Hi! From a search, I see that this has come up in 2013, and 2008, but it certainly seems time for a revisit.
I joined a “Parents of XXX University, Class of 2023” facebook group back a few months ago. It has around 500 members and a lot of active discussion, by parents. Yesterday, one of the other moms realized that the creator of the group, “College Parents” seems to be nothing more than an entity set up to host groups like this, and the one other admin is an online marketer, not a parent, no apparent ties to the college. Some questioning posts were quickly deleted and the questioners booted from the group.
Just thought I would post a warning to do a little diligence on college groups that you or your student may join. I personally don’t like the idea of joining a “parent group”, or any group, that is set up by marketers only…and selling t shirts and who knows doing what else with the membership information and posts.
We have since set up our own parent group, and the college itself said they do not monitor or manage outside Facebook groups.
As an aside, it looks as if the student Facebook group at this same college, has a creator by a similar entity, “University/College”, but it at least has a couple of (real) student moderators. Still though…it seems quite disingenious for marketing entities to be starting and running all of these college groups. I don’t think I can take on and try to migrate a group with thousands so I’ll have to let the student one go, but please beware, and if this concerns you, check your own college Facebook groups.