Some colleges checking out applicants’ social networking posts

Posted by Kendall Harmon

High school students, beware! College admissions and financial aid officers in California and elsewhere may be peeking over your digital shoulder at the personal information you post on your Facebook or MySpace page.

And they might decide to toss out your application after reading what you wrote about that cool party last week or how you want to conduct your romantic life at college.

According to a new report by the National Assn. for College Admission Counseling, about a quarter of U.S. colleges reported doing some research about applicants on social networking sites or through Internet search engines....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Education • Teens / Youth

7 Comments
Posted April 30, 2009 at 11:02 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. A Floridian wrote:

Comments on blogs can be accessed on Google by your name or pseudonym as well.

May 1, 7:08 am | [comment link]
2. Fr. Dale wrote:

College admission offices are staffed with lots of young folks who may “paper screen” High School candidates using blog information. This comment,

“Do you think we have time for that?” asked Susan Wilbur, the UC system’s director of undergraduate admissions,

deserves and answer.  “Yes”.  She may not have time for it but the college students working for college admissions offices do have the time. Also, social networking sites and those who view them in some cases is a marriage of narcissists and voyeurs.

May 1, 8:13 am | [comment link]
3. Ross wrote:

#1 GA/FL says:

Comments on blogs can be accessed on Google by your name or pseudonym as well.

This is why I generally like to use my real name on blogs.  The thought, “What if someone I know googles me and finds this?” has a salutary effect on the civility of my comments.

May 1, 10:16 am | [comment link]
4. The_Archer_of_the_Forest wrote:

If I google my actual name, I come up with several thousand hits with a guy who is a world class marathon runner. Maybe I’d have gotten a running scholarship by mistake!

May 1, 3:11 pm | [comment link]
5. First Family Virginian wrote:

If I Google my name—within quotation marks—I come up with more than 350,000 hits.  I suppose there is no turning back now ... it’s out there.

And that is why I choose not to use my name on the internet.  I just don’t need or want another zero or two added to that number.

May 2, 1:07 am | [comment link]
6. libraryjim wrote:

Employers do this, as well.  I had one interview a few years ago where the interviewer told me he was about to pass me over until he looked at my myspace account (http://www.myspace.com/libraryjim) and found out that I liked Loreena McKennitt’s music!

May 2, 5:42 pm | [comment link]
7. Fr. Dale wrote:

#6. libraryjim,
I knew I liked you for more than your postings.  I like the “Mask and the Mirror” Album the best of all her stuff but have the entire collection. “Full Circle” is her best song on her best album.
Blessings

May 2, 6:43 pm | [comment link]
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