<p>The Kaplan question catches anyone who has ever googled an applicant and found something negative. It does not report any systematic practice at any university. I believe they surveyed about 380 admission officers out of the thousands in the country. </p>
<p>I’ve worked at a medium-sized, public university (obviously) and on the other end of the spectrum, a small, private specialty school. [The</a> times when I’ve looked students up online, it’s been because I read something really, really cool or something really strange](<a href=“http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-i-use-social-media-part-2_13.html]The”>Notes from Peabody: The UVA Application Process: How I Use Social Media, Part 2).</p>
<p>Many employers, on the other hand, are looking applicants for jobs and internship up online, so I think it’s smart to have a conversation with our students about what they’re putting out there, how they are using hashtags, and how they are using their privacy settings. Most of my students are well aware of how to lock down their social media profiles, but they also accept friend requests from scores of people they don’t know, opening their content up to thousands.</p>