Does your Digital Imprint Affect the College Process?
One word. Yes!
Think about it. Obviously, in the college process, you want to portray yourself in the best light. You work on essays and create a profile of yourself on paper that is evaluated for about seven or so minutes by a college admissions officer. What many students and parents/guardians fail to realize is that there is often another image depicted online for the world to see that a college or university may be able to access.
On a personal note, I have seen firsthand, students who are on the honor roll or who are being considered by top-tier schools and scholarship committees, get denied based on their digital imprint. On paper, these students may have portrayed themselves to be a humanitarian that is not easily influenced by peer pressure. However, what is depicted online may tell a completely different story. There may be images on social media of these students doing something illegal, making outlandish statements, or “liking” articles or images that are offensive.
Most students and parents think that just setting their social media profile to private, that will protect their online identity. Colleges and employers are becoming increasingly tech-savvy and can often find a way around things to access information. What does this mean? Pay careful attention! Where this gets dangerous is that many parents/guardians that have responsible children often give them free rein on social media and don’t monitor their usage. However, remember they are still kids going through adolescence. As such, they are prone to experimentation and will make mistakes. Can you imagine if social media existed when you were a kid and everything you said or did was online? Thank god the internet didn’t exist right?! Nowadays, it is a different world. Therefore, you must be conscious of this to help protect your child.
To highlight this fact, one situation stands out to me. There were two students from the same high school vying for entrance into one ivy league school in particular. One of the students was accepted. The other student was so upset that they sent images and posts from the accepted student’s social media account to the college admissions rep at the university. What happened? They both ultimately got denied.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Parents:
Make sure you or someone else does a thorough social media review of your child’s accounts. I offer this as a service and parents are often surprised by what comes up. While your child's social media account may show nothing, you might be surprised to learn that their image may pop up on a friend's wall and that they might not be doing something so appropriate.
As a rule, if your child is on social media, you should set up your own account and tell them they need to add you as a “friend” so that you can monitor their usage.
Recommend to your child, that if they don't want you to see the images or read the statements or conversations they are having, then they shouldn't put it on the internet.
Make sure your child sets up a professional email. I have had students apply to colleges and jobs that have listed an email address like thug46@gmail.com or slave4luv@aol.com. Truth!
Students:
Realize that what you put on social media is not private even if you set your profile to this setting.
As a rule, if you don't want your parents/guardian or grandparents to see what you posted, then don't put it on the Internet.
Make sure your friends know that they can’t post pictures or conversations without your approval.