Do you know what’s on your teenager’s MySpace or Facebook?
You might not care, but plenty of colleges might.
A story in today’s Wall Street Journal reports that some colleges are skulking around on the MySpace and Facebook pages of their applicants.
In a survey of 500 top colleges, 10% of admission officers acknowledged that they take a peek at applicants’ social networking pages when evaluating applications. About 38% of the time, what college admission officers saw negatively impacted their views of the applicants.
Another study, conducted at the University of Massachusetts, determined that 21% of colleges relied on social networking sites to recruit prospects and gather background on applicants. Apparently searching the Internet for background on students is more common when schools are trying to determine who will receive their scholarships.
While plenty of schools aren’t researching candidates on Facebook or MySpace, some will take a peak at lurid posts when they are sent anonymously. Yes, apparently kids who want to sabotage other students’ chances of admission are tipping schools off to some crazy stuff.
What’s unacceptable on a Facebook page? I think you know. Nudity, drinking, drug use and foul language are right up there.