Social Media Footprint and College Admissions

College/University-bound students, should you be concerned about your social media activity, regarding admissions? Will admissions officers review your accounts? If so, how frequently is this standard practice in admissions offices? And, if they do, how will they utilize that information in the admissions decision?

Kaplan, the global educational services company, has been evaluating this since 2008 through surveys of college and university admission officers. Though the response percentages have varied over the years, here are their findings:

* Up to two-thirds surveyed see no issue in utilizing social media in the admissions review

* Between 36 and 27 percent (a decline since 2020) make visits to student’s social media pages

* Between 42 and 38 percent (a decline since 2020) found the information to have a positive impact on the student’s application.

And, most importantly,

* 58 percent found that the information they uncovered to have a negative impact on the student’s application

And you will not only have little control over when and how often this is happening, but over who is having a look.

So, the final word: as you may have been advised before for a range of reasons, once again, be aware of what you (and your friends) post on social media, or you may lay bare to the judgement of admissions officers, things that are better kept private.