Law school admissions officers are using Facebook and other social media sites to help weed out applicants, a new study by Kaplan Test Prep shows.
Forty-one percent of top law school admissions officers admitted to Googling applicants to learn more about them, and 37 percent have checked out an applicant’s Facebook page or another social networking site.
Business school applicants have a bit more privacy; just 27 percent of business school admissions officers have Googled a potential student and 22 percent have perused a Facebook page. The percentages are even lower for undergraduate candidates.
So, why do more law school admissions officers resort to checking applicants’ online profiles when their LSATs , GPAs and essays are at their fingertips?
“An overarching theme to the entire [law school] application is whether an applicant is able to exercise good judgment,” said Jeff Thomas, director of pre-law programs, Kaplan Test Prep. “Clearly, an applicant’s digital trail can be an indicator of whether or not he or she possesses this quality.”
Just a recommendation for future law school applicants: best to hide those pot-smoking, beer bonging pics on Facebook and any other evidence of bad behavior. Nearly a third of law admissions officers who researched an applicant online – 32 percent – said they found something that negatively impacted an applicant’s admissions chances.
The survey was conducted this summer and included responses from 128 of the nation’s 200 American Bar Association-accredited law schools.
