Sounds of Silence? Prospective Students: Are You Ignoring College Tweets?

Applying to College
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<p>According to this excerpt, below, from an article in today's Chronicle of Higher Education, college admission officials have not been especially successful in their efforts to reach high school students via Twitter. A study cited in the story claims that Twitter is the purview of those in the 30-40 age range, not teens.</p>

<p>I don't fall into either of those age groups (unless you add them together ;)), which may explain why I don't get Twitter in the least. I can tolerate the similar "Status Updates" I see on Facebook, (although I prefer reading, "I'm a grandma!" to "Cleaning my toilets!") because they seem to be part of a greater, more informative whole. But I've now got barnacles growing on the Twitter account I opened a couple years ago when someone told me that it was a personal and professional imperative.</p>

<p>Many admission officers insist that it's just a matter of time before their Tweets to prospective students will be heard loud and clear, but I'm still skeptical.</p>

<p>Do you (high school students and your parents) plan to communicate with colleges via Twitter? Do you currently?</p>

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[quote]
Admission Officials' Tweets Fall on Deaf Ears</p>

<p>By Kelly Truong</p>

<p>Colleges are ramping up efforts to connect with prospective students through Twitter—but students aren’t interested, a new study says.</p>

<p>Evidence has shown that teenagers rely on college visits and Web sites to learn about colleges, rather than social-media outlets. When it comes to Twitter, students are barely on the site at all, let alone for college research purposes.</p>

<p>Abe Gruber, director of marketing at Bloomfield College, found in a recent study that while 40 percent of college admissions offices are active on Twitter, only 15 percent of prospective students expressed interest using in Twitter to learn about colleges.</p>

<p>Mr. Gruber surveyed 200 prospective freshmen and 70 admissions offices in his study, which is not available online. He presented his findings at the Hobsons Connect U conference this week in Minneapolis.</p>

<p>“Twitter scores high for the admissions officers, but not for students,” said Mr. Gruber.</p>

<p>He calls this disparity “the Twitter anomaly.” Most high-school students are not active on Twitter, he says, but college admissions officers typically fall into the 30-to-40 age demographic that Twitter attracts.</p>

<p>“They just hear this as a buzz word,” said Mr. Gruber. “They keep hearing more and more and thinking it’s the next big thing, when their prospective students aren’t really as involved as they think they are.”</p>

<p>According to the study, Twitter is the second most popular form of social media used by college admissions offices (trailing Facebook by 28 percentage points). Twitter is the most up-and-coming form of social media used by colleges, with 35 percent of admissions officials planning to start accounts in the next year ...

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<p>Trying to use Twitter to reach us is stupid…I don’t know how well it’s received among teenagers in general, but at my high school (which is almost entirely comprised of the sort of high-achieving student colleges are trying to reach) it’s pretty much a nonentity. Almost everything that Twitter can do is done better through a Facebook status update. I do know a few people who have them, but in all cases that was a compromise between their other friends saying “get a blog!” and the Twitter-owner saying “it’s too much work!” so they ended up with Twitters.</p>

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<p>My kids and their friends don’t use Twitter. Facebook is predicated on personal connections. Twitter seems predicated on shared interests, which is a whole different notion.</p>

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<p>That’s exactly what my 13-year-old son said to me about Twitter when I asked him once why he and his friends seem to have no interest in it. His response made perfect sense to me.</p>

<p>But he also said that he can’t see himself communicating with college admissions officials on Facebook either, when the time comes. Well, granted, he doesn’t have much patience for much of anything college-related at the moment (except perhaps for the buffets in the dining halls when I drag him along on my campus visits). He insists that he sees Facebook as being a social place and claims that connecting with college officials there would be an oil-and-water mix of business and pleasure. (However, he does concede that, once he finally picks a college, he could easily see himself checking out future classmates on FB.)</p>

<p>My son also noted that College Confidential provides “real” information about colleges that he wasn’t sure anyone could get on either Facebook or Twitter. I was actually quite surprised that he said that … didn’t think he was really paying attention.</p>

<p>Anyway, according to him, Twitter is O-U-T.</p>

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<p>I’m almost never on Twitters. And that is also the case with a lot of students at my large public, non high-achieving high school.</p>

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<p>I thought that Brandeis did a clever thing with twitter. My d and I had an info session and tour last spring. My d tweeted that she had a great visit at Brandeis and got an @reply from admissions saying they were glad she enjoyed the visit and look forward to her applying. She got a kick out of that. I guess the school monitors tweets with their name in the message and reply to relevant tweets. We both thought it was a clever way to reinforce the visit.</p>

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<p>Twitter is a very adult way of viewing the world, IMO.</p>

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<p>Twitter was made to stalk celebrities.</p>

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<p>Lol no one in my school uses twitter… but alot use Facebook.</p>

<p>I think it’s just better to go onto school admissions websites and email them if there are any questions.</p>

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<p>As an upcoming junior (16), I <em>loathe</em> Twitter. I don’t even understand the point, it’s just status updates. Every teenager has a facebook, even my grandmother. I love facebook and I go on it a lot. None of my friends use twitter and the people who do hardly go on it. </p>

<p>The majority of my friends want to go to Georgia Tech or UGA. There isn’t any need for them to research colleges out of state. There aren’t many people who go out of state here. If I need info I will go on the colleges website or CC. I will go on a college facebook group and read the discussions and see if they are my type of people. I don’t use facebook for college admissions other then that. But that is just me, not the normal teenager. I will say most kids my age still careless about college and the ones who do aren’t planning on going OOS.</p>

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<p>I don’t think I’ve met one person in my generation (I’m a current college student) who uses Twitter. The only people who ever seem to talk about it are people in the media and government officials. I’m not really sure why it caught on with those groups so much.</p>

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<p>I read an article about Millennials use of social networking sites a few months ago where some teens were quoted as saying “Twitter is for old people” or something like that. Which may not be all that flattering for s “old people”, but there ya go. I also would like to observe that the college students I know are less than enthusiastic about having “official” school business of any variety on their facebooks. It’s one thing if they socially network themselves (as in incoming freshmen groups, etc) but they don’t use FB to get info from official sources.</p>

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<p>My friend “tweets” her school. And they respond to her questions faster than email. So hey, if it works than so be it :/. Personally I doubt I would use it for that.</p>

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<p>I can’t imagine anyone at my school using Twitter to check out colleges. Facebook would probably be out too.</p>

<p>It’s funny that your thirteen year old son knows about collegeconfidential…</p>

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<p>I’ve had a Twitter for a couple of years, but have never followed any colleges. If I were to follow a college, I would not let them follow me back because then they would have access to my tweets and possibly use them against me if I were to apply. That’s the same reason why I don’t follow colleges on Facebook. If I want information or the latest updates, then I’ll visit the college’s website and get on their email list.</p>

<p>I don’t think other students would use Twitter to communicate with colleges mostly because a lot of high school students don’t have Twitters. Facebook definitely dominates social networking. I have a small group of close friends who use Twitter and we follow each other. In my case, the reason I have a twitter is because (1) it is a place where I can rant and talk about things that would not interest the majority of my Facebook friends and (2) to follow bands and get my music updates since it’s a lot less cluttered than Myspace.</p>

<p>And I’ll also add, that for me Facebook and Twitter connect me to friends and things that interest me. Facebook and Twitter are casual. Does a group of engineers discuss their status on a project via tweeting or status updating? No. They use email (if not in person) to communicate. Email is much more professional and in my opinion, college is a matter that should be dealt with in a professional manner as well.</p>

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<p>I very much enjoy Twitter, but I would not tweet about universities. I don’t say anything on my Twitter account indicating which school I attend, and if I apply to grad school I wouldn’t be tweeting about that either. I like to tweet about news, sports, TV, that sort of widely shared experience. it’s too public to be used for the kind of conversation I’d want to have with a university.</p>

<p>I do know someone who tweeted about choosing a college and then received a response from the admissions office. when I heard about it I thought that was pretty cool. if either party tried to engage in a further conversation though, that might have been pushing it from a novel experience to something a bit annoying…</p>

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<p>I never understood why anyone would bother writing, or reading, about the daily petty grind. The only part that makes sense is that you can only write each posting in 120 characters. I mean, why would anyone care that, “you’re in CVS, buying milk now” unless you had a following or a milk fetish?</p>

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<p>I use to be skeptical about tweeting and its purpose but I signed up regardless. It’s a lot different than updating status etc, and around my area it’s pretty popular. Anyways, I’m not here to discuss the advantages/disadvantages of using twitter or tweeting.</p>

<p>One day I logged onto my account and noticed I had a new follower. It was a recent university I just had been accepted to, and they left me a tweet. It went something along the lines of: “Congratulations on your acceptance. Welcome :)”. Nevertheless I was really puzzled and at first I did not know how to react. It felt awkward to think this university “followed” me and could see my tweets and statuses. I necessarily wasn’t hiding anything but it just made me think twice before I posted anything.</p>

<p>After I investigated their account I came to the conclusion that students had to be running this twitter account. They seemed to response to questions or concerns as others here have stated. I figured these must be students working in the admissions office because I highly doubt an adcom would really use an emoticon. Haha.</p>

<p>I ended up blocking the university (I didn’t attend their institution) just because the fact I felt this was an invasion of my personal space. To me they took it a little too far because once you start getting involved in Facebook and Twitter it’s more of a personal aspect and I sense students value that and just simply wouldn’t want to share that space with their prospective schools.</p>

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<p>A study found that only 10 to 15% of teens use twitter and then only a small fraction of those users would use twitter to find info on colleges.</p>

<p>Dunno why colleges would want to twitter.</p>

<p>[Social</a> Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults - Pew Research Center](<a href=“http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1484/social-media-mobile-internet-use-teens-millennials-fewer-blog]Social”>http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1484/social-media-mobile-internet-use-teens-millennials-fewer-blog)</p>

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<p>Twitter isn’t really designed for the typical teenager – it’s more for discussion with people you don’t know. </p>

<p>That said, I’d find it a little weird if a college started following me.</p>