Admissions offices at the country’s colleges and universities are checking out applicants’ social media profiles more and more—and applicants know it. Which might help explain why those profiles seem so much cleaner than they once did.

According to a poll by The New York Times, 35 percent of undergraduate admissions officers have checked out an applicant’s social media footprint—up 9 percent from 2012—but only 16 percent of those same officers found anything that would hurt applications—down 35 percent from two years ago.

Experts say applicants are getting wiser about not posting incriminating missives or pictures to Facebook or Twitter, but they’re also gravitating to harder-to-track outlets, such as Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and YikYak.

“Students are quickly moving from one medium to another trying to get away from the grasp of adults,” says Jody Jennings, co-director of college counseling at Charlotte (N.C.) Latin School. (New York Times)

Paul Asay has written for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for PluggedIn and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He recently collaborated with Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, on his book The Good Dad. He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and his two children. Check out his entertainment blog at Patheos.com/blogs/WatchingGod or follow him on Twitter.