by Steven Tagle
Could Your Social Media Affect Your Chances at College Admission?
College admissions officers are more and more likely to visit your social media accounts and form opinions about you based on your profile and content. Will what they see help or hurt you?
According to a 2023 survey by Kaplan involving admissions officers from 205 top schools around the country, your social media content can absolutely influence your standing in the application process. The survey revealed that 28% of admissions officers viewed applicants’ social media content on popular apps, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, TikTok, Snapchat, Bluesky, and Threads, to learn more about them. And a near record 67% of admissions officers revealed that they consider viewing social media accounts “fair game” in the process of deciding which candidates to admit.
That means that before you apply, you should comprehensively review and optimize all your social media accounts, even the Pinterest you created to collect cute knitting ideas or the Instagram account you use to post pictures of your dog. Everything that’s online is open to evaluation, and at some point, especially if you’ve had an online presence since middle school or earlier, you might have posted, liked, or commented on something an admissions officer could consider inappropriate.
Five Steps to Optimizing Your Online Presence
Here’s how to perform a thorough and thoughtful social media audit.
1. Google yourself.
This is where admissions officers are likely to start. It’s a good idea to review the search results that come up, especially any images or videos you might want to remove. Once you see which platforms are featured most prominently in the search results, you can prioritize your review and continue to the following steps.
2. Clean up your act.
Your application package might be flawless, but if admissions officers find pictures, videos, or comments from your social media accounts that could be viewed as inappropriate, offensive, bullying, or reflecting bad judgment, your chances of admission could be at risk. In 2020, for example, at least 12 schools revoked admissions offers to incoming students who had posted racist content online.
It’s best to delete all questionable or possibly offensive content, including obscenities, trolling, harsh comments, and any pictures or videos you would have second thoughts about showing to your parents or grandparents.
Make sure to also review all the posts and photos you’ve been tagged in, any accounts you follow, and any replies and reposts you’ve made.
If you have a few posts, pics, tweets, or status updates that don’t reflect well on you and that you can’t get rid of, post new, positive material to push the old stuff further down in your history. You might not be able to make it disappear, but you can make it less prominent.
3. Adjust your privacy settings.
You might also want to review the privacy settings for your accounts and make some of them private so that only followers you approve can see what you share. However, you can’t assume that anything online will remain truly private, so it’s good practice to always be conscientious and intentional when posting online.
4. Get social.
Social media has its risks, but it’s also useful for networking and promoting yourself, and for reinforcing the story presented in your college application materials. Consider turning your resume into an up-to-date LinkedIn profile. Accounts on other platforms such as Instagram and YouTube can support your advocacy, serve as an online portfolio, and/or promote passion projects.
You can take certain steps to optimize your social media presence to make it easy for admissions officers to find you and enhance your chances of admission. First, you can buy a domain name – a URL of your name – and create a basic website to aggregate all your social media profiles in one place. Google Sites, Squarespace, and Wix all offer templates that allow you to easily build a basic website. Alternatively, you could use Substack, WordPress, or Tumblr to consolidate your social presence and make yourself easily searchable.
Second, claim vanity URLs for your social media profiles (setting up /yourname at the end of a link) to make profile sharing easier and further optimize your online presence.
Third, select a clear, pleasant profile photo of your face. Using the same photo across social media platforms creates a consistent online identity and also makes it easier for admissions officers to find you.
5. Make what’s found reflect well on you.
Curate an online profile that complements the narrative presented in your college application. Use pinned posts to showcase personal, academic, and professional achievements. One of these posts could, for example, connect with your college essays. Others might highlight activities and extracurriculars you’ve participated in, a summer program or trip you’ve taken, or news of your accomplishments or publications.
Social media might not be the most appropriate venue to share your political or religious views, but if these views are so important to you that you feel compelled to voice them publicly, make sure they are presented in a way that isn’t offensive. What you post doesn’t have to be boring or overly professional, but your content should be thoughtful and presented with respect for people who think differently from you.
As you consider how to engage with social media going forward, even if your profile is private, always act as though what you post will be public. Ask yourself whether what you want to post would make your boss or favorite teacher proud. If in doubt, don’t post it. Social media is a reflection of your personal brand, and it will continue to follow you as you advance in school and in your career.
Final Thoughts
Once you have reviewed all your social media, enlist the help of someone you trust (a family member, close friend, trusted teacher – essentially anyone who has your best interests at heart) to check your accounts as well. They’ll be able to view your profiles from a fresh and different perspective. Once you have made any changes they suggest, you can be confident that you have taken every step possible to present the best version of yourself not only in your application but also online.
Steven Tagle has 20 years of experience teaching and mentoring students and has expertise in crafting standout personal statements and statements of purpose. Steven is eager to share his insight and know-how to help applicants achieve their dream acceptances. Want Steven to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch.
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