Facebook and College Applicants

In my research group (and even within my other groups of friends), we have recently been talking about how Facebook profiles are no longer visible to just "friends". Many of my friends have actually chosen to hide their photos because admissions officers, job interviewers, or anyone involved in hiring you for a job may go to your Facebook or Myspace profile page and check out your qualifications. According to the article College Applicants, Beware: Your Facebook Page is Showing, admissions officers do admit to looking at social-networking sites and photos on students' profile pages to evaluate applicants. In fact, many of the admissions offers say that what they saw on the profile pages have negatively affected their view of the student.

Our research project partly focuses on how first-year students form their expectations of their college experience by looking at the Facebook profile pictures of their hallmates (especially prior to move-in). We felt that this field of study can also apply because colleges are forming expectations of their applicants around profiles on social-networking sites. However, many college or job applicants can argue that their profiles are not an accurate representation of themselves as an individual and that it may only be a "partial view" of any student. Still, admissions officers believe that students should be held accountable for their actions and that to a certain extent, a profile page does accurately reflect the individual.