Social Media College Essay

“If students make it public it’s public information,” Marlyn McGrath remarked during a discussion with Harvard admissions officers about checking social networking sites for prospective students (Cartwright). “While still no substitute for face-to-face interaction, social media have opened lines of communication and inquiry for both students and institutions that were inconceivable only a decade ago,” states Joyce Smith in her search for how social media affects this next generation of students and admissions offices (“Report”). Social media has increased the number of student-available contact points with target schools, but many students worry these new communication methods are harming their chances of getting into schools. As evidence of

How can social media be used appropriately by both admissions and students to create positive connections? Writer Timothy B. Lee offers a solution to this problem (also in a workplace setting), by suggesting one twists social media for their own persona. From his piece, “Employers, Get Outta My Facebook: When Considering Job Applicants, Prospective Employers Have No Business Poking Around Their Profiles on Social Networking Sites. Pro or Con,” Lee advises his readers: A job applicant’s well-crafted online persona can serve as an asset, acting as a kind of extended résumé. When hiring a writer, for example, I’d be more likely to choose one who had a blog (assuming it was well-written) than one who did not, even if I disagreed with some of the views it contained...developing an appealing Web presence is a part of portraying oneself in an attractive manner—no different from wearing a freshly pressed suit and proofreading your

It’s public information, and as such it is able to be looked at; it’s not unlawful search and seizure, it is leveraging public record. Social media is not being used as a replacement for face to face interviews, but as a medium or as a preview of who the student is as a person; it is being used as an “extended résumé.” It’s a new method of communication between admissions offices and students, and another avenue for learning about students beyond an interview with the student or their applications. It’s a view of the “real” them. Truly, students should not be concerned with whether the admissions counselors are checking their social media as the deciding factor for admission, but concerned with what their social media presents about them. Social media is becoming the new college essay prompt: What does your social media say about you? Describe in three posts or