<p>I have always felt pretty strongly that admission officers should let Facebook groups geared towards applicants and prospective students grow organically. Last night, I changed my position due to a</a> well-researched blog post made by Brad Ward at Butler University. </p>
<p>College Pro<em>wler (had to break it up to get it to post), a for-profit group, is creating or getting control of Facebook groups dedicated to the Class of 2013 at many universities. Blog readers have found well over 300 groups started by the College Pr</em>wler team. Many groups have names that include the word "official". </p>
<p>Why are they doing this? There are many possible reasons and I've emailed the CEO of College Pr0wler to get the "official" word. However, I think they are doing this so that they can sell marking opportunities to groups that want to be in touch with college-bound students. </p>
<p>Anyway, I think we have to claim our space and protect the UVa "brand" so to speak. I have created an official Facebook group for the Class of 2013. I'm not interested in seeing your profiles or updates. I just want to make sure that your interest in UVa doesn't open you up to spam from companies. </p>
<p>Here's the group: OFFICIAL</a> University of Virginia Class of 2013 Group | Facebook</p>
<p>I've also created a Twitter account (another thing I resisted a little bit) for UVa updates in case they go after that arena, too.</p>
<p>I hope you'll spread the word about the Facebook group.</p>