Facebook, MySpace have weight in college admissions</p>
<p>By Grant Welker
GateHouse News Service
Mon Sep 17, 2007, 11:02 AM EDT</p>
<p>DARTMOUTH, Mass. -</p>
<p>Many high schoolers might not know it, but a quarter of colleges use search engines to research potential students and a fifth use social network sites like Facebook.com and MySpace.com to see what students are like outside of their applications, a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth study has found.</p>
<p>“The new data indicates that college admissions’ social media usage is facing far ahead of predictions and even ahead of corporate use,” the study says.</p>
<p>For prospective students, it’s a wake-up call that even their personal lives are within the scope of college admission offices.</p>
<p>Many students at B.M.C. Durfee High School in Fall River have privacy settings on their personal sites or use screen names instead of their real names, but not all students have considered colleges looking them up.</p>
<p>“The colleges might want to know if a student is going to party or not take themselves seriously,” said senior Patricia Pimental, who has a MySpace page. Pimental, who said she wouldn’t post questionable pictures anyway, added that no one would be able to see her profile without being listed as her friend and can’t find her by a search because she doesn’t use her real name.</p>
<p>Another senior, Ethan Goncalo, said colleges should check students’ profiles. “A lot of girls take stupid pictures,” he said.</p>
<p>Brittany Medeiros, a senior who has Facebook and MySpace pages, said she has listed her location as New York City and her age as 99. But she said she never thought before about college admission offices searching for more information on her.</p>
<p>The guidance department at Durfee does talk to students about their online profiles, said Aimee Bronhard, the school’s department head of guidance.</p>
<p>“It is a way to promote themselves,” Bronhard said. “They should make sure it is appropriate. They don’t always look at the long-term effects of what they put online. They don’t always see the connection between their MySpace page and their college application.”</p>
<p>The study, conducted by a UMass Dartmouth professor and a social media scholar, found that “the use of social media in the ‘ivory tower’ is outpacing even the business world.”</p>
<p>The 453 colleges and universities in the study often were more familiar with technology like social networking, blogging and message boards than those in top businesses and were more likely to find the technologies “very important” to recruiting or marketing.</p>
<p>The results of the study are conclusive, said Nora Barnes, a professor in UMass Dartmouth’s Charlton College of Business and one of the researchers for the study. “Social media has arrived in college admissions.”</p>
<p>“While certainly the traditional factors will still play dominant roles in selecting applicants for admission or rejection, students need to understand that their social network sites are being examined by colleges and universities,” Barnes said. “The content of their sites could have far-reaching effects on their academic futures if they are not careful.”</p>
<p>The study, conducted earlier this year, included colleges and universities from 49 states, both private and public, large and small, inexpensive and costly. The researchers compared data from the college admissions offices with data from a previous UMass Dartmouth study that asked similar questions to businesses listed in the Inc. 500 of the nation’s fastest-growing businesses.</p>
<p>Barnes said she was surprised at many results in the study. A third of college admission offices use blogs, compared with 19 percent of top businesses. About half of colleges monitor how their school is perceived online, but Barnes said all colleges should be doing it.</p>
<p>“They are, from my perspective, one of the fastest adopters of this technology,” Barnes said of colleges. “We knew that employers were using that kind of technology, but not colleges.”</p>
<p>She was also surprised at how colleges use social networking Web sites more often than top businesses but added that it’s a useful tool when stuck between a few students to give out a scholarship, for example.</p>
<p>“I don’t think they’re looking at every applicant,” she said. “I think what they are hoping to find in the profiles is nothing.”</p>
<p>If you want to have a Facebook or MySpace profile, you need to use privacy settings, Barnes said. Both social network sites have settings that can restrict anyone not on a person’s friend list from seeing their profile, but Barnes added it is important to remember that some pictures can still show up on a friend’s profile that can be viewed by others.</p>
<p>Barnes mentioned how some young people have gotten in trouble, like Miss Nevada Katie Rees, a Miss USA contestant, who had her crown taken away last year after racy photos of her at a party surfaced online. This summer, Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo made national news when someone threatened to release photos from her Facebook page if she didn’t drop out of her Miss America campaign.</p>
<p>“Students need to brand themselves,” Barnes said. “Use your profile to publicize yourself. Put your skills and achievements and volunteer work on there. I say turn the tables on the colleges. Create your own brand.”</p>
<p>“Universities are using these online tools as they become available,” she continued. “It’s a good move. No college wants to be embarrassed. It’s a school trying to protect their own reputation.”