With the number of college applicants at an all time high, acceptance into prestigious schools is becoming increasingly competitive. Although a student’s GPA, extracurriculars and a resume of academically rigorous classes are all compelling to admission officers, a new determinant is factoring into whether or not a hopeful high school senior will become a collegiate scholar: their social media footprint.

According to the Time article, “When Colleges Look Up Applicants on Facebook: The Unspoken New Admissions Test” there have been numerous instances of students being declined by colleges because of their online presence.

At Williams College in Massachusetts, one student’s acceptance was revoked  by the school because they had posted derogatory comments on the school’s message board. Also, at the University of Georgia, a student’s disparaging racial remarks on Twitter were discovered by the admissions office and were added to the student’s application file.

However, Saint Louis University (SLU), a nationally recognized school listed on US News and World Report’s top 100 best colleges, does not use a student’s social media footprint as a component in their admissions process.

“In consideration for admission, admissions counselors do not look at content on Facebook or Twitter pages. One of the main reasons, [although] we don’t have an official policy on it, is because we want to consider the student’s application to the fullest extent,” SLU’s Social Media and Communications Intern Ellie Cash said. “We ask that students to be very honest, forward and passionate. They display their passions to us in their applications, we consider that over content on social media and interpreting it out of context.”

Cash further elaborated that the interactions between SLU and its applicants on social media do not involve SLU browsing through student profiles. Rather, online communication is sparked solely by student-interest in the university.

“Our admissions counselors don’t go to Facebook and try to stalk a certain student or try to discover the nitty-gritty details of what they do on the weekend. Sometimes applicants or students interested in our university will reach out to SLU on Facebook, but that comes from a student perspective. They will want to comment on our Facebook pictures or find out about sports programs and student groups. But that is something initiated by applicants, not SLU,” Cash said.

Nonetheless, while many colleges, like SLU, use social media as a means of recruiting potential students, statistics cannot be denied. Figures from the 2014 Kaplan Test Prep survey indicate 35 percent of college admissions officers have visited an applicant’s social media page as opposed to the 2008 Kaplan survey in which only 10 percent of colleges looked at students’ social media. Over the course of only seven years, social media’s popularity has skyrocketed amongst young adults and so have college’s interest in applicant’s online activities.

Ultimately, students are faced with a choice. Is impressing followers on Instagram by posting pictures from the latest party really more important than following their dream of receiving a college education? If the trend of tracking applicant’s social media footprint continues to gain momentum amongst universities, students could begin to receive backlash for poor online decisions.