A recent article in The Virginian Pilot cites a Kaplan Test Prep survey which states that a large majority—in fact, 70%—of college applicants attempt to “friend” admissions officers on Facebook. The survey also says that only 13% of schools have actual written policies about interacting with students online. On social networking sites, where are the boundaries? At what point do schools need to draw the lines of privacy? While many students try to use these sites for their intended purpose of “networking,” others are hiding in the depths of cyberspace, changing their names and networks to avoid being caught with unsavory pictures and wall posts. At high schools around the country, this trend of name-changing has spread like wildfire, all in the name of college admissions. But lemming-like conformity breeds suspicion. What do they have to hide? What do they have to hide?
Senior Ben Sataloff explains that he changed his name to keep up with his friends, or as he bluntly puts it, “because everyone else did it.” That reason certainly accounts for how trendy name-changing has become. A simple perusal of one’s “News Feed” tells as much—middle names replace surnames and letters have been switched, all in an effort to censor social networking profiles from admissions staff.
I’ll be honest: I’m guilty. For the month of October, I replaced the “u” in my last name with a “v,” while I frostily hid in the Iceland network. Senior Anna Menaged changed her name in early fall to avoid being sought out by prying eyes. Her new moniker, “Anna Mophands,” was accidentally turned in as her name on a BC Calculus problem set. After “friending” Anna, a problem set group member assumed this was her actual last name. “That was hard to explain to Mr. Kaczmar,” Anna laments.
But not all students changed their names because it’s “cool,” or due to the remote possibility of being viewed by someone with power in the realm of college admissions. Senior Lauren Stevens had to change her name because of her hockey team. As adults join Facebook en masse, high school sports coaches have easy access to suspicious pictures if they are not deleted. “Any smart student athlete is aware of that,” said junior lacrosse player Isaac Silber.
Many colleges sincerely hoped to assuage students’ worries that admissions officers are willing to violate their privacy. Daniel Grayson, Assistant Director of Admissions at Tufts University assured me that “we absolutely do not check Facebook accounts. We don’t search, we don’t see, we don’t want to.“ With thousands of applications to get through, fellow Tufts admissions officer Becky Leichtling shared that their policy was not to use Facebook “at all” in the way they evaluate candidates. “We do not have access to students’ profiles, admissions officers do not accept friendship requests from students, and it would be a very rare case that any aspect of a Facebook profile would come up in the evaluation process.”
“To be perfectly honest,” said Joshua Levy, Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at Oberlin College, “we have plenty of work to do without searching Facebook for these students to see what, if anything, is there that might be incriminating.” Other small schools like Vassar, Haverford, and Swarthmore agreed and follow similar policies. Think about it statistically: admissions officers simply do not have the time to look at 600 pictures of you online along with your recommendations, essays, test scores, and transcript. Ivy league colleges and others of their caliber receive more than 20,000 applications a year. They know how much time and effort their applications take; they aren’t “seeking negatives.”
“At Drexel University only the materials listed on our application checklist factor into a prospective student’s admissions decision,” said Christopher Bertone, Assistant Director of Enrollment. He also said that they use Facebook fan pages to reach out to prospective students, but never to track activity that may be illicit or suspect. There, “students can visit, read about current events, or ask questions.” They have a Twitter account for the same purpose. Most tech-savvy colleges are starting to utilize the community-building facet of Facebook more and more—many LM students may be members of the Facebook group “I’m interested in Tufts University,” a way they communicate with prospective applicants, which is “managed by an officer and includes many current students,” according to Grayson.
So colleges aren’t playing Big Brother in cyberspace. But students should probably still be wary of content they choose to share online. LM teachers such as Mr. Levy, Mr. Quinn, and Mr. McAfoos are members of Facebook, but have a strict policy about friending students. “I only accept post-graduation,” Quinn firmly stated.
But this probably isn’t always the case. According to Newsweek’s recent cover article on Facebook, the majority of new members are over 35—so your high school teachers may not be the only judgmental adults prying into your online life. Parents, relatives, and old neighbors are joining in hoards. When you reach college, why wouldn’t a professor within the network do a little snooping? According to an article in The Daily Princetonian, a professor who looks at her students on Facebook said that she was “honestly appalled at the detailed information people give away about themselves.” But let’s face it- when it comes to adults with a vested interest in your profile, prospective employers take the top spot. Back at Oberlin, Joshua Levy said, though he does not look at Facebook, “I can understand why students in high school would look to clean their account but I don’t know that many, if any, colleges that are searching Facebook. Prospective employers–now that’s another question.”
So Jordan Woof, Jru Gee, and Olliver Kohen can keep their clever new names. But colleges aren’t looking. Nonetheless, when it comes to content, it would be smart to do as senior Jim Stellato did: “just untag” any bad pictures. After all, you never know who could be looking, so “why risk it?”
Leah Sutton
Class of 2010
