Admissions officers at universities nationwide have been tapping into the Internet to garner information on applicants, but prospective Duke applicants should not expect to be scrutinized.
According to a 2012 survey by Kaplan Test Prep, 35 percent of the college admissions officers who looked at applicants on Facebook and Google—about 25 percent of all those surveyed—discovered material detrimental to an application, compared to 12 percent in 2011. But Duke undergraduate admissions officers do not put much stock in information about an applicant found online about, said Christoph Guttentag, dean of undergraduate admissions.
Although Duke admissions officers are not prohibited from exploring applicants via Internet, they do not actively seek out negative information, Guttentag noted. The officers are not allowed to friend an applicant on Facebook.
“We don’t prohibit the use of publicly available info,” Guttentag noted. “But we also don’t spend hours on Facebook.... We simply don’t have the time.”
Of the 15 percent of admissions officers surveyed who have official guidelines concerning the use of social networking profiles, 69 percent are prohibited from visiting applicants’ pages, 17 percent are permitted to visit applicants’ sites with some guidelines or restrictions and 15 percent are permitted to visit applicants’ sites, with no restrictions.
“With regard to college admissions, the traditional application—the essays, the letters of recommendation—represent the polished version of an applicant, while often what’s found online is a rawer version of that applicant,” said Jeff Olson, vice president of data science for Kaplan, in a press release.
The Kaplan survey noted that materials that can hurt applicants can include instances of plagiarism, vulgarity, alcohol consumption and other illegal activities. The survey indicated an increase in the use of Google, which enables admissions to use Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, blogs and other platforms, Olson said.
Some admissions officers in the survey said they only visited an applicant’s page because they received an anonymous tip about that particular applicant, noted Jieun Choe, Kaplan’s executive director of college admissions and K-12 programs. Others searched online for clarification that in previous years have been sought by calling a guidance counselor.
“In the face of all these trends, the rise in discovery of digital dirty laundry is inevitable,” Olson said.
Although Internet searches do not play a significant role in the Duke admissions process, officers sometimes consider information found online that may bolster the chances of an applicant’s acceptance, Guttentag noted. But there is not much weight given to this material because not all applicants may publicize themselves on the Internet in the same way.
“I’m sure that every year, out of almost 32,000 applications, somebody on my staff looked something up on Google,” Guttentag said. “Somebody won a science fair, and we want to learn a little more about it.... [But] the purpose of the application is the that we get the same information from everyone.”
Guttentag also noted that Google allows admissions officers to find out about school activities, events and news stories pertaining to the applicant. In contrast, Facebook profiles can contain both positive and negative information of individuals, and using material from them could be a violation of the applicant’s privacy.
“I’m not going to try to have access to privacy,” he said. “We’re not going to cross that line.”
Although the survey did not specifically ask admissions officers if they found positive information about prospective students, the use of social media in a controlled form could be beneficial for an applicant, Choe said.
“Using social media to your advantage in the admissions process might be a smart strategy,” she wrote in an email Tuesday, “If you are an artist, for example, consider posting some of your work in an online gallery you build.... It’s an additional way to show colleges that you are a must-have.”
Despite potential students concerns about their online presence, traditional factors such as standardized testing, school transcripts and letters of recommendation remain much more important than social media, Choe said. She offered simple advice when it comes to posting online—be smart.
“The Internet has a long memory,” she said. “After all your hard work, the last thing you want to keep you out of your top college choices is an inappropriate blog post or offensive tweet.”
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