parents will check up on their child's new teacher, and if there are Facebook photos of that teacher playing beer pong at a frat party, the principal will have a mob of angry parents in his/her office.

[skraeling]

02:17 AM on 03/01/2011

The secret is to not follow the crowd and avoid being on Facebook.....

[athenalong]

09:08 PM on 02/28/2011

Here's an option that people could employ if they're already on the inside but don't want to delete: Deactivation.

It makes you unsearchable, even if your profile was super locked down, but remains there for you to return to it as if nothing happened since the point of deactivation.

I just reactivate once a week for an hour, check out what's going on with people, and then deactivate when I'm done reading.

Been a great way to deal with my issues with FB posting everything I do. But also, it allows me to stay semi in the loop without potentially compromising your identity.

I encourage people to employ this tactic if they want to get on the wagon, but aren't ready to give up all of their friends that drink =]

[MrJodyGore]

07:34 PM on 02/28/2011

I have read almost 1500 College Applications for one of the most competitive Public Universities in the country this year, never have I looked up an applicant's facebook profile. I am also pretty involved in my state's ACAC, and I have never heard of another admissions officer talk about doing this either. I also read the Kaplan survey and have no idea how the author of this article determined that 80% of us are.

[cosmiCataclysm]

10:30 PM on 02/28/2011

Seems like digging through all the applicants' Facebook pages at a large university (20K + students) would require the school to hire someone to do nothing but that single job.

[skraeling]

02:19 AM on 03/01/2011

I have a friend who reads apps for UCLA, by the thousands and would not know how to access Facebook.....it is a highly over hyped scam....

[Teri]

10:51 PM on 03/01/2011

both of you said PUBLIC universities, not PRIVATE. perhaps the truly competitive colleges are reading checking out candidates on FB. everyone applying to one of the elite private schools is similar, grades, scores, music lessons, travel etc. this is the way to distinguish them, i suppose.

[MalloryWood]

06:33 PM on 02/28/2011

This is a pretty blatant misrepresentation of the Kaplan Survey being referred to: http://www.kaptest.com/pdf_files/Highlights-from-Kaplans-2010-College-Admissions-Officers-Survey.pdf

It is clear that most schools are not using Facebook as a means of evaluating applicants.

Further discussion/comments can be found on my blog:
http://mallorywood.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/admission-counselors-on-facebook/

[OC4Obama4Pres]

06:02 PM on 02/28/2011

If you are looking for a job or trying to get admitted to a school you need to Lock Down your profile.

[Lauren Nicole Vega]

08:22 PM on 02/28/2011

agreed! I've known people that temporarily change their name when applying to schools

[skraeling]

02:20 AM on 03/01/2011

if they are that mindless and duplicitous, they should seek counseling and not a college education....sometimes, you just have to grow up.....