The college application process is daunting as it stands, and now students are facing another obstacle in putting their best foot forward to the college admissions departments. Students profiles on their favorite social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace may now play a roll in the admissions process. Only a few schools are admitting to it, but if you have a profile that you may not want a college admissions director peeking at, read on.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but is it worth your future?

The Daily Collegian - The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth recently completed a study that found that 21 percent of college admissions departments now use the Internet to look at the online profiles of potential students when reviewing applications.UMass Dartmouth looked at the policies of 452 college admissions departments to determine how many of them included Web sites like Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, and Livejournal as part of the application process. The study also found that 26 percent of these colleges are using Google to research prospective students.

These practices have become widely used by potential employers, but now many colleges and universities are using the technique to learn more about students. SAT scores, GPAs, letters of recommendation, and essays are no longer the only things being considered for acceptance by many schools.

Admission departments in the Five College system, however, do not look at students’ online profiles as part of the application process.

“We don’t do that,” said Kevin Kelly, director of admissions at UMass Amherst. “Each year we receive plus or minus 32,000 applications. The time it would take to check social networking sites is just not possible.”

The admissions department at Hampshire College displayed an even stronger stance against looking into student’s online profiles.

“It is our policy not to look at online profiles. We look only at the information the student submits to us in their application,” said Karen Parker, director of admissions at Hampshire. “The admissions staff discussed the issue and we reached the conclusion that it is not ethical to go looking at Facebook.”

Mount Holyoke and Smith maintain similar policies against using Facebook when accepting students.

Smith uses the common application, on which students are asked about any disciplinary action taken against them.

“If they’ve had disciplinary action taken against them, that’s something we follow up on,” said Karen Kristof, the senior associate director of admissions at Smith College, Karen Kristof. “That’s not the same thing as seeing a picture of somebody who isn’t old enough to drink.”

Smith does use Google, but not to research students. The search engine is used to look into students the admissions staff believes may have plagiarized their college essay. The college also looks at Facebook, but only to look into potential employees.

Kristof also laid out the ethical repercussions of college admissions departments reviewing online profiles.

“It’s hard ethically to take them into account,” said Kristof. “You see a picture of a girl drinking who you know to be 17, but how does that affect her admission? Is it fair to?”

Many of the admissions departments mentioned that something specific on students’ profiles could hurt admission chances.

“There is a question of what we would learn that would help us to admit or not admit a student,” said Kelly.

While many colleges and universities are refraining from looking at online profiles as part of a student’s application process, there is no doubt that students should be careful about what kind personal information about them can be found on the Internet.

The National Association of College Admissions Counseling outlines many steps students can take to ensure their online profiles do not adversely affect their future.

The Web site says students should refrain from posting personal information online, such as their address, schedule, and phone number. Students should also make sure their profile is set to private, and try to avoid adding friends they don’t know. The site says students should also make an attempt to filter which photos of them are posted online, as they can make a negative impact on them in the future.

By: Ashley Coulombe, Collegian Staff www.thedailycollegian.com

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 10:48 am and is filed under Tips For College. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.