According to a recent Kaplan Test Prep Survey, 41 percent of law school admissions officers admit searching an applicant on Google. This figure is about 20 percent higher than the recorded numbers for business school officers and undergraduate admission officers. Of that 41 percent, 37 percent of law school admissions officers check Facebook.
Nowadays, there is a widespread use of the Internet to gain more information about a person. The evidence of this can even be seen in the lives of students.
When you Google a phone number to see who it was, or when you type in the names of the other students in your class on Facebook, you are doing the same thing that these admissions officers are doing with your online persona.
For the admissions process at CSB/SJU, the use of Facebook to check on prospective students is not used or only used infrequently and informally. But for those applying to graduate school or jobs out of the college, there is a very real possibility that important people are looking at the public persona that you create online.
David Bennetts, a CSB/SJU professor on the Pre-Law Committee said that the reason law schools may look more closely at the online identity of their applicants is because of importance of ethical characteristics in the legal job path.
“Law schools are looking for the negatives,” Bennetts said. “There is a certain impression from Facebook albums that exist for all to see.”
In the same Kaplan survey, there was a statistic given that of the 41 percent of law school admissions officers who check online for more information about an applicant, 32 percent find something damaging to the student, while only 14 percent of business school admissions officers and 12 percent of undergraduate admissions officers do. But not all of what is found online needs to be negative.
Many students do not seem to be aware that a number of study abroad directors at CSB/SJU use Facebook profiles to find out more about their applicants. But the program runners are not looking for irresponsible pictures, they are simply looking for more information about applicants.
“Sometimes what is found is worth knowing; sometimes there are cultural variables that I can’t find on a resume that are important to the study abroad trip,” Bennetts said.
On whether it is right to look up another’s information online, both Bennetts and Pre-Law sophomore Lauren Currie are in agreement that it is the responsibility of students to control what they put up on the Internet. Currie’s own profile is private, although some picture albums can be seen.
“Students have to be very careful about what they put out on the Internet,” Currie said. “I don’t put anything up there that I don’t want my grandmother to see.”