Graduate schools consult Facebook

One hundred and fifty-two law schools and 320 of the top 500 colleges participated in the survey, though Princeton did not.

Kaplan annually surveys law schools, medical schools, business schools and undergraduate programs, “all for the purposes of getting information for students and applicants who come to use to give them the up-to-date landscape for admissions,” Glen Stohr, admissions and pre-law director at Kaplan, said in an interview.

Use of social networking sites by admissions officers has risen so dramatically in recent years that 17 percent of law schools are in the process of formulating a policy about how to deal with the use of personal networking sites in the admission process, Stohr explained.

“I think this is sort of a Wild Wild West time for admission officers,” Stohr said.

Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said that the University does not have a specific policy on searching social networking sites.

“If something were brought to our attention, we would of course check it out, but given that we have 21,000 applications, we are not scouring Facebook,” Rapelye said.

“If there were any reason for us to doubt the character of a student because of what they put on their Facebook page, we would take that into consideration,” she added.

The survey found that law school admissions officers are the most likely to search social networking websites.

“Law schools, unlike medical schools or business schools, very rarely do face-to-face interviews,” Stohr said, adding that profiles give law schools a chance to assess applicants’ characters.

“[Law schools] are probably under the greatest pressure to say ‘this is a person of character,’ ” Stohr noted, explaining that the character and fitness of law school graduates will be carefully evaluated by bar associations.

Using discretion

Though many students believe that photos are the greatest danger to their application success, Stohr explained that wall posts may be much more damaging.

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“Many people ... think it will be a picture of me drinking at a party,” he explained. “I think what is far more likely to hurt your chances is having a discussion on your wall about your [graduate school] applications.”

In fact, photos of parties and drinks may not necessarily cause a problem, Stohr said, explaining that he believes “that admission officers know that college kids are college kids.”

Wall posts or discussions that reveal damaging information, on the other hand, such as academic problems or past legal history, could be fatal to a graduate school application, Stohr explained.

“What you put on a social networking site ... [is] not very likely to get you into law school, but it could keep you out,” Stohr said.

Laurie Frey ’09, who is applying to law school, said she believes the use of Facebook by admissions officers “a bit like an invasion of privacy,” but added that she has made an effort to keep her profile “clean.”

“Really, you have to know that kind of thing is possible when you sign up for any kind of networking site, so it is your responsibility to only put up things you would be ok with an admissions office seeing,” Frey said.

Rapelye urged similar caution. “Students who are in the application process should be mindful of what they make public,” she said.

Though it is easy to get caught up in the privacy fixation, Stohr said that the thing that gets you into law school is still great grades, great scores and great personal statements.

“Seventy percent of those admissions officers said [the] LSAT is their number one criteria, and GPA is second,” Stohr said. Still, Stohr recommends that students play it safe.