Applicants’ social media may override academics, leadership

Social media has often been celebrated as a new form of communication, a means of self-expression and creating identity, but it may also be a danger to students applying for college.

Recent data suggests that high school seniors should be less focused on what they put down on paper and more focused on what they post on social media websites.

On Oct. 31, The Kaplan Test Prep Association surveyed college admissions officers and found that 29 percent have Googled applicants’ Facebook pages to learn more about them.

Seppy Basili, vice president of the Kaplan Test Prep Association, said this is a growing trend.

“There’s definitely greater acknowledgment and acceptance of this practice now than there was five years ago,” Basili said in a statement.

In a separate study of Kaplan students who took the SAT or ACT, 50 percent of students said they were “not at all concerned” with how results of an online search would negatively impact their acceptance chances. Only 14 percent of students said they were “very concerned.”

The same survey also found that 26 percent of individuals had untagged themselves from photos, 22 percent changed their searchable names and 12 percent deleted their profiles altogether.

With technology increasingly dominating modern life, social media is becoming more prevalent, as well. This raises the question of how the social media spectrum following this new age of technology affects college applicants’ chances of acceptance.

Amber Howe, a Woodland Hills High School student applying to Carnegie Mellon University, said she paid attention to how she would look to college admissions officers who searched for her online.

“The whole reason I created a Facebook page was just in case the college admissions officers decided to Google me,” Howe said. “It would give them a chance to get to know me better beyond an interview.”

Her brother, Shane Howe, had a different perspective. A freshman at the University of Chicago, he said he believed he ruined his chances of getting in to the college he desired, the University of Notre Dame, “because of things [he] posted on the Internet.”

“Social media has had a negative impact on me,” Shane said.

“I was so caught up in the fun of being in high school,” he said.

However, both the University of Notre Dame and Pitt deny that they monitor applicants’ social media presence and stated they do not Google search their applicants’ names for further information.

Joyce Lantz, the director of communications and recruitment for Notre Dame, said an examination of social media “is not a part of the application process.”

“We read applications holistically based on the information the applicant provides. The admissions committee does not search for additional information via any search engines, including Google,” Lantz said.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele described a similar policy at Pitt.

“The University of Pittsburgh does not scan the Internet to find personal information about applicants as part of the review process for undergraduate admissions at the Pittsburgh campus,” he said.

This begs the question of whether the social media spectrum is beneficial to prospective college students or should be seen as a pitfall for unwary applicants.

Christine Brown, Executive Director of K-12 and college prep programs for Kaplan Test Prep, said that having a social media account can be either a blessing or a curse.

“The social media sword cuts both ways. It’s definitely a two-way street, and we think it’s a healthy thing for students to maintain an active social media life, as long as they are being smart about it,” Brown said.

She suggested that as long as it is properly used, the outcome should be advantageous for students’ long-term goals. She provided the examples of athletes posting videos of successful plays, or artists using Instagram or Pinterest to share their portfolios.

“If you are an accomplished musician, maybe you can post videos of yourself in concert. These are all things that could conceivably help you get into college if seen by an admissions officer,” Brown said.