EL PASO, Texas -- Troy Quezada is a senior at Franklin High School, and has applied to a lot of colleges for next year.

"The University of Texas at Austin, UTEP, University of San Diego, Northwestern University, St. Mary's, University of the Incarnate Word, Our Lady of the Lake, University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University, haha," Quezada said.

Each of those applications took some time and work.

"Mostly essays on all of them and then there’s application fees and then there’s also recommendations for most of them," Quezada said.

There may be one other thing, however, Quezada provided to the colleges without even knowing it; his Facebook and MySpace accounts.

In a study just released of 500 top colleges, 10 percent of admission officers admit that they look at applicants’ MySpace and Facebook profiles.

Nearly a quarter of those page views affect their admission decisions negatively.

Learning Quezada may be being spied on, so to speak, frustrates him.

"I don't think that’s right just because you put a lot of stuff on there that’s just [put up as a joke]," Quezada said.

While Quezada may not have too much dirt on his pages, others do.

"They expect no one to read to it, and so there is cuss words and in some of the pictures there are pictures of people going to parties. Some of the girls take pictures of themselves in a bikini," Quezada said.

All of those things may be part of a decision that effects the rest of his life.

"To be looking at things that are made in the privacy of one’s own home and basing your decision on that, is kind of ridiculous," Quezada said.