Attention students: colleges looking at your social media is meant to help not harm you. Administrators take advantage of your Facebook or Twitter account as a way to get to know you, see your interests and hobbies. In fact, more than a third of college admission officers utilize social media as a factor when deciding on your acceptance.

It’s alway difficult to let your guard down in interviews and allow the interviewee to fully grasp on who you are as an individual. Social media is a wonderful opportunity for college administrators to achieve this with ease. Scrolling through your posts aids them in understanding what type of person you are and what you have to offer to the university.

However if you are worried for what people may find whilst scanning your account, then you should be more careful on what you post. It was reported by the Kaplan Test Prep survey that 12 percent of college admissions who checked social media as a factor of a student’s acceptance negatively impacted the student’s admissions chances. Honestly, I think that social media is supposed to serve as a medium for how you want to be perceived and if you are saying/doing stupid things on there, then that’s how people will perceive you.

Another positive to having access to your social media is that it holds individuals responsible for what they post online. Students seem to think they can say anything over the internet and it won’t have the same effect as when they state it publicly, however they are mistaken. With college administrators surveilling their social media constantly people will be forced to monitor their posts online, which can result in more positive behavior over the web.

However, social media doesn’t play a huge factor when deciding the acceptance of an individual. The traditional pieces such as high school GPA, standardized test scores, letters of recommendation, personal essays and extracurricular activities are all a major part of a university’s decision.

The bottom line is that what you say over Instagram or Twitter won’t be the reason you’re accepted but just might be the reason why you’re declined. Always remember that what you post is public and can have an effect on you in the long run (except if you set your profile to private, which I highly recommend). So next time you feel like posting something promiscuous or an inappropriate rethink your decision and ponder how it can affect you.