You recognize that image in your Fb profile of you at that one social gathering the place you’re holding that crimson Dixie cup in a single hand and what seems like a cigarette within the different?

I’m certain there was water in that cup and the cigarette was only a prop for a play you had been rehearsing on the time, however ask your self: why is that image up there?

Is it since you thought:

a. My hair seems suuuuper cute in that image.

b. Hey, that’s simply me being me, bro.

c. No matter, I don’t care what anybody thinks.

d. #YOLO

If it’s any of the above, I encourage you to contemplate one other, extra necessary query: what would a university admissions rep assume?

In an article revealed final month within the NY Occasions referred to as “They Beloved Your G.P.A. Then They Noticed Your Tweets,” the creator mentions a scholar who was caught tweeting disparaging feedback about her fellow college students and swearing throughout a go to from a Bowdoin Faculty rep, and now she’s a cautionary story. And in keeping with a brand new examine from Kaplan, apparently 31 p.c of faculty reps have checked or do test college students’ Fb profiles to study extra about them. (Did your abdomen simply drop? Don’t cease studying but.)

Seems faculty reps aren’t the one ones FB-stalking you.

“We test the Fb web page of not solely potential hires, however volunteers as nicely,” says Yvonne Sawyer, COO on the non-profit Hope for Miami (and, full disclosure, my mom in-law).

I requested Mrs. Sawyer what kinds of pictures are crimson flags for her and he or she emailed to say, “As an employer we’re not enthusiastic about discovering pictures of them displaying drunk habits or revealing an excessive amount of pores and skin. Between interviewing and coaching a brand new worker, it prices us some huge cash to rent somebody. So a fast FB test might help make or break a hiring resolution, for certain.”

Take heed to the lady; she has a Ph.D in Frequent Sense.

If you happen to’re beginning to freak out somewhat bit, hold calm and do that:

1. Take down the embarrassing pictures. And untag your self within the ones your mates have posted of you, or ask them to take them down.

2. Change your FB settings to “personal” so nobody you don’t know can see your pictures.

However right here’s a fair higher concept: take a look at this as a chance.

If 30 p.c of faculty reps actually are testing your Fb profile, why not publish some stuff that may truly assist your possibilities?

If you happen to’re making use of Early Determination to Stanford, for instance, why not change your cowl photograph to an enormous I LOVE STANFORD photograph? Okay, that could possibly be embarrassing if you happen to don’t get in or if you find yourself making use of to a bunch of faculties by common resolution and neglect to vary the photograph.

Right here’s a greater concept: why not publish some pictures of your self being superb? I’m not speaking about pictures of you discovering the remedy for most cancers or accepting the Nobel Peace Prize (though if in case you have a photograph of you doing both, then that’s precisely what I’m speaking about).

I’m speaking about pictures that reveal these intangible qualities which can be powerful to place into phrases. When you’ve got an Instagram with a really particular aesthetic, your reader would possibly see it and assume, “There’s a scholar who has a mature aesthetic sensibility, is delicate to life’s small particulars, and should or might not have met Ron Artest.” And at the very least two of these issues would possibly assist get somebody into faculty. (I like you, Ron; I’m not hatin’.)