Acceptance determined by curious counselors

"I think it's fair," said freshman Ebony Langston, regarding colleges checking online profiles to determine acceptance. "If there are pictures [on your profile] of people partying and drinking I wouldn't accept you."  Social networking sites are the latest criteria that prospective students have to worry about when applying to colleges.

Your profile may be set to private but that does not mean that people cannot find a way to look at it. According to Yale Daily News, admissions advisors may be looking at your profile whether you like it or not and you have no say in it.  What you write about the college on your site could also help them decide on your acceptance. Not everybody's profile is read because of time, but it has become a growing trend among colleges and universities across the U.S.

Top colleges and universities are using Facebook and MySpace as a way to help them along with the decision making process. According to an article on Kaplan.com, "one out of every ten admissions officer has visited an applicant's social networking Web site as part of the decision making process."  Prospective students have been rejected from schools based on their profile information.

Some of the colleges and universities who use the sites find them helpful in the process.  "A quarter of those who report viewing applicants sites that these viewings have generally had a positive impact on their evaluation," according to Kaplan.com Then there are those who have a negative impact, "a greater percentage report that applicant's social networking sites have generally had a negative impact on their admission's evaluation."

To students this could seem like an unfair process. Most schools, however, have no policy on using applicant's social sites as a decision factor and many do not plan to ever have any. Until policies are made to change the rules they have the right to look at your profile and judge you based on that. Parents are also getting more involved in their child's application process. They too also think that it is unfair for admissions to be looking at their child's social profile. "I took an active role. I made sure she met all her application deadlines and kept on top on financial aid," said Gaumor  Binn, mother of freshman Brianna Binn, "I don't like the idea of an admissions counselor looking at my daughters Facebook." According to Kaplan, for the schools that do have a policy "the policy is to not look at or factor these sites in to evaluation."  Some schools say they just use them as a way to contact students. Some schools have created their own type of social networks by letting students create pages like Facebook or MySpace. With these profiles students can send information to the colleges they are applying to for admissions to look at. Some students might argue though that their social networking profile does not represent who they really are or what they are about. There are those who say it really stays true to who they are. "I tell them about me, like that I am goal oriented," Langston said.

Employers are also looking at social networking sites of their employees as well for potential job applicants. Like college admissions, if they see something that they do not like they are not going to hire you for the job. Kaplan "helps individuals achieve their educational and career goals." They conduct surveys every year to help students with the admissions process. Previous surveys have included participation in college rankings and rise of parental involvement in the admissions process.

Next time you update your social networking profile, think twice about what you are about to put up. Pictures from a party you post may tell a great story to your friends but to an admissions advisor they can tell a whole different one.