I have been off FB personally for a few years but did join several existing parent pages for my DS top schools. Very eye-opening what the parents discuss. At one school, there was lots of discussion about mental health, failing classes, theft and bullying. It’s obviously a snippet of the overall picture, but when another school page is all about sending birthday balloons, auto repair suggestions and ride-sharing options, it can provide just more info that’s not in the brochure or on the tour.
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Tell me if I am crazy here for taking a school off the list just for the following reason alone!
S23 applied to a school EA. I saw decisions went out but he didn’t receive anything. I thought maybe a rejection. Check the portal after a week or so. No decision. But I noticed something odd. When I go into his “Warriors Admissions Portal” theres a different name, birthday, everything.
Lets say my sons name is Joe Morgan and he applied for Voice. His admissions portal however said Welcome Joe Smith with a different birthday. Theres an email link to connect to music school audition and when clicked, it brings up a prefilled form for Jack Smith for Piano.
Email goes out to admissions counselor. Check back in a few days.
His Admissions Portal now says Joe Anderson, with yet a different birthday. When click on the music school link it takes us to a prefilled form for Jessica Anderson for Bassoon.
I myself called admissions office Monday. They verified that my sons info was incorrect and they are perplexed to how this happened as they have never seen it before.
Its 2 days later and now my son gets an email saying they never got his music audition uploads so its basically a no. I emailed out yet again.
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lol, this does not inspire confidence in me that the rest of the administration is any more efficient. I would envision years of wrangling ahead and yeah, short of a really good chance at an amazing scholarship, I would probably cut it from the list.
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He was awarded Tuition Exchange there but only set rate and its still one of the pricier ones on the list. Its just so frustrating!
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No reason to eliminate IMHO. Admissions is not the school or I should say the school experience.
I always wonder though - they are the sales arm of the school - so you’d think they’d have it right.
I could see a concern of - will his identiy get stolen one day for their carelessness. Maybe - but it’s likely at any school you attend. I think I get the monthly - someone stole your data letter- but don’t worry - we don’t think anything important was taken.
I would ensure he is in though - I’d want to see it and wouldn’t eliminate others yet if this is his top choice - in case he’s actually not in.
It happens and it’s not a good look - but I don’t think you can crucify an entire school for it. I wouldn’t anyway - he applied for a reason and if his research bore out this is a good program for him, then I’d go with that!!
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Facebook groups: I’m on Facebook, and joined the FB parents groups for my two older kids, but only once they’d committed to those colleges—I didn’t join in anticipation of them maybe choosing a place, I have enough going on in my social media life without adding that much. Their colleges are very different (a LAC and a state co-flagship), and as one might expect, the tone of those groups is quite different. (And yep, your stereotypes are correct—the LAC parents group kind of drips entitlement at times. I mean, so does the other, but not nearly as much.) I will join my younger kids’ parent groups as they enroll wherever they go, and I plan to sign off of each of them as my kids graduate.
Acceptance update: D23 got a yes from San Francisco State yesterday, so that makes her 8/8. That 100% isn’t surprising given that none of the places she applied to were terribly highly selective, but it’s still nice to have—though D23 doesn’t really want anyone we know to hear that she was 8/8, because she’s embarrassed that she applied to that many places.
Likely outcomes: The last two acceptances (San José State and San Francisco State) were to places we’re highly unlikely to see any merit aid from, but that were our financial fallbacks—that is, at full pay they cost more than we’d like but they’d both be workable. However, Colorado Denver and North Texas both offered aid that make them markedly cheaper than those (or any of the others), and so it’ll definitely be one of those—and more and more likely North Texas. Either way, though, we will have a final answer in two weeks.
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Hmmm - 8 isn’t a lot 
You can tell her.
Congrats to her - I hope she finds a winning experience at the one she chooses.
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Nope. They have no control over their data. Besides the hideous disorganization, it is a security risk.
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I did the same. One school kind of went off our list because of it. The assaults, mental health issues, deaths, campus/dorm destruction was too much. Even worse was the way those posts were quickly shut down, scrubbed and deleted by the admins. Didn’t leave a trusting feeling.
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I get it. We almost didn’t send our kids to their private high school because the admissions office was so non responsive and disorganized. But the kids love their school and we love everything about it too, except the admissions office!
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I joined the UChicago Parent FB group for S21 and it is very well run and has been very helpful. The moderation is tight which helps keep the discussion on helpful topics and not devolve into constant griping or too Off-Topic. I was also on the Duke Parents page for a spell and found that to be pretty helpful.
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I would be interested to hear her reasons on why she would be embarrassed that she applied to so many schools.
Even though I am the end of this college app journey with my kids I have decided my new thought process is “Everyone’s situation is different” as the reasoning why kids/parents make the decisions along the way.
I had one kid apply to 17 schools. She got in all but 2. She kinda like applying to schools and we were looking for merit$. My other kid is going to go to a state directional school partially because she got a full ride. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse. Now for some other families merit isn’t as important and the kids might apply to 4-6 schools. They know where they want to go. Maybe Mom or Dad when to the school. Some families don’t want their children too far away. There might be a a couple of great schools people know about but they are too far. There might be a high stats kid that even with aid and everything just can’t make it work and ends up a community college for a year or two.
In two months time I will be sitting in a banquet hall eating bad chicken where they will be honoring the top 10% of the graduating class. Kids will be announced one by one and where they are going to school will be announced. When schools that are not close or ones that are different are announced I will take note.
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I will be sitting in a banquet hall, eating very small packets of cheap snacks bought at a high cost from the snack table. Bad chicken would be an upgrade 
In our case, they will be honoring all the graduating youth orchestra musicians and announcing where they are going to school and intended major. If it is anything like last year, I expect a lot of students will be announced as attending fancy private schools with a major in neuroscience or biomedical engineering or some other highly specialized but vaguely pre-med major, or maybe computer science… plus a double (music) major on their instrument. The school plans for these students were all rather similar sounding last year. My son is not sure how he feels about having his relatively modest plans announced in this context.
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I’m sorry to hear that happened!
I’d probably rule the school out if this portal would also contain his grades one day. Maybe they will confuse him with Jeremy Anderson who flunked out and they “never “ got grades to show your son graduated…
Could be a nightmare—or not—for years to come when transcripts are needed.
If the portal is only for admissions, then probably not a dealbreaker.
The admissions portal is typically a separate software application (I’m unaware of any such software that also doubles up as a schedule and grades manager). In any case, I think the issue here is really the admissions office’s utter incompetence rather than a software issue.
Sorry to hear about the challenges you faced with this school @2plustrio. Even though the admissions office is separate from the rest of the school, such incompetence would give me pause. It speaks to the quality of administrative staff they hire, and that may affect enrolled students in other areas.
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Rutgers honors invitations are up in the portal. Son got invited to Honors College!
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Yikes! 1st period BAO did not do that two years ago, and I don’t blame you for being wary about what that will be like. 
Or maybe they did and I don’t remember? It was over Zoom.
Oh no, BAO is not like that at all! I’m talking about YPSO 
D26 goes to SFCM pre college, it’s even more extreme that way… they have college admission seminars for parents of the pre college kids, to teach you how to squeeze maximum value out of the music EC 
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What’s sad about all these are the kids going to the military, comm college or no college. They have bright futures as well. But our school was no different.
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My D will be going to the US Air Force Academy, which is not a common college path in our area. I’m sure many people will think she’s enlisting.
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