Social Media and College Admissions

Are colleges using social media as part of the student admissions process?  Schools.com explored this topic with the Reading Students like an Open Facebook infographic.  It’s hard enough to get teenagers to understand that online photos and status updates will be a permanent record of their behavior for the rest of their life, but even more immediately it could impact their entrance into college!

As Facebook has become more and more popular—if it were a country, it would be the third largest in the world—its use in the field of education has expanded, too. In fact, more than 80% of college admissions officers report using Facebook as part of their recruiting process. 

Are admissions officers really looking at the Facebook profiles of prospective students? And if so, are they making admissions decisions based on these profiles? Below is an infographic that highlights the answers to these questions and more—which might surprise you.

Thanks to Kristen for sending in the link!

Comments

[Martine]

danah boyd did a talk where she approached this issue. I couldn't agree with her more: http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/2009/SupernovaLeWeb.html

[Jessica]

A few parts of this graphic could be clearer. For example, it says "62% of admissions officers" say social media profiles helped applicants, while "38% of colleges" said they hurt. This implies, though it's not explicitly stated, that they only asked one admissions officer from each college surveyed. I would guess that there's variation at individual colleges among admissions officers in whether they're looking at profiles at all (e.g., see the stats on "grad students are not immune").

Also, it says "80% of admissions officers have received a friend request." I'm guessing that the numbers to the right (Business Schools 50%, Law Schools 48%, etc.) are also the percentage of admissions officers who have received at least one friend request, but it reads as if it's the percentage of APPLICANTS who send friend requests--probably a much lower percentage.

It's important not to sacrifice clarity and accuracy for pretty graphics!

[Snizenja]

Nice Infografic :)

[Mike Rosich]

While colleges admit using Facebook as part of recruitment, how they are using it is really the more important question. Most headlines lead readers to believe that colleges are sifting through a student's profile and pictures looking for embarrassing or self-destructive posts. That could not be further from the truth. Several months ago we posted on twitter a similar question, and then followed up with the same question at our local NACAC conference with a much different result: Colleges are using Facebook, but to interact with students, not spy on students. Facebook is a great way for students to get information in a much less formal way. For colleges, it is all about interacting. The last thing a college wants to do is give the impression they are spying on a student. It was also pointed out by most of the college representatives we spoke with that given the sheer number of applicants this year, it is a full time job simply going through college applications. Trolling Facebook to aid in decisions was simply out of the question.
Mike, Director of Social Media and I.T for http://morethangrades.com

[Sarven Capadisli]

re: "Check them out to gain insight about your prospective schools"

What sort of information would a school's Facebook profile contain that otherwise wouldn't be on their website? Why wouldn't someone get their insight directly from school's own website? If a school has more valuable information about themselves on their Facebook profile as opposed to their own website, why would anyone take them seriously?