Admissions Offices Monitoring Applicants' Social Media Accounts

During the application process, we advised our D to make her social media accounts private, the rationale being that you never know who you could offend with content. Even though she is pretty mindful of what she puts out there, she is fairly passionate about political and social issues and can at times post with the enthusiasm of a young idealist. We didn’t want such information being publically visible to adversely impact her applications. She expressed her skepticism that any of her admissions counselors would have time to pay attention to such things but complied.

Fast forward to all admissions decisions having been received. She made her accounts public again…back to business as usual. As she was making her choice, she continued to receive frequent communication, electronic and paper, from the schools she was accepted to. A couple were reaching out almost daily.

Fast further forward to her making her decision. Once made, she posted her choice on social media. Almost immediately, the frequent communication from her other options stopped. Because a couple had been sending things so frequently, it was a glaring change (and seemingly permanent as she hasn’t received communication from them since). She hadn’t yet advised them of her decision/removed her application, it just stopped. The only possible explanation we came up with was that they did in fact see her tweet and took action on their end to stop the communication.

Just wanted to share and get others’ thoughts and/or experiences on the impact of applicants’ social media upon the admissions process, how admissions offices may/may not use it to assist them in evaluating applicants.

This is what happened at Harvard last year. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/Harvard-Rescinds-Acceptance-for-Offensive-Memes–426393131.html

I think that if you post something for the world to see, you shouldn’t be surprised when people look.

Agreed. As I’ve said before, one should not post anything on social media that one would not want his/her grandparent(s) to read. Regardless of whether an AO will/does look at an applicants social media, the chances are much much higher IMO that a prospective employer will. Best to get into good habits early.

no surprise there - i see some kids use round pier account to promote themselves