IT GOES ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD. People who read your permanent record, such as university admissions officers, don't necessarily have time to read all of it.

At the University of Notre Dame, which received 14,000 applications for 1,985 slots last year, assistant provost for enrollment Dan Saracino said he and his staff "don't go out of our way" to scrutinize students online, but sometimes they come across candidates portraying themselves in a less-than-flattering light.

"It's typically inappropriate photos—like holding up a can of beer at a party," Saracino said.

"We try to turn it into a teaching moment," he said. "It's an opportunity to let students know that what they put on these sites is not just between you and your friends, but you and the world."

On the other hand, using the Internet to vet someone's character seems overly intrusive to Northwestern University's Christopher Watson.

"We consider Facebook and MySpace their personal space," the dean of undergraduate admissions said. "It would feel somewhat like an invasion of privacy."

That sentiment was seconded by the University of Chicago's dean of admissions, Ted O'Neill, who was surprised by the survey's results.

"We don't have a policy not to look, we just don't look," he said. "Despite the fact that these things are semipublic . . . I don't think we should be spying on things that aren't intended for us."

The article suggests that when admissions officers elsewhere are looking for a reason to say no, those transgressive pages might provide the reason.