身为美国人且工作性质相关（独立大学咨询），我听过的讨论（或者争执）不在少数。我之前就此还写过一篇博客，这里也贴上来。
What Does Harvard’s Decision to Rescind 10 Students’ Offers of Admission Mean for YOU?
自打新闻被爆出，美国国内各媒体都炸开了锅，关于哈佛校方该决定是否合理的争论完全白热化。然而无论你站在哪一方，有几个点都是必须要考虑的。
大学院校是会关注社交媒体的。大学咨询们（比如我）已经就这点跟学生唠叨好几年了，虽然，院校们确实也已经对social media放任好几年了。然而，情况正在迅速发生变化。虽然说十个学生就这么因为犯蠢而毁了自己一辈子（至少现在看来这么说并不算夸张）看上去似乎是挺可惜的，但是，学校们关于这一点的信号再明确不过了：他们想要的是真正优秀的人。哈佛此举再次重申了一个一直以来就应该是铁板钉钉的事实：一个人的品质有多重要。
去年Kaplan上就已经报道过有35%的院校会在做出录取决定前（当然，也包括之后）查学生的社交媒体账号。我可以担保今年这个比率更会飞涨。对于学生来说最应该做的还是提高警惕，倒不是说掩藏不正当言论，而是无意无心的吐槽甚至就可能降低你的机会（详情可参考前方答案）。以下给几条有用措施：
- Google你自己（如果你是申留学当然不用百度）。就把你自己的名字输进搜索栏然后看看会出现什么。就算你的社交媒体干干净净，也有些东西防不胜防，比如你哪个朋友贴了你哪张黑照，或者也许你N年前犯二发的争议言论忘了删，之类的。
- “锁好”你的社交媒体。同样的，谷歌一下自己以确保再没有什么第三方可以随意进入你的个人信息发的内容以及照片之类。双重保险：平日发布的内容就发你奶奶看了不会晕倒的那种即可。三重保险：把用户名改成好玩的搞笑的或者全无意义的，总之不要和你本人名字相关。
- 弄个全正经专业严肃向的小号来对付学校们的检查。你都知道了admission们会跑来看的，干嘛不好好利用起来，多往上面放点人家爱看的呢。。
- 确保你在申请信息中填的邮箱和电话号码看上去足够专业，用你的名字拼写就没问题。不要一不留神放些奇奇怪怪的邮箱前缀上去。
嗯，就这么两条（好吧，都四条了，尼玛我在干什么）福利。最后，请记得：你发在社交空间上的东西是会在以太网络上保存一辈子的。请做一个负责任的网络使用者。
－－－－－以下为原文答案－－－－－
As an independent college counselor from the U.S., I have been privy to many conversations regarding this event (and subsequent debate). I wrote a blog article about it from my professional perspective, and thought I would add it here…
What Does Harvard’s Decision to Rescind 10 Students’ Offers of Admission Mean for YOU?
Ever since the news that Harvard rescinded their offers to 10 incoming Freshmen for sharing inappropriate material via social media, news outlets have erupted in debate over the fairness of the decision. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, there are some take-aways that we all need to consider.
Colleges and universities ARE paying attention to social media. College counselors like myself have been warning students to be mindful of their online presence for years, and, for a long time, institutions let social media missteps go. Clearly that is changing. It’s unfortunate that 10 students had their lives effectively ruined (for the time being) for doing something stupid, but colleges and universities truly want stand-up individuals on their campuses. Harvard doubled down on something that’s been clear for a long time: character counts.
Last year, Kaplan reported that 35% of colleges and universities check applicants’ social media accounts before (and, apparently, after) admission. I guarantee you that will increase substantially this year. As a university applicant, here’s what you need to do to protect yourself:
- “Google” yourself. Type your name into a search engine and see what pops up. You might have the cleanest social media presence ever, but that doesn’t mean a friend didn’t tag you in an unflattering photo or you didn’t delete that controversial blog post from three years ago and forgot about.
- Put your social media accounts on lockdown. Again, “google” yourself to make sure third parties can’t view your information, posts, or images. To be doubly safe, don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want your grandma to see. To be doubly-doubly safe, change your account names to something fun or generic so that they can’t be traced back to you.
- Create separate, extremely professional social media accounts that can be used to augment your college or university applications. You know schools are going to be searching for you, so why not use it to your advantage?
- Make sure the emails and phone messages attached to your school applications are professional. Simply using your name will do. Using anything juvenile, illegal, or sexual will not.
Those are my two (or four...see what I did there?) cents. Remember: what you add to social media will be saved in the ether for the rest of your life. Be a responsible user.
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