It’s that time of the year again! The senior class is filling out and sending in applications for colleges, and keeping aware of their social media “footprint” on the world. When you scroll through Facebook on any given day during the time colleges may be looking at a senior’s profile, more likely than not, their name is changed. Whether it is changed to their first and middle name, a nickname, a pun, switching the first letters of your first and last name, or something else, it definitely does not look the same as it did a few months prior.

The question posed is: do colleges even have time to look at your Facebook? According to the New York Times and the Huffington Post, it seems that with the thousands of applications colleges receive per year, that they might not have time to look at every single applicants page. However, the school may look at other social media platforms that students aren’t as careful of, such as Twitter or Vine. However, most students have learned by now not to post things that could “ruin” their chances of that acceptance letter, even if colleges are not checking. In some cases, having a college look at your profile that is full of all the achievements earned, could help earn that senior an acceptance letter.

Since colleges do not seem to check Facebook profiles as frequently anymore, it seems that changing your name is more of a tradition, one of the last things seniors do before leaving for college, similar to prom or a senior prank. Whether it be for tradition or for actual security purposes, changing your name is a harmless way to have fun during ones last year of high school.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/fashion/25Noticed.html?_r=0

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/06/colleges-facebook_n_4228586.html