A feature in today's Timesshowcases rising efforts by many colleges and universities to diminish the influence of the SAT exam in college admissions; scholars and journalists have repeatedly documented real advantages to more-advantaged students, and this article mentions the generally slim gains that hired test-prep confers. But the SAT is widely used, especially by schools that screen thousands of applicants, as a benchmark for consideration, making its elimination entirely unlikely. Some schools make the SAT optional and many encourage students to take SAT IIs and ACT exams to bolster or replace less-robust SAT scores.

As it turns out, applicants should pay attention to their Facebook pagesalong with their prep packets and textbooks: One in ten undergraduate admissions officers at 500 "top" schools (based on US News and World Report listings) say that they look at prospective students' Facebook pages. For grad applications, 9% of business schools say they refer to Facebook and other social networking sites, as do 14% of law schools and 15% of medical schools.

The upshot? About a quarter of admissions officials who use Facebook say they come away with a more positive view of the students that apply. But quite a few more -- 38% -- say that the impact is negative, highlighting what Binghamton University provost Sandra Starke calls a "sticky wicket" -- a theoretically private, actually public web page that's easily accessible (and often a lot more revealing than the well-crafted essay).