Social Networking and College Admissions

Everyone’s doing it.  MySpace, Facebook, or any other online community, is where students are sharing personal experiences online and with the world.  These sites help you keep in touch with friends and allow you to meet new people. Many students spend hours each day working on their profiles and messaging.  However, there is one rule to remember…once it is posted to the web, it is out there forever.  Even if you were to take it down moments after uploading it, the information was made available to anyone with a computer.  Before you post, remember that anyone has access to what you post: your parents, your friends, your ex, and even the admissions department of your dream school.

Don’t think that college admissions departments check social networking sites?  In a recent informal survey 85% of admission representatives admitted they either personally checked such sites or they knew of someone in the department that had, and nearly half knew of at least one instance where admission was denied because of questionable posts to MySpace.

While many students may make the argument that what’s personal should not influence their academic career, it does not stop the fact that questionable postings can jeopardize your future.  If you think that it stops at school, it doesn’t.  More and more employers are also checking social sites during the employment process.  Finally, you need to keep in mind that police departments are using tools such as YouTube to find evidence of crimes now, too.  If you would not share what you post with your grandmother, pastor, or police officer, don’t post it to the web!

Janelle Jalbert