klmama Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 The recent news about employers asking for Facebook login info when considering new hires made me wonder about colleges. Do they ask for any Facebook info? Do they want students to friend the college admissions officers so the college folks can snoop? Does NOT having Facebook put a black mark on a student's admissions file? What's been your experience? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 The recent news about employers asking for Facebook login info when considering new hires made me wonder about colleges. Do they ask for any Facebook info? Do they want students to friend the college admissions officers so the college folks can snoop? Does NOT having Facebook put a black mark on a student's admissions file? What's been your experience? Thanks! While I don't doubt that some admissions reps do a search to see if something negative pops up or to try to corroborate specific things in an admissions packet, I think the idea of "friending" someone so they can check me out is really a misuse of the technology. But then, I have a very restricted friends list (actually limited to friends) and privacy settings. I see requests for friending to be stepping way over the bounds, especially for potential employers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candid Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 I have heard of college admissions officers trying to friend applicants or pre-applicants. I think at most schools that this is an effort in marketing not an effort in snooping, but friending on Facebook is a two way street so it would be unwise not to consider what you post if you consent to this. I suspect that the volume of applicants is too high to allow a Facebook check up on everyone (I've heard varying numbers but less than 15 minutes for an officer to read an applicant's package and assess it seems in the correct time neighborhood.) But what about an applicant who is sitting on the edge? Would somebody check then? Facebook has become fairly common so any teen without it should be able to say why they don't have it. I suspect that an eloquent or funny answer might actually give such an applicant an advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmvaughan4 Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 My brother is a former high school counselor and advised his students to clean up their pages when they applied to colleges. I believe there was a story of an Ivy League school checking out the student's Facebook page. He is a college admission counselor now and I'm not sure if they check or not. I'm sure he doesn't friend anyone, but if a page is public, anyone can see it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 The news stories about employers asking for login information astounded me. My son is now a college sophomore. There was an ongoing discussion when he was a junior in high school about public information coming under consideration in the college process. In fact, according to a WSJ article from '08 (link), "38% said that what they saw (online) "negatively affected" their views of the applicant". That was then. How many more social media sites are students using? One might argue that students are more sophisticated now with regard to privacy controls but I seriously doubt it. My son and I recently had a spring break discussion stemming from the Dharun Ravi conviction. He noted that for some young people online lives go beyond advertizing details large and small. There is a certain bravado that people use in their online worlds. Some students see nothing wrong with what they say because "It is just the Internet"; essentially they see a certain division between reality and what is presented in their online personae but they fail to understand that not everyone else does. I fail to see how the lack of a Facebook account would be a mark against an applicant. Personally I think it makes sense that an admissions officer or member of a scholarship committee would google the name of applicants. Hopefully what appears will be confirmation of the awards listed or some nice "atta boy" photo op from a community service project. Not embarrassing scenes on Facebook. My personal opinion is that anything on the public space of the Internet is fair game. It is a violation of privacy for employers or colleges to ask for passwords to Facebook or email accounts. While there is recently surfaced evidence that some employers have crossed this boundary, I have not heard of colleges doing the same with respect to passwords. (And regarding employers--they should hire private detectives. This is not uncommon for certain security clearances.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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