Social Media & College Admissions – Journey to Your Dreams

Social Media and online networking tools have taken the world by storm. People who are chained to their office desks round the clock are today in constant touch with family and friends via instant messaging, Facebook and Twitter. Communication has become so convenient today that is almost everywhere. People are more engaged, more connected and more literate (thanks to Wiki and Google) and certainly more interested in the world around. It has certainly revolutionized the speed of information transmission. With more and more people utilizing Smartphones and the internet to use these social media tools, one cannot dismiss its ubiquity and growth ever in this fast-changing society. You can do innumerable things apart from just being connected to family and friends. Business promotion, blogging, online marketing and what not!

You name it and it’s there in the social media.

It’s only recently that I came to know about social media helping students to get into their favorite universities and colleges. This piece of information I got from one of my friends, aspiring to join his dream college from his childhood. No wonder, he is now going to the classes at the very same college. And how did he manage to get in there? He used social media as his weapon to join in there apart from having good academic scores. Well, thanks to its popularity and information explosion, it is possible today to make use of social media and online networking tools (especially Facebook and Twitter) to join at your top-choice school or college.

A recent white paper released by the college admissions firm Cappex reported that both colleges and students increasingly want to connect through social media tools. It reduces the time it takes to maintain the entire admission process. Most of the college admission departments use Facebook and post regular updates on campus news and answer the queries of their college wannabes. It seems like every college counselor has an account on one of these networking sites. A recent survey finding about college admissions shows that 82% of schools use Facebook and 38% use YouTube or Twitter to recruit students to their campuses. You can do much to join the school of your dreams with the help of Facebook or the other social media.

Let’s check out some of the ways, you can take advantage to head to your favorite college through online social media.

• Join the College’s Media Circles – Find out your favorite school’s or College Facebook page and like it, follow it on Twitter and keep your accounts clean. Admission counselors are going to check students about their online activity. Get connected through college forums like Campushook and look into the reviews about colleges. Engage yourself with interesting posts and meaningful comments instead of just liking the page.
• Use YouTube Videos – Many colleges ask their applicants to augment their applications with videos detailing on the choice of their college/course. Make a video about yourself, your idea of the course and how you can add value to the college. Upload it to YouTube and add the link in your application. It will be a great way to stand out from the crowd.
• Blog Your Way to Campus – Blogs are a great way to get noticed. Create your own blog. Write on your interests, extracurricular activities on it. It would give an insight about you, your interests and highlights your personality. Go the extra mile.

I hope these tips will help the students reading this to work on your journey to your favorite college leading you to success.