Law School Admissions Officers Are Googling Applicants and Checking Them Out on Facebook
Essays, test scores and grades aren’t the only criteria being considered by law school admissions officers.
A new survey by Kaplan Test Prep reveals that admissions officials are also looking online for information, according to the National Law Journal, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog and a press release.
Forty-one percent said they researched an applicant using an online search engine, and 37 percent said they had looked up an applicant on Facebook or another social networking website.
Admissions officers who went online were able to turn up some damaging information. Thirty-two percent said they found something that hurt an applicant’s chances of admission.
Kaplan surveyed admissions officers at 200 ABA-accredited law schools; 128 of them responded.
Online sleuthing is less prevalent among admissions officers at undergraduate and business schools, according to Kaplan Test Prep surveys. Only 20 percent of undergraduate admissions officers have Googled an applicant, and 24 percent have visited an applicant’s Facebook page. Twenty-seven percent of business school admissions officers have used an online search engine to check out an applicant, and 22 percent have looked at social networking websites.
