Social media influencing college admissions

Most of us grew up with the knowledge that information placed on social media forums such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites can never be permanently deleted. Although we delete information, this same information still remains in cyberspace. A student’s acceptance into universities should not be judged by careless postings they may have made as kids.

In this digital age of social media students find themselves using Facebook, Instagram, snap chat, etc. at every opportunity they get. According to the website collegeprep360.com, 31% of high school students have access to Facebook through their phones at all times of the day. With these sites being more accessible than ever students are more likely to post without thinking it through. For example, writing on Facebook, “Got stuck in a mosh pit at a raging concert last night,” may not sound as appropriate to colleges admission officers as, “The concert last night was a blast/horrible.”

What a student posts is important because colleges look into student’s backgrounds to get an idea of what kind of person they are. According to a Kaplan survey on kaptest.com, 35% of admissions officers who Googled or visited an applicant’s Facebook page discovered something about an applicant that negatively impacted their application.  In order to maintain a good reputation in the acedemic world, students should clean up their social sites before applying to colleges. Deleting inappropriate images and posts from the website will make it harder for colleges to ever see them.

By changing their privacy settings and also rejecting unknown friend requests can ensure that college admission officers don’t ‘lurk’ on their site. Furthermore, not having 24/7 access to sites can help students avoid posting without much thought because in the heat of the moment we are less careful with what we say.

Applying to colleges is a stressful time without having to worry about all the posts you made in the past. Students must overcome many barriers in the college admission process and social media should not be one of them. Social media will make it easier for colleges to judge students based on color, ethnicity and gender but the work they put forth during their time in high school is what really counts. Students and family members should spread the word to friends that they need to clean up their pages before applying to colleges.