How to Protect Your Privacy When Applying for College

The college application process requires you to hand over an extraordinary amount of personal information: your Social Security number, family financial records, home address, academic history, health information, and often access to your digital life. Meanwhile, 67% of admissions officers say reviewing applicants' social media is "fair game," and the data you submit flows through multiple platforms and third parties with varying levels of security. Here is how to protect your privacy at every stage of the process without hurting your chances of admission.

How Colleges Collect and Use Your Data

Before you can protect your information, it helps to understand how much of it colleges are gathering and where it goes.

Application Platforms

The Common App, Coalition Application, and individual college portals collect far more than your name and GPA. They gather demographic data, family structure and income details, disciplinary records, and essays that often contain deeply personal narratives. Each platform has its own privacy policy governing how this data is stored, shared, and retained.

Financial Aid Applications

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) collects Social Security numbers, federal tax return data, bank account balances, investment details, and comprehensive family financial records. Students often submit this information from shared devices or unsecured networks, adding another layer of risk. The CSS Profile, used by many private colleges, requests even more granular financial data.

Social Media Screening

According to a Kaplan survey, 28% of admissions officers actively review applicants' social media profiles. Some institutions use automated social media background check tools or third-party screening services to analyze applicants' online presence at scale. While most admissions officers say they only review publicly available content, linked accounts or consent-based screening tools may access more information than you realize.

Data Brokers and Your Application Data

When you register for the SAT, ACT, or AP exams, testing organizations can share your information with colleges, scholarship providers, and marketing companies unless you explicitly opt out. The College Board's Student Search Service, for instance, licenses student data to colleges and organizations that want to recruit applicants matching specific demographic and academic profiles. This puts your name, address, intended major, GPA range, and test scores into a commercial pipeline you may not have consented to.

Your Rights Under FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is the primary federal law protecting student records, but its protections during the application process have important limitations:

• FERPA applies after enrollment. Once you are an enrolled student, FERPA prevents institutions from disclosing your education records without your written consent. However, applicants who are not yet enrolled have fewer protections under the law.
• Rights transfer at 18. When you turn 18 or begin attending a postsecondary institution at any age, all FERPA rights transfer from your parents to you. This means your parents no longer have an automatic right to access your education records without your consent.
• Exceptions exist. Schools can share your data with contractors, consultants, and third-party service providers performing institutional functions without your consent, as long as those parties are under the institution's direct control regarding use of the data.
• Health and safety emergencies. Colleges can disclose student information without consent in cases of health or safety emergencies, or incidents involving alcohol or controlled substances for students under 21.

Understanding these boundaries is critical: FERPA provides a floor, not a ceiling, for privacy protections. Many of the most important steps for protecting your data during the application process fall outside FERPA's scope.

How to Protect Your Social Media Before Applying

With a significant percentage of admissions officers reviewing social media, your online presence matters. Here is how to manage it without deleting everything:

1. Audit your accounts. Google your name, username, and email address. Review every result on the first three pages. Note any content that could be taken out of context or reflect poorly on you.
2. Set all accounts to private. On Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Facebook, and Snapchat, switch your profiles to private. While 33% of admissions officers consider reviewing social media "an invasion of privacy," the other 67% consider it fair game, and private settings are your first line of defense.
3. Review tagged content. Other people's posts and tags can expose content you did not create. Untag yourself from anything questionable and enable tag approval on platforms that support it.
4. Clean up old posts. Delete or archive posts from your younger years that no longer represent you. Tools like TweetDelete for X or bulk deletion features on other platforms can speed this up.
5. Check group memberships. Private groups, Discord servers, and subreddits you belong to can sometimes be visible on your profile. Leave any that could raise concerns.
6. Do not link social media to your application. Unless a program specifically requests it (some arts and media programs do), there is no benefit to providing social media handles on your application.

Protecting Your Data During the Application Process

The information you submit in applications is sensitive enough to enable identity theft if it falls into the wrong hands. Take these precautions:

Secure Your Devices and Connections

• Never submit applications or FAFSA forms on public Wi-Fi. Use your home network or a VPN. Public networks at coffee shops, libraries, and schools can be intercepted.
• Use your own device. Avoid shared family computers or school computers where other users might access your information. If you must use a shared device, use a private browsing window and log out of every account when finished.
• Enable two-factor authentication. Turn on 2FA for your email, Common App account, FAFSA account, and any college portals. Your email is especially critical since it is the recovery method for all other accounts.

Minimize What You Share

• Opt out of Student Search Service. When registering for the SAT or ACT, decline participation in programs that share your data with colleges and third parties. You can still apply to colleges directly without being in the search database.
• Read privacy policies. Before submitting information through any platform, review what data is collected, who it is shared with, and how long it is retained. Pay particular attention to third-party sharing clauses.
• Use a dedicated email address. Create a separate email address specifically for college applications. This isolates your application communications from your personal accounts and limits the impact if the address is compromised in a data breach.
• Be selective with optional information. Many application fields are optional. If a field is not required and does not strengthen your application, consider leaving it blank.

Watch for Phishing During Admissions Season

Applicants are high-value targets for phishing attacks during admissions season. Scammers send fake scholarship offers, financial aid notifications, and admissions decision emails designed to harvest your personal information or credentials. Always verify emails by logging directly into the college's portal rather than clicking links in messages, and be skeptical of unsolicited scholarship offers that require your Social Security number or bank information.

Protecting Your Identity After Acceptance

Once you are accepted and enrolled, new risks emerge. Universities are among the most heavily targeted sectors for cyberattacks, with an average of 4,388 attacks per organization per week. Federal student loan identity theft surged 195% year-over-year in 2025, and non-federal student loan fraud rose 74% over the same period.

To protect yourself as a new college student:

• Freeze your credit. Place a free credit freeze with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. This prevents anyone from opening new accounts in your name even if they have your Social Security number.
• Monitor your identity. PrivacyOn offers family plans covering up to 5 people, which means your parents can protect both themselves and their college-bound children under one subscription. With 24/7 monitoring across 100+ data brokers and dark web monitoring starting at $8.33 per month, it is an affordable safeguard during a period when your personal data is being shared more widely than at any other point in your life.
• Use a password manager. You will create dozens of new accounts for university systems, housing, meal plans, and campus services. Use a password manager to generate unique, strong passwords for each one.
• Review FERPA notification. Every college is required to notify you annually of your FERPA rights. Read this notification carefully and understand your right to restrict the disclosure of directory information such as your name, address, phone number, and enrollment status.

A Privacy Checklist for College Applicants

Use this checklist to protect your privacy throughout the application process:

1. Audit and clean up your social media profiles
2. Set all social media accounts to private
3. Opt out of College Board Student Search Service and ACT Name Rental
4. Create a dedicated email address for applications
5. Enable two-factor authentication on all accounts
6. Submit applications and FAFSA only on secure, private networks
7. Review privacy policies for every platform you submit data to
8. Google yourself and request removal of exposed personal data
9. Freeze your credit before your information circulates widely
10. Enroll in ongoing data broker monitoring to catch reappearing data

The college application process is one of the first times in a young person's life that they are required to share deeply personal information across multiple platforms and institutions. Taking privacy seriously now builds habits that will protect you throughout college and your career. The data you expose today does not disappear when you graduate.