College Admissions looking at social media

[FaithManor]

www.abc12.com/content/news?article=413724633

 

I do not know how many colleges were surveyed so the 50% statistic could be meaningful or worthless. Hard to say. But my cousin a professor at University of Minnesota in Duluth said that she has heard this before about the U of Wisconsin system and not just the campus at Steven's Point.

 

Eldest dsl over heard a U of Michigan admissions rep say to another that a prospective student's Twitter should be checked. He did not know what that was in reference to though.

 

Anyway, I can see it. Some students probably post all about their college search, negative things happening in their lives, their schools,...probably some students may need to be told in their junior years to keep the talk innocent, low key, not personal on things like Facebook and Twitter. Things are getting competitive even at historically non competitive schools due to the sheer number of applicants in the pool. Little things can end up being a big deal.

 

I am thankful I applied way back in the mists of time when if an admission rep wanted the skinny on me they would have had to hire someone to travel around interviewing my friends!

[Angie in VA]

Thank you for this link! Sharing w/ my dc. One will graduate from college in 3 months but is thinking about grad school. The other was already accepted to his top choice, but still. 

 

 

[FaithManor]

Thank you for this link! Sharing w/ my dc. One will graduate from college in 3 months but is thinking about grad school. The other was already accepted to his top choice, but still.

Right! Until they are actually moving into the dorms or registered for classes, things can change personally, financially, etc. Don't offend the Plan B school being too assured that your plans are indeed going to pan out...best laid plans of mice and men...

 

Our youngest will be a senior next year and his short list is not particularly short. Casting a pretty wide net and he needs to keep his options open. Finances are a huge consideration, merit aid, etc. Thankfully, he is about as drama less as a teen can be. He does not even have a facebook page and what is out there in media world on him is all related to his rocket team and 4H accomplishments. I am going to encourage him to not suddenly get involved with social media.

Edited February 15, 2017 by FaithManor

[Arcadia]

I check the Facebook page of potential tutors for my kids before interviewing them. I also check the Facebook page of teachers of potential high schools. My friend rants about politics on her personal Facebook page and she is a small business owner. Her business Facebook page does link to her page.

 

I have heard tutors slamming certain politicians while tutoring k-5 kids at the library.

 

Besides college admissions, there are internships interviews. It is easy for interviewers to check social media just before the interview. Student Services has free WiFi after all, as does hotels and Starbucks.

[Bootsie]

I know admissions officers at several different schools that check social media of applicants.  They are not looking for things like "I really hope to get into College A."  They are looking for patterns of behavior that may indicate problems would occur at the university--repeated pictures of wild parties and underage drinking, posting information about cheating on exams on Facebook, posting full of hateful, violent language, etc..  (Of course, a conservative Christian school may use a narrower filter to look for fit.) It is amazing what high school students will post.  

 

It is not just college admissions that will look at social media, scholarship committees and potential employers will also.  I remind my college students this.  Some have replied, "That is an invasion of my privacy!" or "I have freedom of speech!"  I tell them not to have anything on their social media accounts that they would not want to have posted on a billboard on the highway.     

[MysteryJen]

In the recruiting process, all social media is checked and monitored. Venting about teammates and coaches is common and very much disliked. Dd1 has had about 4 team meetings going over social media expectations and NCAA rules. They are dead serious about the rules and I have heard some very sad stories about loss of scholarships due to blog posts, not to mention Princeton Men's swim season cancelled due to postings on a listserv.

 

 

[The Girls' Mom]

This is why my kids rarely post anything on social media.  What little they do post is very, very benign and impersonal.  I've drummed into their heads since they were old enough to get online that anything that is posted has the potential to be seen by anyone, anywhere, forever.  

[regentrude]

. My friend rants about politics on her personal Facebook page and she is a small business owner. Her business Facebook page does link to her page.

 

But what about privacy settings?

Even if the business page links to her private profile, she may have the privacy settings for her posts so that non-friends could not see what she posts personally

[regentrude]

Kids - and anybody - should use good judgment. Anything publicly visible needs to pass the employer/mom/mother-in-law test.

And even for things posted privately, they should know that if push comes to shove, there is no such thing as privacy.

 

But then, my kids have very strict privacy settings. Colleges would not get to see anything beyond the few select things they make publicly available. It is a good idea to consciously curate one's public internet presence.

[shawthorne44]

At work, we often work closely with people we might never or rarely meet.  It is common to look up new people on Facebook just to get a mental image of them.  Otherwise your brain makes a guess at their appearance and then you are shocked when/if you meet.  More than once a Facebook page has been a source of derision.    Never over innocent things.  Sometimes a link is passed around in admiration.   Like facebook with photos of someone's home office.   

[Arcadia]

But what about privacy settings?

Even if the business page links to her private profile, she may have the privacy settings for her posts so that non-friends could not see what she posts personally

I can see even without logging into Facebook so her rants are public unfortunately.

[regentrude]

I can see even without logging into Facebook so her rants are public unfortunately.

 

that is not a smart decision

[bettyandbob]

When I was a kid, people used to say " if you don't want it on the cover of the New York Times ..."

 

I don't know how you would update that for today. My DD is very careful with her social media presence. She puts very little out there. Older ds on the other hand outs everything he thinks out. They've gotten the same advice from me. One of them thinks he knows more about the world than his mom though.

[Ann.without.an.e]

I have often wondered about this...my dd is not into social media.  She doesn't even have FB.  If I search her name on FB, I get several kids around her age with the same name.  How do they even know they have the right person?  One particular person is quite a character on social media.  Could they mistake someone else for dd?  

[Arcadia]

If I search her name on FB, I get several kids around her age with the same name. How do they even know they have the right person?

The profile or whatever is under the about.

My public profile on Facebook has my hometown info, the schools and colleges I have attended and some of the companies I have worked for. All harmless stuff.

 

When I was looking for my 13 year old niece's account, I verify by hometown and schools even though I know how she looks like so her profile photo also matched. Her last name is very very common so I double checked before putting in a friend request. We are in different continents.

 

My last name and my husband's last name are rare. It would be very easy to find me on Facebook. My husband choose to not have an account to avoid Facebook drama. His friends would just go through my account if they can't reach him by email.

 

ETA:

Job/internship interviews can have more than one round. I am guilty of Facebook surfing and so are many friends I know. It would be easy to match face with name on Facebook after the first interview.

 

The easiest thing to do is make sure you (general) understand privacy settings of whatever social media you use. Whatever is in your public profile is available for anyone to read.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Arcadia

[TammyS]

Kids - and anybody - should use good judgment. Anything publicly visible needs to pass the employer/mom/mother-in-law test.

And even for things posted privately, they should know that if push comes to shove, there is no such thing as privacy.

 

But then, my kids have very strict privacy settings. Colleges would not get to see anything beyond the few select things they make publicly available. It is a good idea to consciously curate one's public internet presence.

 

Yes.  The best policy is to always set your social media to fully private, making occasional things public (if you feel the need).  You never know what will offend people.

 

[angela in ohio]

I use the internet for background research for dh's prospective employees and show him what I find. I'm really good at finding people *grin*. It's not hard to find a LOT of info about people. I use it all the time to stalk... erm, find... prospective volunteers and donors.

 

We never let dc put anything troubling on their fb accounts to begin with, so there wasn't much to clean up, but it was definitely on the list when it was college application time.  We cultivated a fb page that showed them to be active, caring, intelligent, responsible young people. :)

 

Some of it depends on the school, as with everything. For schools with an automatic or near-automatic admit for students with the basic stats, it might not matter at all. For selective schools, it's something to consider.

[RootAnn]

I do wonder about those kids who don't have any sort of social media presence. Is that looked at positively or negatively? 

 

None of us in our household have Facebook, twitter, or any other common social media accounts. (This & duolingo accounts are pretty much it for us.) Is the lack of information a negative? (We're not firing up an account just to look good to colleges, but it has made me wonder.) If one of my kids ever wants to go into undercover work, I assume it'd be a positive.  :lol:

 

(One of the guys I knew in high school co-oped for a government spy agency during college. Since I dated him a little & knew him for so long, he listed me as a reference. They sent someone out to interview me about him! It was a bit surreal.)

[MysteryJen]

My dd1 has no social media accounts. This resulted in coaches actually having to call her to see how things were going. She was required to post a few things on Instagram (can't remember why), but she did the minimum and has not been asked to do that again.

 

People were surprised that she has no accounts, but it has never been a negative response.

[klmama]

Is Instagram searchable, or did she have to send the college something directly using it?  I thought it was one of those post, read, and then it's gone things.  Or is that Snapchat?

[MysteryJen]

That is Snapchat. She sent the pics to the coach who posted and tagged them for Instagram.

Nobody is searching Snapchat yet.

 

Sent from my LG-H345 using Tapatalk

[Arcadia]

This is from a 2015 hechinger report which is also on PBS Newshour

Colleges shift to using ‘big data’ — including from social media — in admissions decisions

"Ithaca has been quietly collecting student social media data since 2007, when it launched a Facebook-like website for applicants called IC PEERS. The website gives applicants a chance to connect with Ithaca faculty as well as each other.

Using an IBM statistical analysis program, Yuko Mulugetta, Ithaca’s director of enrollment planning and self-styled “in-house statistician,†studied data collected from IC PEERS to see which students employing what behaviors were most likely to enroll and stay at Ithaca — how many photos they uploaded to their profiles, for instance, and how many IC PEERS friends they made.

...

“There’s an economic side to this that’s unnerving,†said Poch, reflecting on the time he ran admissions at Pomona. “I remember sitting down with bond raters from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s and them asking, ‘How many applications do you get and what is your yield?’†— the proportion of accepted students who enroll, a measure of demand.

 

“The more demand, the higher our bond rating, and the lower our interest rates,†Poch said. “So a higher yield meant saving millions of dollars a year in interest payments.â€" http://hechingerreport.org/colleges-shift-to-using-big-data-including-from-social-media-in-admissions-decisions/

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/new-tool-colleges-using-admissions-decisions-big-data/

 

Also rare as it may be, people should try not to gossip in the restrooms about interviews because spouses might be tagging along and getting a earful. There was at least two career interview sessions yesterday at a state university and I heard interesting conversations while waiting my turn as undergrads were using the dining hall restroom to change.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

This is from a 2015 hechinger report which is also on PBS Newshour

Colleges shift to using ‘big data’ — including from social media — in admissions decisions

"Ithaca has been quietly collecting student social media data since 2007, when it launched a Facebook-like website for applicants called IC PEERS. The website gives applicants a chance to connect with Ithaca faculty as well as each other.

Using an IBM statistical analysis program, Yuko Mulugetta, Ithaca’s director of enrollment planning and self-styled “in-house statistician,†studied data collected from IC PEERS to see which students employing what behaviors were most likely to enroll and stay at Ithaca — how many photos they uploaded to their profiles, for instance, and how many IC PEERS friends they made.

...

“There’s an economic side to this that’s unnerving,†said Poch, reflecting on the time he ran admissions at Pomona. “I remember sitting down with bond raters from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s and them asking, ‘How many applications do you get and what is your yield?’†— the proportion of accepted students who enroll, a measure of demand.

 

“The more demand, the higher our bond rating, and the lower our interest rates,†Poch said. “So a higher yield meant saving millions of dollars a year in interest payments.â€" http://hechingerreport.org/colleges-shift-to-using-big-data-including-from-social-media-in-admissions-decisions/

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/new-tool-colleges-using-admissions-decisions-big-data/

 

Also rare as it may be, people should try not to gossip in the restrooms about interviews because spouses might be tagging along and getting a earful. There was at least two career interview sessions yesterday at a state university and I heard interesting conversations while waiting my turn as undergrads were using the dining hall restroom to change.

 

There are several ways in which this makes me uncomfortable.  

 

I understand the part about yield being a stand in for demand for the bond rating agency.  I don't like the part about using actions on social media to predict student engagement.  It seems like there are a lot of assumptions being made about what they are measuring and how it is connected.

 

I remember a book about an effort to scientifically manage the NY Fire Department back around the 1970s or 80s.  They used computer modeling to decide which fire houses to keep open and how to man them.  The problem was they measured what was easily measured, not what was most meaningful.  After their new system went into place, the fire losses actually went up.  The data had not taken into account the effect of the fire stations being present in the community or the response times from people who were more familiar with the neighborhoods.  

 

There are many reasons why a student might end up enrolling at one school and not another.  And those reasons might not be best measured through social media activity.

[Serenade]

I'm glad neither of my kids have any desire to use social media 

 

My DH says he will never use social media because nothing, even with privacy settings, is guaranteed to remain private on the internet.

[GailV]

Dd2 carefully curates her online presence.  It's almost zero.  I find it mildly amusing since she's planning on a highly public career --I'm pretty sure she's thinking about decades down the road to when people might be researching her background. Future biographers are going to have a tough time.

 

I'm definitely the most "out there" of our entire family.  Lately I've been making a conscious effort to avoid more inflammatory topics by focussing on cat pictures ... if someone out there hates people who like cats we're all doomed.