Would it be okay for someone waiting for admission to a certain college to privatize their Facebook page out of fear that the admissions officers would find something unfavorable or should they leave it opened so that the admissions officers would see they have nothing to hide?
It doesn’t matter; they generally don’t look at social media accounts. That has nothing to do with admissions; they care about what’s on your application.
But don’t the admissions counselors look at most students’ Facebook profile to ensure that they’re supposedly getting the right students into their schools, thus making it an unwritten part of the application process?
No. That’s a myth. They will not seek out your social media. Schools have tens of thousands of applicants; they don’t have the time or the wish to do so for so many people.
I doubt admission officers have time to check out Facebook profiles. That said however, you should always be cognizant of the impression you give to others through social media. If you would be embarrassed or passed over for opportunities based on what you have chosen to show to the world, it shouldn’t be posted for all the world to see. Based on your question, I assume you have posted stuff that would not reflect well on you, so I’d advise that you change your privacy settings and probably change your posting habits. You will be judged by someone at some point by what you post.
Is is routine, is everyone checked? No. Does it ever happen?
I’ve heard that most schools don’t check your social media accounts, but they can if you give them the same email you use for your social media because sometimes emails can be used in the search boxes. That being said, you don’t have to post goody-good stuff everyday (like “I helped my family out today”), but it’s probably not the best idea to post pictures of people at wild parties every weekend night.
I’m just going to play it safe and de-activate all my social media profiles during admission season. You could do the same if you’re paranoid, but there’s practically no chance they’re actually going to check.
I heard an admissions officer address this. She said they couldn’t possibly search all applicants’ on-line profiles, but that they occasionally receive tips about an applicant, and they will follow up on them. If you have embarrassing information - be it politically incorrect comments, compromising photos, et al - you should try to delete and tighten up your privacy settings. A rule of thumb would be that anything you wouldn’t want your parents or any adult authority seeing should go.
Actually, my Facebook profile just has lame pictures of me volunteering. I don’t even use my profile much. But for those who do have questionable content on their profiles, I’d suggest privatizing it. I did.
Most kids do privatize the account although admission officers really don’t seem to look. I think in general, not just for college applications, it is a good policy to privatize your account.
I privatized my FB under a senior name, and also set my Instagram profile to private during the admissions process. All the way back in August. Once I finally announced where I was going in April, I reverted back to my real name on FB, and made my IG public again. I waited until a few days after graduation to open a new Twitter account.
Deleting all your social media definitely seems a bit overboard. But I’d advise you to change your FB name to a nickname for your senior year.
They do sometimes check Facebook. It’s pretty simple, though–they’re not looking for dumb teenage goofiness or f-bombs, just drinking/drugs, crime, racism, & other unequivocally bad stuff.
@marvin100 I actually did all that because I used f-bombs. Lol
Better safe than sorry, I guess, but I guarantee adcomms aren’t shocked that, um, teenagers swear gratuitously.
Just drinking? Apparently they’ve never walked fraternity row on their own campus? LOL. I don’t think they are looking for pictures of you hoisting a brew; some of us do live in places where the drinking age is 18 (or younger). I do agree with the rest of the list, though.
I agree; it’s a good idea to change your settings to private, although the likelihood of an AO looking for you in social media is small, IMO.
I was referring only to students in the US. I have no idea how adcoms perceive high school students’ drinking in countries where doing so is legal at high school age.