Colleges Delve Into Social Media

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In the age of technology, colleges have turned to different and less traditional ways to evaluate prospective students. Looking to social media, colleges have started viewing Facebook and Twitter profiles of applicants in addition to the regular essays and letters of recommendation submitted by the student. While the practice is not widespread, changes are occurring in how students present themselves online.

Young people have more often started living their lives on the Internet and thus colleges see it as another way to view an applicant. Critics of the practice believe students should only be judged on their academic portfolios and that this is an invasion of privacy. Proponents see it as a way  to fill in gaps and questions in a prospective student’s application.

Last year, current University of British Columbia freshman and former East student Gabby Magalski was in the middle of the college admissions process when she witnessed a certain trend among her friends — they had begun to partially change their Facebook names. Knowing that a college could easily type their names into the popular social networking site and be able to view their out of school moments, like ones at parties, many wanted to remain anonymous.

By turning last names into middle names, seniors were attempting to make their social media presence harder to detect by college admission officials. Magalski, although unafraid of her own posts, also decided to change her name for fear of misinterpretation.

“In reality I personally don’t think it would reflect poorly on me because I don’t have bad pictures,” Magalski said. “I guess I figured it would be easier to just not have them be able to find me in case they did dislike one of my pictures.”

East counselor Don Baker said that it is not uncommon for admissions offices to snoop around the Internet to see how students may present themselves online. If two prospective students are being compared, the college might choose the one with the more responsible social media presence. Photos of students consuming alcohol or posts that inflict cyber bullying, Baker said, shows a student that is less responsible.

“If you’re applying for something [in person], either for school or a job you’re definitely going to put your best foot forward,” Baker said. “You’re not going to say, ‘Oh yeah I went and got all messed up and did this and did that.’ It’s like, that’s probably not going to be what you’re going to put in your letter trying to get into the school.”

Baker also stated that smaller, more selective schools including the Ivy League and liberal arts colleges, have been turning to screening students based on their Internet profiles more often than larger state universities. To these colleges, social media is a tool for admissions in two different ways. It is there to understand how much interest a student has in a certain school and as a way to investigate any questions that a transcript and paper application may present.

To gauge a student’s enthusiasm and interest in the school they are applying to, colleges like Wheaton College in Norton, MA check Facebook groups that the school has set up to see if the prospective students have joined. It’s a way to understand just how serious the applicant is about wanting to attend Wheaton.

Director of Admissions and Recruitment at Wheaton, James Richardson said that he will hardly ever dig into a student’s personal profile to find something bad, without reason.

“Are there things really egregious in their behavior and the way they’re acting online?” Richardson said. “We almost never look to that unless something would come to light where we feel we would need to explore and look at them at some form of a deeper level.”

If  there was a gap in the student’s application, like randomly transferring to a different school or an unexplained period of absence, Wheaton’s admissions office would try to research it. They would, in some cases, use social media to gain a student’s perspective about the incident in question.

In addition, if Wheaton has a suspicion that an applicant is involved in activity that breaches its honor code, they are also willing to investigate online. And if someone, whether it be a student, a staff member or an applicant is under question for breaching the code, Wheaton investigates. While they wouldn’t look totally at social media for an answer, Richardson said that parts of an online profile do play a role when a question arises.

“For whatever information is out there,” Richardson said. “It’s free game I go get it if I want to invest the time and resources to go and get it.”

State schools like the University of Kansas (KU)  and Kansas State University utilize automatic admission. At KU, instead of looking at social media and digging deeper into a student’s life through intensive essays, the prospective candidate is admitted if they meet a certain criteria that combines their GPA and standardized test scores.

Lisa Pinamonti Kress is Director of Admissions at KU and believes personally that looking at a student on Facebook is an invasion of privacy and does not paint an accurate picture of the prospective student.

“I don’t think that [social media] reflects a student’s academic ability,” Kress said. “The purpose of going to school and going to college is to have the academic ability to do that.”

Kress believes that admitting students based on their social media profiles is indeed an invasion of privacy and that Kansas would not use this type of admission even if the process wasn’t automatic.

Richardson believes that looking at a student on social media is not an invasion of privacy, but a reflection of the prospective candidate just as they would act in person.

“It’s part of life. Who you are in person should be reflected of who you are online.” Richardson said. “And vice versa. Who you are online should be indicative of who you are in real life and if you don’t want a contrary image online then you shouldn’t put it out there because it’s for everyone to see, right? It’s a fact of life.”

To students applying out-of-state, like Magalski, having their social media looked at is almost inevitable. She doesn’t believe that it should be used in admissions but understands why many schools look. To her, while the profile may not be so accurate, it speaks more about the decision-making abilities of a prospective student. In addition, she believes it prepares them for a more responsible life online.

“Once you enter college it’s kind of the like the real world,” Magalski said. “And you have to realize that those things you do online and the way you portray yourself to the world are going to eventually negatively affect your life.”

Baker agrees, urging all of his students to make distinct and careful choices about their social media presence.

“Be careful what you put out there,” Baker said “Because [colleges] will look and you need to know that’s going to happen at some point.”

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