Looking to go to grad school? Well you better clean up your Facebook before you apply! Not only are companies pre-screening their potential employees, but according to this article on MSNBC, top law schools, business schools, and colleges are pre-screening applicants via the web as well.
Kaplan Test Prep surveyed admissions officers at various prestigious schools and discovered that law schools pre-screened applicants the most. The data showed that 41% of law school admission officers said they have looked up an applicant on Google to find out more about them. Another 37% stated in the survey that they have used social networking sites such as Facebook to check up on an applicant looking to be a future lawyer . The most interesting finding from the survey, however, was the fact that 1/3 of law school admission officers who looked up an applicant online said they discovered “something that negatively impacted an applicant’s admissions chances.”
In my eyes, it’s better to be safe than sorry! Whether you are applying to business school, college, or law school, it would benefit you to not put damaging photographs and information about yourself online if you're planning on furthering your education. I am sure the number of colleges using Google and social networking sites will increase over the years so watch what you post online especially on Facebook! I mean, with admissions being so competitive nowadays, I am sure it’s extremely hard to differentiate the applicants from each other. One quick way to help eliminate applicants is to Google them and see how they carry themselves in "real life". Personally, I don't think it's fair to include an individual's digital profile in the admissions process but whoever said life is fair? haha =/
another article about facebook ....
"The data showed that 41% of law school admission officers said they have looked up an applicant on Google to find out more about them."
ReplyDelete"Another 37% stated in the survey that they have used social networking sites such as Facebook to check up on an applicant looking to be a future lawyer
"1/3 of law school admission officers who looked up an applicant online said they discovered 'something that negatively impacted an applicant’s admissions chances.' "
These statistics are crazy I mean this whole semester we have been reading about companies looking up potential employees, but I guess I'm still amazed. It is understandable that graduate schools want to look up students, they can assume those applying have had a social network for all of their college years (so they can definitely get some dirt on them). Also this student they admit will be representing the school so of course they want to find the best students, it is no different then background checks for jail time. At least we know about it so we can do something!
I can't believe the amount of time that seems to be spent snooping people's Facebook profiles simply to see if a user is responsible with their images and statements posted. Even with all that we've read this year, it still seems overly ridiculous. Furthermore, I feel that companies/schools/whoever is using social networking sites to make these decisions, is likely missing out on many qualified and hardworking individuals simply because they refused to accept/hire those who's SNS pages don't meet their liking. Then again, if I'm too lazy to censor my page (which I have been even after reading all these articles), why should a company feel obligated to accept me?
ReplyDelete