Hi, all you high school seniors out there, it’s time to hide those scandalous photos on your Facebooks.
All Facebook, “The Unofficial Facebook Resource,” reported that the Kaplan Test Prep’s 2010 survey of college admissions officers shows that 82 percent of admission officers say their college of employment uses Facebook to assess prospective students.
Although Facebook profiles do not influence the admissions officers’ decisions as much as grades, extracurriculars, recommendations and the oh-so-brutal admissions essays, it could act as the tiebreaker when deciding between similarly talented students.
Prospective students should not fret though. Apparently admissions officers don’t have creepy Facebook superpowers and so they can’t view your profile if you set it to private. That being so, you can keep all the embarrassment and ridicule to yourself, just make sure to chose your profile picture accordingly (yes, they can see that).
All Facebook however, suggests to keep your profile public if you want to “[upload] a video talking about why you want a particular institution to admit you.” But, unless you can top “That’s Why I Chose Yale” this might not be wise.
We at Cross Campus care, so here is how to change your privacy settings.
Correction: February 27, 2011
An earlier version of this article said that “82 percent of admission officers say their college of employment uses Facebook to assess prospective students.” In fact, the survey found out that 82 percent of the admissions officers use the social networking site to approach and recruit students.