Yup. As far as I can remember. Same for D who graduated HS in 2016 and me, who graduated HS in 197!!!
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Last year was particularly rough (you can read about it on the Parent of 2021 page if it wonāt stress you out too much!) because many schools released decisions late and people didnāt know if they could even get on campus in April for visits (many were still closed). And Admitted Student Days were mostly canceled. You may want to look at your list and keep a look out if any of the schools are holding Admitted Student Days this year and whether you could work any of those in.
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What have they done?
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I asked this elsewhere, but have no responses. I wonder if someone here has any thoughts.
My son needs to send in an update to a college that asks for information about curriculum changes. He has not changed his class schedule at all and his grades are still good. But, should he include something that caused a significant, but negative, change in his academic experience this year? The syllabus has changed significantly for all his classes. His IB and AP testing will be affected by it as well. He is an IB diploma candidate, and has that on his applications. It is not covid related. Or since his grades are not affected and he isnāt dropping or changing a class, should he just leave that information out?
I think this is hard for anyone to answer helpfully without knowing what the change is ā I am struggling to think of an example that would negatively impact the syllabus of every class and testing, unless the language of instruction were changed or something?
At any rate, I always thought the purpose of midyear updates was to notify schools of changes that would affect their admission decision ā like a significant drop in grades or switch to a much less rigorous schedule than earlier reported. If the change is something that could make a college rethink its admission decision, report it; otherwise, donāt.
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Unless your student feels this way, I would not put too much weight on the tone and complaining in the parent FB group. My current college student is shocked at times when I share āinformationā from the parent FB group with him. I find the parent FB group to contain lots of valuable information, but at times it is just a bunch of complainers complaining.
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Agree with @NJPianoman re not to put too much weight on Parent Pages: Our D21ās Parent FB group has some reasonable complaints and concerns, as well as lots of support of fellow parents, but also has a high percentage of what seem to be described as major issues but yet arenāt when I check in with students. For example, there were many class registration parent concerns this summer(how to get on a waitlist, what science class to pick, why are the Engineering sections all full), so I checked in with D and she revealed that students had received multiple detailed emails on what to do for every possible class-registration hiccup, and how full but necessary classes would have sections added later in the summer based on needs. It was a lot of drama over issues that the students had already been told how to navigate. At one point there was concern about radiators for heat in the dorms and how the students would know not to touch them or put meltable things on them. Now, to me this seemed fairly common sense that students could figure out on their own, but due to the parent concern I checked in with D to ask if anyone she knew had stress about radiatorsā¦she replied they had received information on common sense radiator tips much earlier in the semester and burst out laughing at the suggestion any student needed help with this. I think some parents micromanage their students for years and then when they go off to University and the parent no longer has the information to micromanage, it is difficult and the parent page is where the angst is aired.
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Seriously? There are parents who worried about their kids ability to manage radiators? That is mind blowing. Of course, witnessing the parent micro managing/snow plowing through the years I guess nothing should surprise me. Iām also shocked that the school would need to provide ātipsā on something like that.
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Also agreed to not put too much weight on the Parent pages, especially now where some of those high anxiety parents may end up having kids that choose somewhere else.
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People insult each other, the school, the professors, the state government, etc. Many posts seem to be deliberately inflammatory instead of balanced discussion. Itās just exactly the type of FB group Iāve avoided ā things escalate into name-calling, all-caps rants with 5 exclamation points after every sentence. It gets nasty over and over, and itās disappointing to see. The other parent groups are not like this, so itās giving me pause!
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I think itās fair for it to give you pause. D21 had two schools she was considering where the parent FB pages showed a lot of problems that the schools swept under the rug and a prospective family would not have known about those.
That being said, you need to be judicious in your assessment. Read a lot of the page going back into last year or even the year before. Youāll get a sense if the problems are real or if itās just a handful of parents who complain. I will say that S19ās schoolās FB page and D21ās have a completely different flavor and I definitely like one better than the other. Also, sometimes they are run by the college and sometimes by a parent and the college isnāt officially part of the page at all. Be aware of that.
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My kids arenāt on FB, so my daughter would never know. Iāve been looking at these groups for helpful info but this schoolās parent group devolves into rants instead. Itās different enough that Iāve noticed it.
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Of course.
I donāt know that I would judge an entire student body by the actions of a few nutty parents on social media. I know plenty of wonderful people whose parents happen to be jerks. Get two of those jerks in n the same āroomā and anything can happen. 
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Definitely not judging an entire student body by a parentsā FB group. But I am noticing a difference between the schoolsā groups and the way people talk to each other. Itās something Iām keeping in mind.
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Sounds terrible!
Very happy I never signed up for a Facebook account 
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Thatās fair. Our kidsā FB pages definitely reflect the vibe of their schools. Maybe itās more important for smaller schools. They are both at LACs.
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Iāve been in the Rose-Hulman parents group on FB for a few months now. Talk about an endorsement for a school. That is the kindest, most supportive group Iāve ever seen. Parents with advice, insights, and a willingness to do things like give rides to kids they donāt even know when students are leaving from/returning to school. If someone has a question, thereās this swarm of warm support.
Iāve never been part of any other parent group, so I donāt have any basis for comparison. Eye-opening to read these descriptions of some other groups.
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Wow, thatās terrible. And this is for ADMITTED students!
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100% serious, and definitely not limited to certain schools. My friend has a kid at a much bigger state school and reports similar issues of parents wanting to micromanage and students already getting much more offers of handholding than we got 30 yrs ago. It is a very different time. I do not think most students need the handholdingāI get the feeling the parents want it /demand it.