Silly newbie question here–are parent FB groups for colleges for those who have been accepted or only those whose kids have already committed to a school? DS has narrowed his options to 2, so I wasn’t sure if it would make sense to join them. Our campus visits aren’t until next week and the week after, so I am anxious for information!
Most parent FB groups are private and only for parents of kids who have committed to the school. They will ask you questions and won’t admit you otherwise.
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I joined two Facebook groups for schools that my S has been accepted to but has not yet committed to.
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Same, they are a great resource for asking questions and getting a feel of the student body. Many schools have two groups–one for the class of 2025 and one for all years. I find the latter to be more helpful in terms of getting questions answered. Some groups will mark you as “previewing” rather than as a member if your child has not yet committed.
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This is not what I have found. They seem to accept you if your child is admitted and not yet committed. But I have also found that they vary wildly in how active the parent members are.
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Georgetown was one of those schools I was 100% sure would accept my son. Didn’t happen and I appreciate the fact that he got flat out rejected instead of waitlisted. It was certainly a surprise, although at this point it doesn’t really matter. He did submit all his scores. You really never know…
Just curious, why would you be 100% certain of a Georgetown acceptance when they are so competitive to get into?
I’m in a parent group that is for accepted students; they said the group will close in May and those that have kids who have committed will transfer to the other parent page for current students.
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She applied to Vanderbilt. But she is more interested in West Coast or East coast schools, so not interested as much. But who knows what is going to open with those other schools. But I think she is more excited about Georgetown than Vanderbilt. Anyway Vandy is very difficult to get into. Good luck to your child for Vandy.
Just a feeling, really. Of all the schools to which he’s applied, it seemed like a perfect fit. Of course I am also taking into consideration his scores and school achievements. On Naviance, it shows as a match, but obviously that’s not the only reason. I never thought he would be accepted to Emory, for example, yet he was. It was sort of unexpected, even though it wasn’t his first choice. Maybe he didn’t put enough effort into his application.
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Yes, that part I can understand. I’ve now read a few blogs/articles the last few days about waitlists and when they call you and ask if you’re still interested, etc. Tbh, I hope it’s a non issue but if it is, I guess we will deal with it. Just over 1 more week of this initial madness.
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I think Georgetown may be harder to get into than Emory, especially since Emory offers kids that Oxford campus nowadays. You may have just underestimated what Naviance showed but also in this year with applications being way up everywhere, the competition is much stiffer. Hard really to predict anything this year. In a normal year, one of the schools my son got into we’d have expected a reject, and one he was waitlisted also possibly a reject. Although maybe his application is much better than I think and that’s why he was accepted/WL and would’ve been accepted in a normal year. Who knows? I can only think about this year and know even if he falls in the range of all accepted students for every college, which he does, his chances of getting into Harvard, Yale,Stanford, or MIT if he had applied would have been way less than what Naviance showed but that is the problem we all face this year. No one knows and the TO applicants and unknown international situation and financials for people, just really mess with all of us. Not sure I want to, but I do wonder what history will show when this is all over about this application cycle, number of colleges applied to and waitlists, etc.
Also @skkm0906 I’m with you about the deferral process. It seems very unnecessary, or at least unfair to some of these kids who get hopes up and just wait and wait and wait. I know a few kids who were deferred from some of these schools and now are waitlisted. I think a rejection would be better than that just for closure but to drag it on? My son was deferred from his ED school and its one that they don’t defer a lot in his program, so he is stuck waiting until next week, but in the interim we still have to talk and plan and consider other schools. Then when/if not accepted next week, the pressure is really on for him to make a decision as well as decide how he wants to pursue any of the waitlists he is currently on. I definitely need some calgon.
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It completely depends on the school. My D only applied to SLACs. I tried to join FB groups for 4 colleges after she had been accepted. Only 2 of the schools would let me join before she had enrolled. They were quite lively and informative. She ended up enrolling at a different school whose parent board is fairly quiet and pretty tightly controlled by a college administrator.
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Yes, makes sense. I don’t want to sound like one of those stuck-up parents, but Georgetown was never his goal and they probably sensed it. It’s all good. He poured his heart into his ED just to get deferred, but was accepted to UChicago RD. Those were his top choices, so he’s happy and we are grateful. He only applied to 13 schools (if you can call that ‘only’…lol) and so far has been rejected by two, accepted to 6. And I agree, this year’s unpredictability just made the whole process extremely frustrating. As if the kids haven’t already been through so much in their senior year, now they have to face the uncertainty of the waitlists. Best wishes for all those waitlisted. 
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UChicago > Georgetown but once you get in there, I guess maybe that also makes it seem like a shock to be rejected from G-town.
“Only 13 schools” I get it. Mine also “only” 13. I think he got nervous when he was deferred by his ED and wasn’t going to hear from any of his EA before the January deadlines so he scrambled to apply to more. He’s sitting on acceptances and waitlists but I think the rejections are about to come so I hope he’s ready since he hasn’t had to face them yet. lol
It’s the ones that have applied to 20 schools that will really shake things up, especially some of those that have been accepted to most of them. That is where shifting will start and as others have mentioned VT has already begun taking kids off their waitlist which is interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised if after next Tuesday we start to see some immediate movement as some kids quickly commit to their first choices if admitted to an Ivy. I think we would’ve seen it sooner if not for the extension of notification dates by the Ivies, Duke and Stanford all next week. Not sure if those are the last of the big ones or not, but it’ll be a busy week for sure.
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Same here. I joined three FB parents groups for schools my son is still deciding between. One of the schools actually sent out an email with an invitation to join. I’ve found a lot of valuable information in these groups, from what is currently going on on campus, esp in light of Covid, to seeing questions from 2021 parents where the answers provided some great insight from parents of current and prospective students.
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Do you think more kids will wait until closer to May 1st / 3rd to deposit this year since many haven’t seen campuses so may have a harder time deciding?
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I sure hope not. One would think as kids visit schools and have gone and seen 2, they can eliminate one school for every new one they visit. Even if they keep 2 on their plate at one time and see a third then drop that one. No reason to sit with 8 openings and then on April 30 compare and decide. You kind of get a sense right away if you like something or see yourself there especially once you visit. Mine knew he didn’t like Wash U the minute he stepped on campus and even though he could never really articulate why he just knew it wasn’t for him.
The problem though with waiting so long, AP Tests, End of School stuff, mine plays a sport so that competes M-Sa, it’s just all never ending. I think there’s only one he’s waiting for he hasn’t seen in person, but of his waitlist schools 2 he hasn’t seen.
Except you can’t visit them. At least that’s our experience. So you are just asking lots of people for second hand info. And she didn’t see any of them ahead of time either as campuses have been closed for over a year as well travel discouraged.
I’m still struggling with them not seeing the waitlist schools - on the one hand, doesn’t make sense to fly across the country for a waitlist when there aren’t even tours available; on the other hand, there will be a tight turnaround for that response, probably need to decide without seeing. As it is, I’m trying to figure out how they can visit the one or two they’re deciding between during the next 3-4 wks, if the in-person admitted student tours are not all booked.
I do think that Ivy day being pushed back will have an impact on waitlist timing. Dang.
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Out all the schools my son applied to, only UTD has an open parent group that anyone can join before being admitted or committing to attend. The rest all required the student to have been accepted which they checked. For Texas Tech parent facebook groups, you have to actually be a paid member of their parent association before you can access the facebook group.