Colleges can view Facebook just like friends

Q: I am a high school student. My friends and I like to post "candid" photos of ourselves on our Facebook pages. My parents keep telling me that college admissions officers may view these photos negatively. However, I don't even think that college admissions officers take the time to look at applicants' pages on social networking sites. What do you think?

A: I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "candid" photos. However, if you mean photos of you doing anything illegal - drinking, doing drugs, etc.- or photos of a sexual nature, I would recommend taking them off your page.

For some reason, many high school students, and even college students, for that matter, believe that photos they post online will only be viewed by their intended audience, their friends. However, the World Wide Web is called the World Wide Web for a reason - because anyone in the world with an Internet connection can view it. Therefore, it is entirely possible that college admissions officers, and later potential employers, may view your Facebook page.

In fact, a new study "The Game Has Changed: College Admissions Outpace Corporations in Embracing Social Media" by Nora G. Barnes, the director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, reports that "more than 20 percent of colleges and universities sometimes review students and social-networking profiles and that more than a quarter sometimes look for information on students via search engines," according to a recent Education Week article.

Barnes goes on to state in the same article that "No college is Googling the name of every student who's coming through the door, but almost all schools have a limited number of (student) slots and a limited amount of scholarship money, and like any brand, they have to protect their name.

"Nobody wants to give a very prestigious scholarship to some (student) who's going to show up in the newspaper the next day with pictures of (the student) standing on a beer keg."

In addition to having a "clean" Facebook profile, it is important to have an appropriate e-mail address. Many colleges and universities today communicate with applicants by e-mail and you don't want to give them a bad impression of you by using a vulgar e-mail address. I have come across some pretty bad ones over the years.

Set up a basic e-mail account (firstname.lastname@gmail.com, for example) and use it for all college related correspondence.

A good rule of thumb is not to post pictures on your Facebook page and not to use an e-mail address that you wouldn't want your grandmother to see.

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Reprinted by permission, Palo Alto Daily News. Jason Katz ©2.2.2008 All rights reserved. This article may be printed for your personal use, but may not be reprinted in whole or in part in any publication or website without permission. www.jkatzcollegecounseling.com