Biggest College Application Killer – Your Facebook Profile

Latest Kaplan Survey finds Facebook Checking is No Longer Unchartered Territory in College Admissions: Percentage of Admissions Officers Who Visited An Applicant’s Profile On the Rise.

Nearly 24% of respondents from the schools surveyed have gone to an applicant’s Facebook or other social networking page to learn more about them.

20% have Googled to find info about students.

So, what impacts your admission chances?

• 12% said that what they found negatively impacted the applicant’s admissions chances.
• Offenses cited included essay plagiarism, vulgarities in blogs, alcohol consumption in photos and “illegal activities.”

In Job Search Tips #1 – I asked to clean up your Social Media profiles during job search, but now after looking at the survey results from Kaplan, looks like you have to clean-up your Facebook profiles even before applying for admission.

• Biggest Application Killer: 53% of admissions officers said that a low high school GPA is the biggest application killer.  Placing second at 19% is a low SAT or ACT score.  Those who are not involved in everything from the Future Farmers of America to cheerleading and everything in between can take solace in that none said a lack of extracurricular activities is the biggest application killer.
• Are Applicants Dreaming Too Big?: While all applicants should have their “reach schools”  and nobody should apply to just “safety schools,” 4% of admissions officer s said that more than 5 in 10 students “overreached” in applying to their school; 5% said 5 in 10 applicants overreached; 8% said 4 in 10 applicants.
• When in Doubt, Don’t Wait:  42% of college admissions officers said that the best way for applicants to get off the waitlist and into the entering class is by showing that they  improved their  GPA the second half of senior year.  That means they should get their senioritis vaccinations now!  It can make a big difference in how students’ college plans turn out.

The survey was conducted by phone in July and August 2011 as part of Kaplan Test Prep’s annual survey of admissions officers and includes responses from 359 of the nation’s top 500 colleges and universities, as compiled from U.S. News & World Report’s Ultimate College Guide and Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges.

Among the colleges that participated were 38 of the top 50.  The wording of some questions changed slightly from year to year.

Action Item

If you have vulgarities in blogs, alcohol consumption in photos and “illegal activities” or other offensive stuffs in facebook, then clean it or block the info from public view using privacy settings.