<p>My S recently told me he is in a group that worships his Language Arts teacher - it's a hoot, and when the teacher found out about it, he thought it was hilarious & joined in. I asked S if his teacher could see his facebook page. First of all, S chastised me & told me that there is nothing on his page that he wouldn't want his teacher to see (whew!) - "Mom, I am not stupid." Then he told me that the groups are set up to limit access to personal pages.</p>
<p>WOW
Wouldn't it be SOOOOO much easier to just type "son" rather than S1?</p>
<p>I don't see the point of doing that...</p>
<p>OP, I'd only friend them if you're certain that none of your friends are going to tag you in inappropriate pictures or leave inappropriate messages on your wall. I agree with limiting their access, but if you limit too much, they may be suspicious. However, it seems like a great way to prove you're interested in the college... you'll know better than all of us if your Facebook is - and will remain - "grandma-appropriate" =)</p>
<p>jsyoo7: S1 does not mean Son, but the older (first) son.</p>
<p>jsy007, we parents "know" each other well enough that we feel the need to let each other know WHICH kid we are discussing! :)</p>
<p>Just for the record - my youngest d does not do Facebook/MySpace either. Most of her close friends are not on it either. At this point, I'm glad; her life is private compared to the Facebook kids. (Both older siblings are on Facebook, and, I believe, MySpace.) She's thinking when her buddies leave for college in so many different directions that she might consider it then.</p>
<p>Both older children have good scholarships and have been friended by persons (generally younger ones) in charge of the scholarship program. I do believe that the scholarship program thinks that Facebook content is important. I don't know if the "friending" is meant to check-up on the student or not, but it does make everyone think twice about the info on the page.</p>
<p>I don't think it's an issue if someone doesn't have a Facebook account; I know a lot of people who don't and got accepted to awesome schools. I also know a few who list their first name and only their last initial, and they're going to good schools too.</p>
<p>This whole concept of admissions counsellors as Facebook friends is a little weird to me though.</p>
<p>The first time I applied to college, I applied to 12 schools and no admissions counselors or reps ever friended me, even though I made several visits to my top 3 and spent hours on the phone and e-mail with admissions counselors at my top 5 in general.</p>
<p>This will be interesting; I wonder if I'll get friended this time around?... It would probably actually give me an advantage if a rep saw my Facebook. Most of my pictures involve volunteer efforts, lol.</p>
<p>Yes, no college in the United States will even look at you if you don't have a facebook. Only cool kids go to college.</p>
<p>I had facebook and deleted it after like 2 weeks. Total waste of time for me, lots of freshman year pictures resurfaced...</p>
<p>I totally agree with Sabster. I think giving a rep a "limited profile" would definitely look like you're trying to hide something. But if your son does allow the rep to see the full profile, it is inevitable that someone will write an inappropriate message on his wall or he will be tagged in an inappropriate picture. Tough call but I wouldn't do it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
or he will be tagged in an inappropriate picture.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Then that's your son's fault. If he is there, he deserves to suffer the potential consequences.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who thinks that the request is creepy? Given what a sellers' market it is in college admissions these days, students certainly don't want to do anything to reject/alienate/act anything but overjoyed by overtures from admissions reps from colleges they wish to attend. So even if the student feels that friending an adult stranger is a violation of their privacy, there are certainly some strong factors that would militate against saying "no" even if the students wants to. I mean, why can't the admissions rep just offer the student her email address and encourage her to email if there are questions? If the rep wants to keep up an online presence with info about the college, couldn't she just put up a blog that students could see, and where they could post comments, without possible violation of their privacy, or the unstated pressure to go along with opening up facebook to an adult they don't really know.</p>
<p>It looks like these requests are not so rare: I just found the following guidance in the "Internet Etiquette" document from admission officers at Washington U. in St. Louis:</p>
<p>• Don’t “friend” an Admissions Officer or your student interviewer on social
networking Web sites. It is in your best interest to keep your communications
professional during the admissions process.</p>
<p>Also:</p>
<p>• Don’t post inappropriate or offensive messages about any university on any
Web site. (e.g., collegeconfidential.com)</p>
<p>!!!!</p>
<p>I would definitely accept the college rep on my Facebook because if I don't it would be a kind of suspicious. But... I would put him or her on limited profile so he could not see my whole Facebook life.</p>
<p>I am a college rep and do have some prospective students as friends. If they invite me to be a "friend" I say yes, but I have never invited a prospective student to be my friend. One of my responsibilities is international student recruitment and I learned that a lot of international student e-mail messages weren't getting through University spam filters, so this was the only way they could reach me with questions. So yes, for some students it isn't so easy to pick up the phone and talk any time--in China its a 12 hour time difference. I do think it is tricky and students have to be very judicious about what they put on their pages, but I don't spend anytime trolling for info about students. Much too busy for that. On the other hand, some of them send me ridiculous stuff and I don't want to hurt their feelings, so these things go both ways. We all need to be careful about our on-line lives.</p>
<p>Good points, UR Admissions.</p>
<p>Now I am wondering: is it possible to have a regular Facebook page that one uses socially, and also create a second Facebook page that is just for college admissions? This would be similar to having one "formal" email address "<a href="mailto:JoeSmith@xxx.com">JoeSmith@xxx.com</a>" to use for admissions and another to use socially "<a href="mailto:SexyPartyGuy@xxx.com">SexyPartyGuy@xxx.com</a>." Just thinking out loud here. Different pictures and info could be posted on each one, appropriate for the intended viewers.</p>
<p>speckledegg, all I can say is "wow"</p>
<p>not the same thing, but similar. My D is a HS Junior and she teaches at a program for city middle school kids, and she was also a camp counselor. In both cases they tell the kids to limit their contact on social networking sites with the students/campers, for the camp they go farther and tell them not to friend the campers. The main point is that the younger kids will be looking them up on these sites and to maintain a professional appearance. Similar to what I as a parent tell her, don't post things that you would not want other people to see. She also uses subgroups for different parts of her profile, I should know I am in a limited access group myself!</p>
<p>S has continued to just sit on this until we figure out how to limit the profile for this "friend." His IRL friend did "friend" the rep, but I don't know whether he's rcv'd anything from the guy yet. Have to get S to ask.</p>
<p>I'll repeat my earlier thought: I think it makes great business sense, and I like that this school is making up for all the trees WUSL kills :D, but as a junior, I just don't think my son needs that level of contact yet. If he were a senior and about to apply, I'd be much more agreeable to it.</p>
<p>To the poster who asked about not being on Facebook: My son just got his this summer, and I am amazed at how much it's used at his school. Facebook is where clubs post mtg information and all kinds of things you NEED to know. It's not just fun and games, though there's plenty of that, too.</p>
<p>The Washington Post just had an interesting discussion about this on their Admissions 101 forum: <a href="washingtonpost.com">url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/community/groups/index.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3aa70e3396-6663-4a8d-ba19-e44939d3c44fForum%3a5093b309-eb0a-47e2-b777-ea68b9dd478eDiscussion%3a2e5e7926-f496-4f36-b136-128cafdba61a</a></p>