Sign up with Knewton SAT by Tuesday, 9/7, to get $50 off — plus, we’ll pay your $47 SAT registration fee! Just send us your receipt when you sign up for the October exam and we’ll credit your cost of registration. That’s a total value of $97! But it won’t last long…

A sweet registration gift, plus something you can’t put a price on: total SAT confidence.

Promo code SAT-SIGNUP expires 9/7 at 11:59pm Eastern.

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3. May SAT Test: Students share their experiences

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” – Sherlock Holmes

Someone walks in front of you with a piece of toilet paper attached to his shoe; your friend walks up to you and you notice a small bandage on his face, which smells of aftershave; a smiling woman playfully rubs her leg against her conversation partner’s under the table.

All of these situations lend themselves to inferences, because we can make an educated guess as to the causes and motivations behind each scenario. You’ll have to be an expert at making similar guesses on the GMAT. That’s why you can learn some lessons from the master of inferences, Sherlock Holmes:

Every day in our every interaction with others, we unconsciously make hundreds of inferences about all sorts of observations – the meaning of a friend’s brief text message, a coworker’s glance, a stain on a shirt, or a clicking sound under the front left wheel. (Turned out to be my brake pads.)

Note that an inference is the converse of an implication; the stimulus implies, the observer infers. The smell of chocolate chips implies the presence of fresh baked cookies in the kitchen. My assumption about their presence is an inference.

The GMAT too makes use of implication and inference in its Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning sections. Broadly speaking, there are two sorts of inference questions on the GMAT: global inference questions (which ask you think of a title or conclusion for a passage or argument, or to make a conjecture related to the text as a whole), and more targeted inference questions (related to passage claims, authors’ viewpoints, or tone). Inference questions aren’t hard to spot since they tend to use the words “imply” and “inference” in the stem.

Unlike assumption or strengthen/weaken questions, it is not always useful to come up with a possible answer for inference questions before looking at the actual answer choices. Since passage details often lend themselves to numerous possible inferences, we almost have no choice but to just go through each and every answer choice to find the best fit.

So what’s the most efficient way to handle these problems?  Your best bet is to take a page from the master of inferences himself, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

If you’ve read his stories then you know of his Jedi-like ability to know all about a person after a single casual glance. In the classic tale “The Red-Headed League,” for example, the good detective immediately deduces that Mr. Jabez Wilson is a former manual laborer who recently went to China simply by examining a few details about the man’s hands.

Holmes didn’t use any sort of secret technology or demonic powers; he just extrapolated from what was right in front of him. In the same way, GMAT questions don’t demand any sort of outside knowledge. Therefore, the first thing you should do for any question that starts, “We can infer from the above argument that…” is to eliminate any answer choices that reference topics outside of the argument’s scope.

Once you remove the irrelevant, try to rule out answer choices that are extreme, or try to substitute similar terms or confuse passage wording. These are harder to see, particularly for global inference questions. One shortcut method, if you’re stuck, is to look for synonyms for words in the answer choices in the text.

CR and RC inference questions invariably have at least a couple of answer choices that are either irrelevant, out of scope, extreme, or manipulative of passage wording. Other questions will try to hit you with answer choices that sound logical but aren’t actually implied by the text. Science topics, for example, may offer answer choices that accurately describe a phenomena but are still wrong since the passage does not say as much.

Eliminate two or three answer choices, and your odds will improve significantly for each question.  If two answers sound both sound totally right to you, re-read the relevant section of the text and go with your gut. After enough practice, hopefully your response to GMAT inference questions will be the same as Mr. Wilson’s after Sherlock Holmes explained how he deduced all of the details of Wilson’s background:

Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. “Well, I never!” said he. “I thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see that there was nothing in it, after all.”

Related posts:

1. GMAT Idioms: Getting to Know the GMAT Like the Back of Your Hand
2. Top 10 Time Savers for the GMAT
3. GMAT Prep Tip: Vocabulary In Context

Today the World Economic Forum at Davos announced its list of Technology Pioneers for 2011. The award goes to high performing companies committed to making a lasting impact on the state of the world, and we at Knewton are honored to be the first education company ever selected.

We’re excited to be included with some incredible organizations. Google, PayPal, Mozilla, and Twitter are all past recipients, and the amount of innovation on this year’s list of Technology Pioneers is impressive. Every winner is devoted to a simple yet critical mission: using technology to change business and society for the better.

Medicine in Need uses the latest advances in research and treatment to provide essential health solutions where they’re needed most. Foursquare is already shifting how people interact all over the world, making the most anonymous, urban spaces instantly social. Second Market brings greater transparency and flexibility to the financial world. Scribd makes publishing a social experience, creating a public library at the world’s fingertips. And there are so many more…

Technology can be a powerful tool, but its greatest value comes when companies like these put it to use. In the right hands, tech can go from being nifty to world-changing.

At Knewton, we’re working hard to develop technology that revolutionizes the way people learn. It is an honor to be the first education company named a Technology Pioneer, but it’s also indicative of how much work is left to be done in this field. Technology has already revolutionized the way people connect, communicate, and do business. We think education is about to have its technology moment, and it will never be the same again.

Within a decade, students will access learning material on their eTextbook readers and attend some (or all) of their classes virtually with top teachers from around the world. Learning works best when it’s personalized, so we’re building a platform that makes education as unique as every student. It measures your proficiency on every concept in your course of study and dynamically generates a personal “nextbook” for you each day. Most importantly, it adapts to you based on your mastery of each concept — down to the percentile level — so your learning plan is customized for you.

Today this technology is available in Knewton’s own GMAT prep, LSAT prep, and SAT prep courses. Soon it will be available to everyone else, as we partner with the world’s leading educational publishers and institutions and open the platform to the public.

We’re extremely grateful to be recognized by the World Economic Forum at Davos. The award is an incredible affirmation that we’re on the right track, and it will provide a great shot of energy as we keep refining the technology in our courses. Looking forward, we are excited to use that technology to keep improving education for everyone, everywhere.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll profile some of the other Tech Pioneers of 2011, from social media giants (@foursquare), to rising leaders in augmented reality (@layarmobile), information security (@opendns), and handling the world’s data (@asterdata). Stay tuned.

For more on what drives all of us at Knewton, check out this video from Jose Ferreira, our founder and CEO:

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3. The promise of online education (and the hurdles in its way)

After a too-long hiatus, Alex the Archangel (a.k.a. Knewton’s Lead Verbal Developer), is back to reveal another one of the SAT testmakers’ evil tricks. Prepare to step up your SAT prep game!

Oh, hello, how are you doing toda–EVIL! I sense evil in our presence! The wind is whistling, the wolves are on the prowl, a new season of Jersey Shore is in progress. It must be time for the:

SAT EVIL TRICK OF THE WEEK #5: The Time Vampires

Something happens to the writers of the math section of the SAT when they sit down to write questions:Maybe some of the questions they write are happy questions, nice ones about puppies and frozen yogurt and sharing pizza with friends. But these are too easy for the SAT, they are told. We need some questions that will really fool people, make them waste their time on silly calculations. Then the SAT writers sharpen their canine teeth, and they say, “Oh, you mean time vampires! I can do that.” And then they cackle and cackle, all the while writing math problems–which is actually rather difficult to do.

What are time vampires, you ask?

Simply put, time vampires are questions that invite you to spend far more time on them than you have to. They suck your precious seconds away, drop by drop.

Luckily, time vampires have a major weakness: There is almost always a big shortcut to get the question correct quickly and relatively painlessly–IF you can spot it.

Some of the time consuming tasks that time vampires exploit include:

• Long strings of numbers or variables for you to add, divide or multiply.
• Complex algebra that makes you rewrite long variable equations over and over.
• Equations that include radicals, which are a pain to keep track of if you don’t deal with them.
• Equations that use large exponents, which get massively large if you don’t wrangle them.
• Probability questions with lots of combinations or permutations of possible outcomes.
• Geometry questions that invite you to wander around, solving every little angle or line length.
• Problems that include large data sets like “all the numbers from 1-100” or “between 700 and 800.”
• Problems that ask you to find a late (like the 101^st) element in a pattern.

Today, we’ll talk about some time vampires on which you could use the pattern recognition strategy to solve them quickly.

1)      1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,….

All positive integers appear in the sequence above, and each positive integer b appears in the sequence b+1 times. Each integer in the pattern is greater than or equal to the one before it. If the integer 11 appears in the sequence as the xth term, what is the value of x?

This question wants you to spend the next three to five minutes writing out all numbers in this pattern and then counting them. That would take forever.

But wait; take a look at this pattern: there are going to be 2 1’s, 3 2’s, 4 3’s, etc. and you’re going to proceed until you hit the first 11. How many 10’s would there be right before this 11 comes? There would be 11! There’s the shortcut! At this point, the pattern disappears. Really, you are just being asked to add the numbers 2 through 11–the number of 1’s through the number of 10’s–and then (don’t forget) to add one more to represent that first number 11 in the sequence.

Adding 2 through 11 isn’t that bad (especially on a calculator), but there’s even a shortcut to that. We call it the Rainbow Method, because you connect the numbers at the opposite ends of the pattern. 2 + 11 = 13. 3 + 10 = 13. 4 + 9 = 13. Hmmm…  Basically, we have 5 groups of 13, which all adds up to 65. Don’t forget to add that extra 1 (which represents the first 11 in the sequence). 66. Done and done.

Now, if you didn’t see that shortcut right away, don’t worry; that’s not really the point anyway.

What’s important is that we spotted this time vampire coming, and immediately starting looking for ways to conquer the problem by cutting extra work. Even if you just wrote out the number of numbers, rather than the numbers themselves, you would have saved a lot of time on this problem. When you see a pattern, use it to your advantage!

Let’s try one where the pattern is a little better hidden:

For all positive integers, let &x be defined by &x = ((x+1)(x-1))/2. Which of the following is equal to 36?

a)      &2 + &4

b)      &3 + &5

c)       &4 + &6

d)      &5 + &7

e)      &7 + &9

What makes this a time vampire is that you are being asked to plug many different numbers into a formula that is a bit ugly. So…  make it prettier! If you spot the fact that (x+1)(x-1) is the difference of two squares, and really equals x² -1, things get a lot quicker. Basically, you only have to take each number next to a &, square it, subtract 1, and then split it into 2.

Let’s try A: 2² -1 = 3,  so we get 3/2. 4² -1 = 15, and 15/2 = 15/2. 3/2 + 15/2 = 18/2. That’s 9. Too small.

Let’s try B: 3² -1 = 8, and 8/2 = 4. 5² - 1 = 24, and 24/2 = 12. 4 + 12 = 16.

At this point, you should start to see a pattern. Hmmm… 9, 16, these are perfect squares. It looks like every time you increase by 1, you get to the next perfect square. That would make D the right answer; just to be sure, let’s check.

Let’s try D:  5² -1 = 24, and 24/2 = 12. 7² -1 = 48, and 48/2 = 24. 12 + 24 = 36. Perfection.

With choice-driven questions like this, you can be even more of a vampire-slayer by starting with the answer choice C and then adjusting based on whether your answer is too big or small. But then you might not have spotted this sweet perfect square pattern.

See, isn’t math fun? I mean, EVIL?!!!

Related posts:

1. SAT Prep: Evil SAT Trick of the Week
2. SAT prep: Evil SAT Trick of the Week #2
3. SAT Prep: When to use Mental Math

Gearing up for Round 1 admissions?  Here’s your weekly dose of MBA news to keep up to date with what’s going on with aspiring b-school students and people in the field.

1. 30 Under 30: The Top Young Entrepreneurs of 2010
Inc. Magazine highlights these rising business stars. Learn about how they got started – and where they’re headed.

2. B-School, Day One: A Primer
Learn how to be proactive in your business school adventure with this helpful BusinessWeek article, aimed at first-year MBA students.  Take notes, folks.

3. What Women Do With Their MBAs
An increasing number of women are attending business school. Forbes examines which fields they choose to enter with their MBAs.

4. Graphic Novel Replaces Business School Textbook
Imagine studying from a comic book!  This business school textbook brings out the little kid in all of us.  USA Today reports.

5. What the Best Business Schools Seek in an Ideal MBA Applicant
This video features Chioma Isiadinso, author of The Best Business School Admissions Secrets, giving advice on how to make sure you have a strong application when applying to b-school.

6. Harvard Business School Drives Yale and MIT’s Edifice Complex
It’s a constant race for Yale and MIT to match HBS’s facilities and state-of-the-art buildings.  This Bloomberg article discusses the high price and the extended benefits of keeping up with Harvard.

7. Graduates Going to Great Lengths to Get Ahead
The BBC reports that many young professionals are eyeing China to gain the work experience they believe they need to get their ideal jobs.

8. Six Keys to Being Excellent At Anything
Want to be successful? Who doesn’t? Get tips from the Harvard Business Review on developing a stellar work ethic and a mentality conducive to success. There are book recommendations, too!

9. Some Business Skills to Go With the Passion
Why an entrepreneurial mindset is not just for an entrepreneur, but for everyone.  In this New York Times article, a student who has taken an MIT entrepreneurship course says, “You see that the essence of the entrepreneurial spirit isn’t so much about money as it is about passion.”

10. Expensive Executive MBAs: A Costly Lesson
Why is it that executive MBAs cost twice as much as full-time MBAs?  This article in The Economist compares this sharp increase in price to an exclusive VIP membership to a senior level networking group.

Check out Knewton’s MBA News Roundup every Monday for all the GMAT, MBA, and business-related news that’s fit to print. And don’t forget to follow KnewtonGMAT on Twitter for more MBA updates!

Related posts:

1. MBA News Roundup from Knewton GMAT
2. Law School News Roundup from Knewton LSAT
3. College News Roundup from Knewton SAT

It’s back-to-school season and we’re launching a weekly college news update for parents and students alike.  Check back with us every week for advice, tips, and suggestions on preparing for college and beyond.

1. Tips for Going Green At College

Not only should you be mindful of your budget at college, but you should also reuse items whenever you can.  Eco-friendly is in fashion right now, so The Weekender has provided tips on how to recycle and stay resourceful.

2. Get an “A” in Dorm Room Decor with These Tips from Local College Students

To college newbies: twin-sized bedsheets from home will not fit on college Twin XL-sized beds.  NWsource talked to college students in the Seattle area about which stores you should go to for all of your dorm life necessities.

3. Tips to get Students Started

The Freshman 15 is no joke.  With buffet-style dining halls, it’s easy to lose track of how much you’re eating.  These tips from the Providence Journal will help you stay healthy and make sure you have all of the necessary kitchen materials.  The bonus recipes at the end of the article are also helpful.

4. College Roommates Match Up Online

Would you want to bunk with someone who is your long lost twin?  This New York Times article talks about how more and more colleges are allowing future freshmen to choose their own roommates through online services similar to eHarmony and Match.com.

5. Babson College to Teach Social Responsibility

Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts is aiming to instill social responsibility in their students from the very beginning of the school year.  The school’s “From Day One” program hopes to remind students that they do not have to separate their goals of profit and purpose when shaping their education and career.

6. What You Should Save for College Each Month

Fidelity Investments is providing some benchmarks on what you should save for college in order to avoid loans, but are these benchmarks accurate?  Are these numbers possible to predict?  See for yourself in this New York Times article.

7. College In America

This really cool infographic from OnlineSchools.org shows statistics (sometimes shocking) on college in America. Did you know that Russia has the highest percentage of 25-64 years olds with college degrees?  See where your country ranks.

8. Textbook Rentals May Save College Students Some Cash

With the rising costs of books for college classes, students are increasingly turning to rental services available at their schools or from online sources, but are students actually saving money with this new practice?  The Burlington Times News investigates.

9. How to Send Your Son Off to College Again

For college parents, this is a list of events from the New York Times blog that you know should happen, yet might not.  For college students, this is insight into why your parents might feel stressed as you leave home once again or for the very first time.

10. New Website Lets Students Bet On Grades

Ultrinsic.com is a new website that allows students to wager on their grades for class.  Some are applauding this venture for motivating students, but will there be adverse consequences as well?  Listen to find out more in an interview with the company’s co-founder on NPR.

Don’t forget to follow KnewtonSAT on Twitter for more college news!

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1. MBA News Roundup from Knewton GMAT
2. MBA News Roundup from Knewton GMAT
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Every good discovery begins with a good question, and Sugata Mitra had a great one.

After studying the quality of education in remote areas of India,  Sugata realized that what was lacking was not infrastructure or resources, but qualified teachers. The further a teacher is from an urban center, the more likely that teacher is to want to move towards the urban center. If a teacher doesn’t want to stay in a rural area, how can one expect him or her to teach effectively there? Therein lies the dilemma.

There must be another way to give children access to high-quality education, Mitra thought. And this was his question:

What would happen if children living in poverty in rural India, without any English skills, suddenly gained access to a powerful computer with high speed internet?

If I’d been asked the same question, my initial answer would have been that the children would be fascinated by the new toy for a while, but would eventually become frustrated by their inability to use the machine and abandon it. Sugatra Mitra thought otherwise.

In 1999, as the instigator of the Hole in the Wall (HIW) experiment, Mitra placed an Internet-connected computer into a kiosk created in a wall of an Indian slum in Delhi. The experiment was later repeated all over rural Indian. Mitra had no idea what to expect, but what he discovered was nothing short of remarkable.

The following video shows the results from his experiment.

What is so amazing is how much these children who did not know the language on the computer screens were able to learn on their own from a machine they had never used–or likely even seen. There were no teachers to guide them, no lessons to follow, and no way of knowing if they were wrong. All they had was the desire to learn, a piece of technology, and the power of the internet. This not only speaks volumes of children’s natural ability to learn, but also of the power of social networks in learning.

Now, what happens when children living in poverty not only have access to a computer, but can use that computer to access the best teachers the world has to offer and the Knewton adaptive learning engine all at the same time?

Just imagine how much more they will be able to learn, how much their communities will benefit, and how much change they will be able to bring to the world.

That in a nutshell, is the vision that we have here at Knewton. While we are able to deliver great instruction and provide high quality content to people in developed countries, the biggest change we as an organization can make is in countries and areas where access to quality education is limited. This could be the great equalizer that ensures that no matter where you are born and to what socioeconomic class you belong, you can still get a high quality education and access to the opportunities necessary to succeed in life.

Related posts:

1. The promise of online education (and the hurdles in its way)
2. What is Adaptive Learning?
3. An ed tech challenge: Teachers can put homework online, but will they?

Without further ado, here’s this week’s list:

1. Can You Really Go To Law School?

Ann Levine’s post in US News is a reality check for those applying to law school.  Important tip: Make sure you get your LSAT prep done and score well!

2. Yoo Comes Under Fire (Again) at Berkeley Law

You can always count on UC Berkeley to start the law school year off in a big way.  This article from the Wall Street Journal explains that protesters gathered to call for Yoo’s ousting because of his policies on torture.

3. “A Big Ponzi Scheme”: More on the Ire Directed Toward Law Schools

This Wall Street Journal blog post discusses how some law school students are equating their education to a scheme, while schools explain that other options aside from working at law firms are possibilities for post-law school employment.

4. Stanford Law School Reaches for Yale’s Crown

Stanford wants to dethrone Yale’s top spot as the #1 law school in America.  By snagging Yale Law professor, John Donahue, can Stanford take the honors?

5. Young Lawyers Turn to Public Service

A win-win situation: making the best of the recession with volunteer and non-profit opportunities before joining law firms.  This article from the New York Times sheds light on how some law school students are embracing a wide array of public interest options that they may have never considered before.

6. Unemployed JD

Will a hunger strike to protest being unemployed after law school get you a job?  Featured in the Huffington Post, this article explains how protester Ethan Haines is hoping that law schools will become more honest about graduate employment numbers in the future.

7.  Law School Admissions Timeline

This US News piece is a must-have for everyone applying to law school this year.  Timing is everything and planning ahead will make your law school application process go as smoothly as possible.

8. Is Law School A Wise Investment?

This piece from the National Jurist discusses if law school is worth the cost these days.  Is the solution fewer law schools or decreasing tuition?  Read more to find out.

9.  The Summer Before Your First Year of Law School

Gearing up for law school?  Here’s a list from About.com to help you assuage those pre-1L jitters.  Make sure you’re armed and ready with a sound laptop and all of the books you need for your first classes.

10. Orientation Under Way for UMass Law School’s First Class

Read more at The Herald News about how and why several students chose to become part of the inaugural class at UMass School of Law – Dartmouth.

Be sure to follow KnewtonLSAT on Twitter for more updates in the law field!

Related posts:

1. MBA News Roundup from Knewton GMAT
2. MBA News Roundup from Knewton GMAT
3. Knewton Video: Intro to Law School and the LSAT (Part 1)

Jonathan A. Bethune is a Content Developer for Knewton’s GMAT prep course.

So you’ve perfected your application, done 50+ internships, put together a dazzling essay, and scored a 900 on the GMAT. Fantastic. But what awaits you in the world of business once you get your MBA? You can only learn so much from watching The Office after all. To help you guys out, I have amassed a list of ten classic business movies.

Without further ado, the must-see list:

1. Office Space

This classic office comedy ought to be required viewing at all business schools. Nothing cures possessed copy machine-induced stress or a bad case of the Mondays faster than watching Peter spar with his dull and annoying bosses.

2. Wall Street

An iconic 80’s film about greed and morality. Michael Douglas is fantastic as Gordon Gekko, the apostle of the “greed is good” ideology. He may be on to something in terms of economic theory, though the SEC may not be so understanding, as the film depicts.

3. Working Girl

Harrison Ford and Sygourney Weaver are fantastic in this thoroughly enjoyable romantic comedy. Melanie Griffith teaches us a valuable lesson as Tess the precocious administrative assistant: Never take your secretary for granted.

4. Network

A 70’s masterpiece about the business of the media. It took home four Academy Awards and gave us the catchphrase “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Uncannily prescient and brilliantly acted, this is one that stays with you.

5. Gung Ho

This 1986 comedy stars Michael Keaton as a foreman at an American car factory that gets taken over by a Japanese manufacturer. Consider it a hilarious lesson on labor management and the importance of understanding different cultures.

6.  The Hudsucker Proxy

The Coen brothers, Tim Robbins, and Paul Newman come together for a good old fashioned screwball comedy. It’s a funny flick that demonstrates the importance of looking for innovators in all levels of a company.

7. The Aviator

A tale of entrepreneurship and obsession, the life of Howard Hughes should be of interest to any future mogul. Trailblazers in the communication and transportation industries have often had to content with opportunistic politicians. Though Hughes does admirably well, you might not want to copy some of his lifestyle choices.

8. Other People’s Money

Danny DeVito shines as “Larry the Liquidator” in this smart, early 90’s drama. In this story we see a conflict as old as time itself: Love, or money? Which would you choose?

9. Boiler Room

Similar to Wall Street in theme, this 2000 drama uses the stock game to teach a valuable business lesson: Always be skeptical of deals that seem too good to be true. Giovanni Ribisi is great as a talented rookie broker.

10. Glengarry Glen Ross

Based on an excellent play by David Mamet, this Hollywood take features an all-star cast that includes, Ed Harris, Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, and Jonathan Pryce. Required viewing for people looking to get into the real estate game.

Honorable Mentions: Antitrust, Jerry Maguire, Erin Brokovich, Trading Places, Michael Clayton, The Insider, Barbarians at the Gate, Pirates of Silicon Valley, The Pursuit of Happyness

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2. Business-like approach to GMAT Math, Part Deux
3. Business School Celebs

…Will they “like” what they see?

Meghan Daniels is the Associate Editor at Knewton.

In a strange way, applying to law school is a little like being accused of a crime.

Admissions committees will scrutinize your past actions, future intentions, and ulterior motives as rigorously as any jury or judge. Your recommenders will be called to vouch for you like witnesses on the stand. And much like any good prosecutor, the admissions representatives at Competitive Dream Law School X will do everything in their power to ensure that no “guilty” (read: undeserving) party gains admission to their esteemed institution.

Let me guess what you’re thinking: But I’ve already written a killer application essay. My undergrad grades are top-notch. I annihilated the LSAT. What could go wrong? It’s all up to fate now.

Not quite:

Even if you have the perfect application package (and if so—congratulations are in order), try thinking like your future defense-attorney self. This isn’t the 19th century; gone is the age of “hospitality” and “manners,” when people welcomed perfect strangers into their homes for cookies and tea. This is the Internet age, the era of disconnection and disaffection, and law enthusiasts are savvy enough not to take things at face value.

So if your personal statement gushes about a year spent volunteering at countless Russian orphanages, don’t expect the admissions committee at Competitive Dream Law School X to automatically believe you. On the contrary, expect them to scour your Facebook pictures for pictures of you frolicking with the kids. And if instead, they find evidence of you downing shots of Petrov with Russian submarine captains—expect to kiss your almost-spot at Competitive Dream Law School X goodbye.

It’s an extreme example, yes, but you can guess where we’re going with this. Today’s law school professors, administrators, and admissions representatives aren’t Luddites. In fact, most of them are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google aficionados—or at least have the know-how to use social networking tools to their advantage. With a click of the mouse, admissions committees can unearth unsavory biographical details and blurry late-night party shots they’d never have had access to a decade ago.

So, unless you want the Dean of Harvard Law to see you doing keg-stands on the quad—clean up your online footprint!

“We are constantly Googling, Facebooking, and searching Blogger.com and other sites for applicants,” says Karen DeMeola, an admissions officer at the University of Connecticut Law School. It’s a good idea to search for yourself in various online forums. DeMeola’s advice: “Untag yourself from all those ‘every day is St. Patrick’s Day’ photos.”

And certainly don’t give schools a reason to muckrake. “We don’t research students as a rule,” says Nate Kenyon, Director of Marketing and Communications at Boston Law School, “but if there was cause for concern… we would look around.” So, “be professional, be patient, and be respectful” in your correspondence, Kenyon advises. “Technology allows for communication with admissions to be easier and faster, but it can cause problems if a prospective student is aggressive or persistent, firing off an email without thinking.” One Temple University admissions officer recalls coming across an email that addressed the Director of Admission as, simply, “Hey!” An amateur move like that might not be the end of the world—but it definitely won’t tip the scales in your favor.

Lawyers are expected to exude professionalism; you might as well begin now. If your current email address is sumbooty@email.com or angelcutiehoneyXO@wahoo.com, change it. Extricate yourself from embarrassing blogs or picture-sharing sites. Keep in mind that law school applications are designed to reveal more about you than undergraduate applications. Law schools are scouring applications for the best possible future lawyers—i.e. they’re looking not only for people with high GPAs and LSAT scores, but also for people with solid character traits and enough common sense to moderate a responsible, professional social presence.

Fortunately for all of us, though, technology isn’t all doom and gloom. Online social networks have also opened up new opportunities for communication and control. Many law schools have vibrant Facebook communities that applicants can “visit” for a first-hand view into the content and tone of conversations on-campus. Elizabeth Schmalz, Director of Communications at Columbia Law School, notes that the Columbia Facebook page “is pretty active. It’s a community-building space for us, aimed primarily at our alumni. But it also offers a way for people to drop in on the Columbia law community and start to make their own connections, especially since it’s not always easy to people to get here.”

Be careful not to cause too much of a stir on law-school forums or Facebook communities, though. In fact, it’s probably best to “lurk”—at least until you’ve gained one of the coveted first-year spots at Competitive Dream Law School X. After all, you never know how your comments—no matter how seemingly uncontroversial—might be interpreted.

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