The Hive: Innovative or Anxiety Inducing?

I got an email inviting me to join this new platform that UR calls the Hive which appears to be an institutional version of CC. They allow you to create a profile that lists your scores, classes, ECs and interests as well as other biographical information that you want to share with the university and prospective students are encouraged to give others feedback on their profiles and how they can improve them. They’re even given a search function to find other students based on major and class year so they can directly compare stats and activities. Apparently admissions will also be using the Hive as part of their decision process as the platform will supposedly allow students to share interesting things about themselves that can’t otherwise be conveyed in their application.

This might just be me but I don’t like this idea at all. It feels like taking the worst parts of CC chance threads and adding even more anxiety because applicants know that admissions is watching them. UR apparently intends this to allow applicants to connect before officially joining the class and help prospective students evaluate the fit of the school but imo all this is going to do is create a hostile environment before the class even enters because they’re aiding and even encouraging teenagers to directly compare themselves to others, rate their fellow applicants based on their own non-professional opinions which I can only see causing insecurity levels to skyrocket and giving them a direct link to the university through which they can practice their oneupsmanship. This is already such a stressful process I can’t help but feel that UR is making a mistake here as the only thing I can see happening with this new platform is that applicants will become even more hostile and competitive rather than collaborative and it’ll raise the general stress levels of all of the applicants. This might turn people away because it seems too cutthroat and like UR condones unabashed student vs student competition even among applicants. I like the idea of allowing prospective students to have a school sanctioned forum on which to interact but I think that the idea of having what essentially amounts to a giant chance me thread seems misguided to me. Instead I feel like they should’ve focused on allowing applicants to communicate in a more meaningful way that isn’t based on rating each other’s stats and ECs.

But what do you guys think? Good idea or not? Any future applicants who’ll have to deal with this want to weigh in here?

I also received the email and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I like the idea of a platform that allows prospective and current students to communicate with each other to get a better feel of the school. It has a lot of potential if done professionally, and can be used to connect people with similar interests, kind of like LinkedIn. However, the idea of “rating” other applicants seriously disturbs me (I think this is what they said would happen). Even CC, though an excellent source of information, can get pretty toxic when it comes to chance me threads. I can’t bear the thought of being “chanced” and compared to others throughout the entirety of my college experience.

I don’t know how it’s going to work. I’m pretty sure we’re the test year if enough of us end up signing up (I’m not going to unless its absolutely necessary). Are future applicants going to be required to use this?