Those applying for Northern Illinois University don’t need to worry about making their Facebook or MySpace pages private. Those pictures of you at parties: Leave ‘em. The dirty jokes your friends posted on your walls: No problem.

Ten percent of colleges and universities look at applicants’ social-networking sites as part of the decision-making process for admissions, according to a survey released last week from Kaplan, Inc.

But NIU isn’t one of them.

“NIU does not look at Facebook or MySpace when considering applications for admission,” said Admissions Director Robert H. Burk, speaking on behalf of undergraduate admissions. “These sites are not set up to give any measure of academic performance and thus success at NIU.”

Undergraduate profiles are not alone in not being viewed.

“The Graduate School does not look at social networking profile pages to shape admission decisions,” said Bradley Bond, associate dean of NIU’s Graduate School. “Until social networking transforms into a form of scholarly communication, I am not hopeful that social networking will affect graduate admissions,” he said.

The study also surveyed law schools, of which 15 percent said they view social-networking sites as part of the admissions process. Sandra Polanco, assistant director of admission and financial aid for the NIU Law School, said she was told by the dean of the Law School that “we confine our review to the items applicants are required to supply.”

Looking at applicants’ Facebook or MySpace pages would seem to bring up ethical and privacy issues.

“I don’t think there’s anything legally or ethically wrong with that. That’s public information,” said David Gunkel, director of graduate studies for the communication department. “If it would be used based on things like race, religious affiliation, sexual orientation – then it would be a problem.”

Gunkel warns his own students about what they should be posting online.

“The rule of thumb I always tell my students is don’t do anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable screaming in a public subway,” he said. “Anything that’s quote ‘private’ on the Internet is not private.”

Nick Delmonte, senior physical education major, was none too happy to hear that some schools are doing this.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” he said. “It’s really not any of their business. If there’s pictures of them drinking, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad student – unless you post your grades on there. It’s pointless.”

Delmonte is studying to be a physical education teacher and he wanted to assure his future students of one thing.

“As a teacher, I would never look at my students’ Facebooks,” he said.