College Admissions Officers Using Facebook, MySpace, and Other Social Networking Sites to Block Students

It has been pretty well documented that about 75 percent of employers admit to looking at information that candidates post to Facebook, MySpace, and other web pages as part of the hiring process. In other words, today’s college students and recent graduates are often finding in their race to find career opportunities that the finish line is being blocked by the risqué photos or stories about drunken parties that they or their friends posted on-line. What has not been as well documented is that the this same generation is often finding that the starting line is also blocked.
A recent study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that 25 percent of college admissions offices admit to using search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN to research potential students and that 20 percent look for the same information on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The reality is that the percentages must be even higher because colleges and universities have little incentive to overstate their reliance on these digital dirt web searches but they have a significant incentive to understate their use due to a fear of negative public relations and likely backlash from many Gen Y candidates who view information that they post to MySpace and some of the other social networking sites as somehow being private even though it is accessible through a quick Google search.

The study of 453 private and public, large and small, inexpensive and costly, colleges and universities in 49 states, found that the college admissions officers were very familiar with technology such as social networking sites, blogs, and message boards. In fact, the study revealed that the admissions personnel were more comfortable with these new media than their corporate recruiting counterparts. “Students need to understand that their social network sites are being examined by colleges and universities,” said Nora Barnes, a profession in UMass Dartmouth’s Charlton College of Business and one of the researches for the study. “The content of their sites could have far-reaching effects on their academic futures if they are not careful.”
So how are college admissions officers using the information they uncover when they search MySpace, Facebook, and other web pages? I agree with Barnes that it is unlikely that many and perhaps no colleges are using these sites to research every applicant or even every applicant they intend to admit. But in any recruiting process there are going to be candidates who will definitely be rejected, others who definitely be accepted, and then a big chunk who fall into that grey zone. It is likely these candidates who will benefit or suffer the most from their digital dirt. If a college or employer is choosing between two equally qualified candidates and one has a blog that contains thoughtful information about topics related to their career path while the other has a MySpace page that has photos and other information about how they enjoy getting drunk, it is only logical that the college or employer will choose the blogger as that candidate has exhibited better judgment by building for themselves a positive on-line brand.
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