Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel

Yesterday, I blogged about how corporate recruiters are using social networks to conduct background checks. Today, I want to talk about how the same is true for high school students looking to enroll in colleges. When it comes to personal and professional development both of these posts are extremely important and mark periods in your life, when a single decision or opportunity can make you or break you.

There is a high-school graduating class nationwide of 3.3 million students. Colleges are expected to be sifting through a record number of applications this year. Personal branding is important for this crowd as well, especially for those wanting to gain acceptance from ivy league schools, such as Harvard University. If you don’t stand out or “make the grade,” you might have to settle and no one wants to do that. This is especially hard with parents that really put the pressure on. Today, I’m going to go over some brand new research on how high school students should be mindful of what they put on social networks, then give you a quick analysis and a few tips.

The research

Kaplan survey (Top 500 colleges)

Conclusion: Despite the sheer amount of applications colleges get, social networks are so accessible that they turn to them and uncover positive or negative information about applicants in an instant.

• 10% of admissions officers acknowledged looking at social-networking sites to evaluate applicants
• 38% said that what they saw “negatively affected” their views of the applicant
• 25% of schools checking social networks said their views were improved
• 21% of colleges used social-networking sites for recruiting prospects and gathering information about applicants.

Monster survey (3,400 college-bound students)

Conclusion: High school students are much more disciplined today than they were years ago. They recognize the competition to not only get into college, but what they will face when they graduate, so they are preparing early. The economy isn’t helping.

• 86% plan to work this summer
• 66% intend to work while in school (86% part-time)
• 40% will begin their search before arriving on campus!
• 87% anticipate having at least one internship during their college career

The admissions officers speak

“The school will do an Internet search, including Facebook and other sites, if an application raises “red flags,” such as a suspension from school.” – Thomas Griffin, director of undergraduate admissions at North Carolina State University in Raleigh

“The school hasn’t rejected any applicant because of information posted on the Internet. Princeton doesn’t have time to look at all applicants’ online information, but if an offensive Facebook post came to the college’s attention, the school would examine it.” – Janet Lavin Rapelye, dean of admission at Princeton University

“My staff is free to check out anonymous tips about social-networking sites or make use of the information if the admissions committee is evaluating a “tight” decision.” - Greg Roberts, senior associate dean of admission at the University of Virginia

“My feeling is that only in rare exceptions would we go and look at Facebook or MySpace because we have so much information to look at already when reviewing applications.” – Jacqueline Murphy, St. Michael’s College Admissions Director

The students speak

“There are some things I might think about getting rid of.” – Nicholas Santangelo, a senior at Seton Hall Prep

“I don’t do anything that bad, and if I did, I wouldn’t put it on the Internet.” – Jonathan Kahn, a 17-year-old

“I think that it’s definitely something that a lot of kids worry about — even for things like summer internships.” – Tess Russell, a 21-year-old junior at Middlebury College.

My thoughts

First off, how hard is it to Google someone’s name? What about search for their name on a social network? The accessibility and ease of search makes it obvious for admissions officers to use social networks as a background check for applicants. If you read between the lines and really think about this, I’d say that they are using it more for applicants that are “on the line” with being accepted or rejected or one’s that are in the “good pile.”

Why might you ask? Well, they don’t want to take a chance that some student gets accepted and misrepresents their (corporate) brand. Remember, when a company or school accepts you, they endorse your brand, meaning that you represent their corporate brand as an ambassador. When it comes to students “on the line,” it’s obvious that a social network may help some cross the line into the acceptance bin and others getting tossed in the trash.

Personal branding tips

• Take a good look at your online presence and then a great big look at the college you are gunning for. If you find anything inappropriate, I want you to ask yourself “do I want to risk acceptance to the school of my dreams?”
• Find a teacher you can trust and show them your Facebook page. Ask them to examine it and give you feedback.
• Locate your school adviser and get guidance on what to include on your social networking page.
• Try and take an internship in high school, as it will help differentiate you substantially when applying to schools and it’s great experience (I did one).