"They loved your GPA, then they saw your Tweets"

Summary

This article is a warning. "Watch what you say!" Colleges look at applying students' social media as an insight to their life ad what they're like. There are people who scour the web for your social media to see if you made bad decisions on it, and if you did, then you most likely will get penalized for it. This is especially true if your grades aren't the best. Some students will change their content so that they can possibly cover it up, but it's best just to not post anything at all.

Things That Surprised Me

It surprised me that colleges would say that they worry about the judgement of students that "spend their time on their mobile phone and makes such awful remarks." There could be students that spend time on their phones, perhaps more than usual, and still be good people. It also surprised me that 31% of college admissions officers said that they visited an applicant's Facebook or social media page. That surprised me because I didn't know so many people would do that. It also surprised me that someone would say that "deleting [stuff you don't want colleges to see] is kind of like joining two more clubs senior year to list on your application to try to make you seem more like the person they want at their schools." This surprised me because what this person said is really true, and I never thought of it that way before.

Things That Confused Me

In the article, it talks about a senior who posted rude remarks about people on Twitter, and then it goes on to say, "perhaps she hadn't realized that colleges keep track of their social media mentions." How could she not know that? If your social media isn't private, anyone could see it. And even if it is private, people could still find ways to view it. The article also mentions someone who is a lawyer specializing in social media law' and I had no idea that those kind of lawyers existed. There also are guidance counsellors who help students scrub their social media clean, which I didn't know happened either.

Impact 

I don't really use social media, but if I did, I'd watch what I say. I don't see myself getting any soon, because I personally think it's a waste of time, but you never know. I think I'll just watch what I say online period.