"Friending" College Admission Officers on Facebook

Applying to College
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<p>Several of my admission-officer pals have told me, "Tell those kids out there on College Confidential that we like them, but we don't want to be their Facebook friends!"</p>

<p>But, apparently, some admission folks are conflicted. In spite of wishing to keep some distance between their work lives and their personal lives, they also know that connecting with prospective students via social media can be a good way to recruit.</p>

<p>And the trend isn't just for high schoolers. According to a CBS "Money Watch" article, "Admission officers at 50% of business schools, 48% of law schools and 31% of medical schools reported in the Kaplan survey that they or their colleagues have also received friend requests from applicants."</p>

<p>See: A</a> Crazy Facebook Trend: Teens Friending Admission Officers - CBS MoneyWatch.com</p>

<p>Personally, I think it's a lousy idea for both the students and the admission professionals alike to become Facebook friends ... unless there are extenuating circumstances (e.g., they are next-door neighbors or blood relatives ;) )</p>

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<p>[College</a> Admissions Advice - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/]College”>http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/)</p>

<p>Sally: to add to the discussion…carry on…</p>

<p>Edit: if anyone is looking at this later on, the blog from Sept 24th contains the specifics…</p>

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<p>LOL, creepy…</p>

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<p>That is a pretty stupid idea. Wanting to get into college is one thing, but letting a complete stranger, even an admissions officer, onto your facebook? Crazy.</p>

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<p>The issue here isn’t just Facebook per se, but a larger one that’s been discussed elsewhere on CC … “boundaries.” Some students today don’t seem to understand that there is a line that separates them from admission professionals … as well as from assorted other adults who intersect with their lives in varying ways. These adults may like the students and want to help the students, but they are not their “friends”–on Facebook or anywhere else. </p>

<p>I’ve certainly seen students (and parents) who treat admission officials with inappropriate familiarity. But I’ve also seen the pendulum swing too far in the other direction … that’s when the student or parent is afraid of contacting an admission official for any reason whatsoever … even a very valid one. </p>

<p>Here’s a very extreme example of that: Once, many years ago, when I was working at Smith, a young woman arrived just a minute or so late for an afternoon interview. She explained that she’d just come from her grandmother’s funeral in a town a few hours away. When asked why she hadn’t changed the interview date, she admitted that she didn’t want to be seen as “entitled” by admission officials! </p>

<p>Rarely, today, does one see that attitude … there sure are plenty of entitled applicants out there. ;)</p>

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<p>Admissions officers could create a special Facebook profile to use for students who wish to friend them. I know plenty of people who have one FB profile for business, one for their real friends. High school students could do the same thing.</p>

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<p>Sally- thank you for a glimpse behind the doors that are closed to most of us. It sounds like you are a professional in this field. As a total newcomer, D and I are very unsure about what is the right thing to do regarding contacting the regional adcom for the school she wants to attend. Some say, “build a relationship with them”, others say they are too busy to talk with every student. She iwants to attend the business school. She spent the last year studying in China, and asked me to call to set up an appt for her when she returned. I had a great talk with a b-school adcom who said she was excited to meet her, and would be happy to set up appt’s with some prof’s for her to talk to when she returned. But that adcom is gone now, and the new one I spoke to said she was too busy to meet her, and doubted any prof’s would meet her either. Should I keep calling and hope I find a friendlier one? Should we just show up and ask to see someone?
Thanks for any advice</p>

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<p>Ds got a friend request from a college rep last year. I told ds I didn’t think it was a good idea, but he said yes.</p>

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<p>Merryecho–Your story is a good example of the confusing–perhaps even capricious–nature of this process. One admission official was welcoming but left the school, and the successor seems far cooler. </p>

<p>It’s not clear from your message if the unfriendly admission official is the one who covers your geographic region or was simply a member of the b-school staff. If the latter, then your next step should be to find out which admission official oversees applications from your daughter’s high school. Then you can contact him or her. Also, does this college conduct on-campus interviews? If so, your daughter should definitely schedule one, since it sounds like you can get to campus. (But just showing up and trying to meet with an admission staff member is NOT a good idea.)</p>

<p>In any case, you should not be the one contacting colleges. When your daughter was out of the country, that was okay. But now that she is back, the contact should come from her.</p>

<p>If she has any very specific, even arcane, academic area that she wishes to pursue, then she should also check this college’s course catalog to see which faculty member specializes in this area. Then she can contact this prof directly (email is best) and say something like, “I’m planning a visit to campus and would love to sit in on one of your classes. Is this permissible?”</p>

<p>The prof may write back and not only say, “Sure, come to class” but perhaps also, “I would like to meet you to chat, too.” (But don’t be surprised if your daughter gets a more lukewarm response … or maybe none at all.)</p>

<p>A decade or more ago, students rarely made direct contact with admission officials or profs (except during interviews with the former). But then the word got out that “showing interest” is an admissions imperative. So, now, many admission officials and faculty members are overrun with putative student interest … some of it genuine, some clearly fabricated or at least trumped up.</p>

<p>So it can indeed be very hard to judge how much effort should be made to establish and maintain these personal contacts because they may still be welcome … or not. Most of the time, it’s like any other personal contacts in life … you just have to keep your antennae up and try to discern if the object of your affection is truly eager for the relationship to continue or is just being professional and polite.</p>

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<p>Sally- thank you for such an informative post- it is just the information I was looking for, and provides a great guideline to work from.
Too bad that by the time we one-child parents become expert at this game, it is over!</p>

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<p>See this is funny to me, as I’ve had general colleges themselves (and not the specific ad officer) ask me to join/friend them on FB. I’ve also found twitter feeds, but FB has been the way of the Adcom this year. I have one college rep coming to my school tomorrow, and I’ve been told through FB messages, email, a written postcard, AND today a phone call. [Not to mention my own school reminds me that I’ve signed up to see the college presentation.] </p>

<p>I almost feel like it’s only fair to ask them things when I need to if only because I know I won’t be bugging them half as much as they’ll be bugging me. I haven’t friended them of my own accord. I was alerted by the schools that I could do so. And took the time to clean my profile before doing so. </p>

<p>It’s odd, but I’ll go with it. I just think schools need to tone some stuff down a little.</p>

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<p>Good point, Yurtle. Admission officials don’t want students crossing over that boundary into their personal lines, yet many colleges send a surplus of information to students’ personal email addresses or Facebook accounts. I especially resent the unsolicited mail that seems almost threatening … those messages entreating students to apply with subject lines like, “Time is running out” or “Why haven’t we heard from you?”</p>

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<p>Or, “Is this your correct e-mail?”</p>

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<p>I’ve avoided giving out my cellphone number for the exact reason of not wanting too many psuedo-threatening texts about applying. Or for that matter, any of my instant messenger handles either. I don’t need students or adcom officers constantly texting or iming me. I think that’s too much, and especially with IMing, it feels rather like extended interviews and the internet is a place where you can mess up all too easily. </p>

<p>I’ve gotten terrible ‘gotcha’ emails too, like one from a school in virgina whose subject line read: Schools don’t like you. </p>

<p>It got deleted. I think schools are forgetting we expect some amount of…understanding that those techniques won’t work. I’m not supposed to send an essay with an opening line saying: I hate ____ University. That would be stupid and I know it. However, schools seem to believe they can be afforded the same mistakes? </p>

<p>I think a lot of the marketing needs to be rethought out. </p>

<p>By and large, I prefer simple emails between adcom officers when it comes to interviews/questions, and good old fashioned snail mail.</p>

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<p>yeahhh don’t do it…</p>

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<p>One university admissions had a page with the officers. For some of the officers it was like “visit so-and-so on Facebook”</p>

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<p>“Hi, I will be friends with you on facebook. Please let me in to Harvard.”</p>

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<p>

Exactly. </p>

<p>As I told the CBS blogger and I’ve told many others, I didn’t “get” it at first and was completely against accepting friend requests (look back at the UVa Class of 2013 Facebook page and you can see my post saying I wasn’t accepting their requests). A student changed my mind. My blog and Twitter accounts are tied to my Facebook page (a professional page that is far from juicy). She wanted my updates in her feed so she could monitor my blog and Twitter updates without visiting those sites.</p>

<p>It seemed reasonable, so I made a follow up post on the Class of 2013 page explaining that I had come around and would accept the requests, but was happy to have students limit or block my access. I don’t have the time or interest to look up applicants’ profiles.</p>

<p>I address this topic at the beginning of each year on my blog. Maybe I need to address it more often if this is still a concern.</p>

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<p>When I was nervously awaiting college decisions, I looked up one or two of my admissions officers out of curiosity and boredom. They had Facebooks. I didn’t want to add them, because I was wary that my Facebook contained more personal information than an adcom would want to know (political leanings, etc).</p>

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<p>Regarding Facebook, I think friending an admissions officer opens an applicant up to some dangers. Even if they “clean up” their profiles, it’s hard for the child to constantly monitor everything that goes on there. Other friends are always posting on my son’s wall, or tagging him in photos. While it’s usually harmless fun, someone could put something they consider “funny” up when in fact it is inappropriate. Also, what happens when the admissions process is finished in a few months. Do all those people still remain “friends”. I think the point of facebook is to keep it within a circle of people the person actually knows.</p>

<p>It just seems like if a kid has questions, a simple email or phone call can be just as effective, or if he wants to build a relationship, take time to arrange a visit.</p>