When most students think about The College Application Components that admissions officers evaluate, they consider: Grades (School Marks/Grades, Standardized Testing, external), resumes, essays (Common App Essays and Supplementals), letters of recommendations (Counselors, teachers, and external), portfolios, interviews and any other external requirements universities may have. Phew! That's a lot.
However, that is not all. In his book "On Writing the Application Essay: The Key to Acceptance at the College of Your Choice," Harry Bauld, a former admissions officer at Brown and Columbia University, highlights the importance of "clean" social media for all applicants. Bauld states, "...if you think admissions officers do not check the Facebook pages of applicants, then you're probably not astute enough to be going to college".
And really think about it. Admissions officers often get limited documents to pick their favorites from a large pool of applicants. Competitive universities like Harvard and Stanford have admissions rates as low as 5%, and schools like Northeastern and Boston University even have admissions rates as low as 20% - the competition is tough. In such a competitive environment, admissions officers seek reasons to reject applications to narrow their "potentials" list.
So, believe it or not, most admissions officers resort to stalking applicants on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Here, any comment about being too drunk at an afterparty, insensitivity towards others, and other such activities make them all too happy to swat those applications away. Even your inside jokes may not be that hard to decipher!
So make sure to manage your Facebook and Instagram pages and settings! Ideally, you should clean your entire profile and curate your content, so admissions officers get to know you and cannot help but fall in love with you. However, if you think your home page content is too precious to delete or even archive, then it is less than ideal, but make your profile private. The benefit is that no content is better than destructive content from the admissions officers. The sad news, however, is that you just missed an opportunity to provide admissions officers with additional information to pick you over other applicants.
Utilize LinkedIn! When admissions officers are looking for student profiles online, isn't it easier to give them one to start with? Create a LinkedIn Profile and allow the admissions officers to get to know you beyond what's on your application.
Sources:
Bauld, Harry. On Writing the College Application Essay: The Key to Acceptance at the College of Your Choice. Collins Reference, 2012.
“2022 Colleges with the Lowest Acceptance Rates | US News Rankings.” US News and World Report, U.S. News & World Report L.P.
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