Prospective college students, beware: There's yet another reason to make sure your Facebook profile is suitable for all. While more than 80 percent of colleges use Facebook to recruit students, according to a Kaplan survey of college admissions officers, roughly a quarter of admissions officers are also stopping to check out the profiles of prospective 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.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated that more than 80 percent of college admissions officers look at prospective students' Facebook profiles to learn more about them. That figure is in fact 24 percent, while 80 percent of colleges use Facebook as a recruiting tool.