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Posting a photo of yourself holding a giant bag of Marijuana on Facebook and writing "Me and my friend Mary Jane" under it is asking for trouble. See Just say "No" to "narcing" yourself out on social networks
It’s college application time and as seniors put their final touches on their applications, a new report is showing that they may have one more thing to worry about – their social networking pages.
Lindsay’s tips for staying out of trouble online:
➢ Do not include a physical address anywhere online. The fewer personal numbers you give, the better.
➢ Limit your personal info because it could lead to identity theft.
➢ Don’t stand out as a target on your profile page. (If you are drinking alcohol from a cup, don’t say so.)
➢ Set all privacy settings to the highest possible levels.
➢ NO photos of illegal activity, drug use, underage drinking, or violence.
➢ Be smart about your profile picture! Both private and public colleges have the right to look at everything you post online.
➢ Don’t join or start stupid/inappropriate groups. Even they can get you into trouble.
➢ Make your pictures private so only your friends can see them, and only befriend people you know and trust!
In September, Kaplan, a company offering ACT and SAT test preparation, released a survey that showed one in 10 admissions counselors at the country’s top 500 colleges were using social networking sites, such as Facebook or MySpace, as part of the admissions process.
Marlyn McGrath, director of admissions at Harvard College, said admissions counselors at her college don’t check social networking sites on a regular basis, but if they note anything in a student’s application that raises a possible red flag, they will. “If students make it public it’s public information,” she said.
McGrath said because the Ivy League school receives so many applications – 27,462 last year at Harvard – the demand for all information available pushes the university to turn to social networking sites.
McGrath said admissions counselors who are checking social networking sites are mostly looking for content that people would find objectionable like racist comments, or would raise concerns about the student. “If we thought someone was a psychopath, we’d be disinclined to admit them,” she said.
She also said students who post self-incriminating information online show a lack of common sense.
Here in Minnesota, some schools are following this trend. The College of Saint Benedict & Saint John’s University is one of them.
“We do not have an official policy of looking up Facebook pages for every prospective student. While we do not make an attempt to look at prospective student’s Facebook or MySpace pages, if we were made aware of offensive and/or violent content on a prospective student page, we would most likely take that into consideration as we make admission decisions,” said Matthew Bernie, director of admissions at the colleges.
According to the Kaplan report, the social networking sites had a positive impact 25 percent of the time on admission, while 38 percent of the time it had a negative affect.
Many students feel checking social networking profiles is wrong for colleges to do.
“I think [Facebook] is misleading and they shouldn’t judge people based on what’s on their Facebook because that’s [a place to be] unprofessional,” said senior Cierra Cannon, who is currently in the process of applying to schools as well as an avid Facebook user.
“I know Facebook is a public domain and they have a right to do it, but I think that they shouldn’t,” said Evelyn Jensen, a senior.
But some schools are drawing a line.
Schools such as Macalester College, Hamline University, and Winona State University do not use Facebook as part of their process for applicants. Macalester’s reasons for not using it ranges from the large amount of applications the school receives to keeping private and public life separate.
“I don’t think we’re particularly interested in doing it any more than we’d hop in the car and drive by their house to see if they’ve cut the grass or put their bicycle away in the garage. Frankly, it’s none of our business,” said Lorne Robinson, dean of admissions and financial aid at Macalester College.
Incidents like the one last year in Eden Prairie, when thirteen students were punished when school administrators found photos on Facebook of the students drinking, have caused controversy over how social networks should be used.
“I always tell students that they should be careful what they put on social networking pages. If it is something that you would not want parents, grandparents, colleges, potential employers, or others to see I would hesitate to post it on a place called the World Wide Web because it might not be as private as some people think, even with ‘privacy’ controls,” Bernie said.
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Posting a photo of yourself holding a giant bag of marijuana on Facebook and writing “Me and my friend Mary Jane” under it is asking for trouble.
In a speech to about 65 students at the University of St. Thomas in November, C.L. Lindsay, an attorney who runs a non-profit dealing with legal problems that often occur on campuses, warned students to think before they post.
Lindsay’s tips for staying out of trouble online:
➢ Do not include a physical address anywhere online. The fewer personal numbers you give, the better.
➢ Limit your personal info because it could lead to identity theft.
➢ Don’t stand out as a target on your profile page. (If you are drinking alcohol from a cup, don’t say so.)
➢ Set all privacy settings to the highest possible levels.
➢ NO photos of illegal activity, drug use, underage drinking, or violence.
➢ Be smart about your profile picture! Both private and public colleges have the right to look at everything you post online.
➢ Don’t join or start stupid/inappropriate groups. Even they can get you into trouble.
➢ Make your pictures private so only your friends can see them, and only befriend people you know and trust!
“Assume anything you put online will stay there forever,” he said, so don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your mom, employers or professors to see.
“Think about the offline equivalent first … If you wouldn’t do it offline, don’t do it online,” Lindsay told the audience.
College Application? Check. ACT score? Check. College essay? Check. Recommendations? Check. Facebook page? Check? For more information, see Some college admissions checking Facebook
Lindsay founded Coalition for Student & Academic Rights, a non-profit network of attorneys whose primary goal is to educate the academic world about the law. Lindsay’s social networking seminar is just one of six that range from how to legally throw a party to how to challenge an unfair grade.
During an often humorous lecture, which Lindsay delivers at colleges across the country, he described the cases he has heard and dealt with over the years concerning students.
Lindsay displayed incriminating Facebook photos and their captions, like one titled of a guy under a tree in a public park with “Me smoking weed” written under it.
By posting such photos, young people are targeting themselves and almost asking to get in trouble with the law, Lindsay said. The more information you put out about yourself and your actions, the more people are going to know and the easier it is for you to get caught.
According to Lindsay, 44 percent of employers check the network sites of their potential employees and use them in making decisions. His warnings led one student to act. “The first thing I did when I got home was change all my privacy settings to the highest possible levels,” said Kriti Kumar, a freshman at the University of St. Thomas, after hearing Lindsay’s lecture.
He also talked about how plagiarism and cheating can get students in trouble. Don’t do stupid things like take essays off the Web and use it as your own, he advised, because there is a high likelihood that you will get caught.
If there is one thing Lindsay wants students to remember from his lecture, it is that if you think you might be in any kind of trouble, act quickly and talk to someone before it grows more serious and dangerous.
In 1998, C.L. Lindsay left his practice as an attorney in New York and founded the Coalition for Student & Academic Rights Co-Star helps college students with many legal issues. He also wrote “The College Student’s Guide to the Law: Get a Grade Changed, Keep Your Stuff Private, Throw a Police-Free Party, and More!”
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Frances Kweller J.D.
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