September 19, 2008
Admissions Officers Peek at Applicants' Facebook Profiles
College seniors know that prospective employers check their Facebook and MySpace pages; now high-school seniors have evidence that college admissions officers browse them as well.
One in 10 admissions officers has looked at an applicant’s social-networking profile, according to a report released yesterday by the test-prep company Kaplan Inc. Of those who peeked, 38 percent said what they saw had a negative effect on their evaluation of the student. Fewer — a quarter — said the effect was positive.
Admissions officers’ decisions to look or not are mostly up to them, Kaplan said. “The vast majority of schools we surveyed said they have no official policies or guidelines in place regarding visiting applicants’ social-networking Web sites — nor are they considering plans to develop them,” Jeff Olson, executive director of research for Kaplan’s test-prep and admissions division, said in a written statement.
The company surveyed 320 institutions among U.S. News & World Report’s and Barron’s top 500. It also polled admissions officers at professional schools, finding that 9 percent in business, 14 percent in medicine, and 15 percent in law looked at applicants’ social-networking sites when making admissions decisions.
Some students are crying foul. In a poll on Kaplan’s Web site — “Do you think it’s fair for colleges and universities to look at social-networking sites when evaluating applicants?” — 46 percent of respondents said no. —Sara Lipka
Posted on Friday September 19, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Sounds fine to me, as it is just one more way to get at information about potential employees or students. Of course, these types will soon find a way to ‘polish’ face Facebook entries to squeeze into Harvard, just like they do now with bloated overlypolished student portfilios that really mean nothing except that they are great at selling themselves via portfolios…this is a nice extension of the subculture of ‘star kids’ and of fact-checking them
— Cal Sep 19, 01:04 PM #
10% of counselors? Hardly an issue. Most of those who looked were probably only there because the student requested to be their friend.
— Bradjward Sep 19, 04:00 PM #
It’s a problem to me if the admissions counselor learns that the individual maybe has children, is gay, is in an interracial relationship, or some other personal fact, and then makes a decision based on knowledge that they should not have and is not part of the application.
— Sjane Sep 19, 06:16 PM #
I hear this story often, but wonder what difference any of it makes if the Facebook party keeps his/her profile hidden from public view.
— Drew Sep 19, 06:36 PM #
Facebook is public information! If the students don’t want the admissions counselors to see their party photos, poetry, and iPod playlists, then don’t post them online! Public is public – you can’t have it both ways.
— D. Sep 22, 07:42 AM #
Right or Wrong, your profile is out there for everyone and it will cause others to judge you.
It’s the world we live in now that if you put it on the internet, it’s fairgame
— Ray Sep 22, 08:37 AM #
My senior in hs is Facebook friends with college admissions people. He’s looking for a good college match just as much s the admissions people are.
— me 2 Sep 22, 09:05 AM #
We now live in an age where people practically to beg to have their lives lived in public, or at the least think it’s acceptable to put your deepest darkest secrets out there on hte web or TV. Witness TV shows like Intervention and countless others. Students are growing up with this mentality. But we have to learn that you can’t post your secrets in public and then complain when someone sees them. Kids (and adults)—if you don’t want us to know of your beer-bong or kinky proclivities, don’t put them out there for all to see! (And by the way, making your profile “private” does NOT ensure privacy—ask the schoolteacher who got nailed for sex with a student and posted photos, thinking that because she had marked her profile PRIVATE no one but her “friends” would see it…)
— Will Sep 22, 09:07 AM #
I don’t know the story to which Will’s referring, but there’s still a simple answer for everyone who does not want to broadcast a Facebook profile to the world: privacy filters. High school students and college faculty alike could use a tutorial, including the information their “friends” can share with others.
— SH Sep 22, 09:20 AM #
This is why I will never have a facebook or myspace account. Even the ‘hidden’ aspect of the pages can be bypassed by clever viewers. There’s nothing to hack if its not posted.
— dsyind Sep 22, 09:23 AM #
Forrest Gump said it best — “Stupid is as stupid does”. Anyone who would be willing to prostitute themselves via these avenues deserves what she/he gets. It’s all too similar to the person who gets stopped for a speeding violation and then receives a second ticket for very reckless driving — you should have known they were out there, so you really have no cause to complain!!
— SIGMUND Sep 22, 09:54 AM #
It’s amazing that idiots post information about themselves on the internet and then are shocked, shocked to find out that some people had the audacity to look at it. A few years ago the son of a friend of mine set up a website that was, shall we say, uninhibited in its criticism of his school, teachers, and classmates. He was genuinely surprised that libel and various other laws apply to websites, and he was even more surprised that others would look at a site intended “just for my friends.”
There’s no such thing as felony stupidity, because that level of stupidity brings its own punishment.
— Dan Sep 22, 10:09 AM #