Future MSU students won’t need to worry about the potential of university officials prying on their personal lives through Google searching their names or checking their Facebook accounts, a growing trend among other universities that was recently highlighted in a survey.
Kaplan Test Prep released a survey late last month revealing that 29 percent of 381 college admissions officers surveyed have Google-searched their applicants, whereas 31 percent have checked the applicants’ Facebook or other social media accounts to get to know more about them. Both of these numbers are up from when these surveys began in 2008, where only 10 percent of admission offices searched applicants on Facebook. However, MSU doesn’t take part in this growing trend, said Mike Cook, senior associate director of admissions.
“We render admission decisions based solely on the information applicants make available in their application file,” Cook said. “Social media or googling are not a part of our review process before or after the admission decision.”
Cook said the university focuses more on the academic preparedness of the applicants, adding that, in his opinion, information found on social media is not vital for college admissions.
Cook also said the Office of Admissions is not seriously considering including social media in the admission process in the near future.
Kaplan Executive Director of K-12 and College Prep Programs Christine Brown said the use of social media is not a standard process or a primary aspect of the applicant selection process.
“It’s important to keep in mind that when (admissions officers) Google students it’s because there was something that spiked their interest in the application,” Brown said, adding that the decision to search for an applicant online can be positive, as well as negative.
According to the survey, with the rising use of social media by admissions offices came a more aware student body that is more savvy regulating their privacy on social media.
Advertising senior Jake Balbes said he is careful when it comes to the photos he is tagged in on Facebook, adding that he has all his photos blocked.
Balbes added that he didn’t like the idea of a college Google-searching a perspective student or going through their Facebook account.
“If that happened then I kind (of) feel invaded,” he said.
Students planning on applying for graduate school programs at MSU should utter a sigh of relief as well. Charles Roboski, dean of admissions for the Law School, said checking an applicant’s online account would be an exception.
“It probably happened fewer than a dozen times,” Roboski said, referencing the law school’s 3,000 received applications last year.
The law school’s office of admissions only takes such measures if the applicant referred to a certain website they might have created on their resume or if they participated in an electronic forum, Roboski said.
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