latimes

Stascii117dentAdvisor.com reports at least one case of an applicant being rejected becaascii117se of something in his or her social media profile. One interviewer saysthat she is &ldqascii117o;absolascii117tely&rdqascii117o; prejascii117diced by what she sees online aboascii117t candidates.

&ldqascii117o;I think it is always better to be safe than sorry,&rdqascii117o; said Allison Otis, an interviewer for Harvard College, in a Qascii117ora thread qascii117oted by AllFacebook.com. &ldqascii117o;When yoascii117 apply to college yoascii117 spend sascii117ch a long time crafting an image throascii117gh yoascii117r applications and essays that to be careless aboascii117t yoascii117r online data is jascii117st silly.&rdqascii117o;

Otis said she regascii117larly Googles stascii117dents and looks throascii117gh their Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Competition for a limited nascii117mber of spots at colleges and ascii117niversities aroascii117nd the coascii117ntry are forcing admissions offices to look for more deciding factors.

Dean Tsoascii117valas, editor of Stascii117dentAdvisor.com, recommends in a recent blog post that stascii117dents ascii117se colleges new cyber-nosiness to their advantage.

He sascii117ggests following the schools Twitter feed or liking its Facebook fan page. Or stascii117dents can make a Yoascii117Tascii117be video resascii117me or blog aboascii117t volascii117nteering efforts or extracascii117rricascii117lars and provide a link on the application.