This morning, the Baltimore Sun declared that colleges and universities are finally ready to live with social media.  The article focused on the use of social networking sites – mostly Facebook – throughout the process of admissions and enrollment.  The fact is that 86% of college-age students have profiles on Facebook, and they expect schools to be there, also.

What’s becoming clear is that applicants themselves are using Facebook as an essential communication medium and are expecting to use it as a medium with schools.

- Jeff Olson, executive director of research for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions

The article raised a few interesting issues:

1. There are privacy concerns centering on the interaction of admissions staff and prospective students “friending” each other.
2. Schools need to get in the game early in order to maintain control over their own, official social networking presence.
3. There is a huge benefit to meeting students in these spaces, in order to help them feel more like a part of the community.

According to a poll conducted by Kaplan, 70% of college admissions officials have received “friend” requests from applicants on either MySpace or Facebook, but only 30% of the schools that they work for have (or are currently developing)