What brought you to College Confidential?

[Singersmom07]

As my name implies I came in 2007 to figure out the whole application process for our vocal performance major since it is so different from straight forward applications. A friend recommended it as an invaluable resource. I received so much great help that I stayed around on the music majors forum for several years. Now I hang out here for all the great non-college related info.

[cinnamon1212]

Joined in 2019, to participate in the Athletic Recruiting forum, about 18 months before my son committed. Found it was super valuable; then discovered the Boarding School forum, and yhe Learning Disabilities one (this has kind of died on the vine btw).

I remember the first few times I read CC – i was put off by the (perceived) hypercompetitive, and hyperanxious posters. But now it’s my favorite place to visit. I stay because this is an educated, intelligent, nice group of people around my age.

[FlyMeToTheMoon]

My oldest daughter found this forum in 2007 or 2008, as she was searching for colleges she wanted to apply to. Eventually, I started lurking to become educated about the process.

[DeniseC]

Joined in 2005, I’m sure I lurked beforehand, to learn about the process for my oldest. Benefited from the group knowledge of merit scholarships and negotiation.

Recognized old college friends and children of college friends.

Stayed on for struggles with aging parents and many many other topics. Sometimes here is where I learn the breaking news of the day.

Once, nine? years ago, I was visiting my youngest for parents weekend. I used a computer in the lobby and was surprised to find college confidential open in the browser. I think @oldmom4896 was visiting her daughter at a nearby school.

[CountingDown]

A teacher and parent suggested my then-rising junior to look at Harvey Mudd. Googled and found HMC threads on CC, and arrived here. That was August of 2006. Didn’t hang out in the Parent Cafe much until I felt my knowledge base on schools, FA, etc. were getting outdated.

Still here, have met probably two dozen CCers by now, and am in contact with other former CCers through other forums.

[Vineyarder]

I joined in late June 2018, finding the site amid searches for information for my D19’s college process. I was immediately impressed with the quality of the conversations and the valuable knowledge imparted, and the friendly, helpful nature of most posters. D19 got into her top and only choice, Parsons; she graduated a semester early and is now working as a gallery assistant in New York.

For S22, I explored prep-school threads when he was considering that route as we prepared to repatriate from overseas. He ended up going to a great public school. When he was a senior, he had a scheduling snafu with one class and ended up taking only four — CC folks worriedly told me he had little chance of getting in anywhere good. Fortunately, we didn’t panic, and he was accepted ED at NYU (and EA at his backup, Fordham). He’s now happily embarked on his sophomore year in the media, culture and communication program, with great grades and great friends.

I stick around CC for various parent threads, including updates from the ones for the HS classes of 2019 and 2022. It’s great to see familiar posters saying their kids are mostly thriving. The wide-ranging conversations in other threads, from retirement planning to the NYT word games Wordle and Connections, keep me coming back daily. Great place.

[Youdon_tsay]

Hey, that’s my wonderful son! He thinks y’all are awesome.

[fiftyfifty1]

Google brought me to CC in 2021 after our kid told us he wanted to attend college in NYC and major in something arts-related. This was a surprise to us because we had thought he would end up at a Midwest LAC studying a traditional academic subject. We had no familiarity with schools in NY, and worried that his desire to attend school there was based on a whim-- I mean wasn’t it sort of frivolous to care about location instead of focusing on rigorous academics?

I lurked for a long time reading multiple threads about NY schools. I finally joined in order to ask questions, and I got a lot of great advice, including some very valuable advice through generous and detailed PMs. Sometimes the good advice came from CC members in situations similar to our own, but sometimes from posters who superficially had nothing in common with us.

Anyway, turns out my kid knew his own mind, and is thriving at a college in Manhattan that we had never heard of prior to 2021.

[tkoparent]

It looks like I joined, or at least first posted, around the beginning of 2019, but I must have been lurking for a year or two before that. My son was high school class of 2019, and I found CC accidentally while searching for information relating to some of the colleges he was looking at, athletic recruiting,etc. He is our oldest, and we were living overseas and feeling overwhelmed, and I recall what a relief it was to find this wonderful source. I finally joined because I felt felt the obligation to pay back where I could,. My son graduated in May and will be started graduate school in a couple of days, but I find myself sticking around. I have participated in a couple of other forums over the years, and I have seen some of them go south, so I have a real respect for this group and its moderators - it’s not an easy thing to create an online community this healthy and vibrant.

[shawbridge]

@thumper1, ShawD shadowed @downtoearth (DTE) at a prestigious hospital when decided whether to go to nursing school. That was the first time we met IRL, though we had been on a parents thread for ShawSon’s HS class for several years. DTE suggested to ShawD that she apply to the school she ultimately attended. ShawD a BSN/MSN from that school. It was a great choice. We were very grateful to DTE. Partly as a result of ShawD’s experience, DTE applied to and got an MSN from that school. I think I met one of DTE’s daughters on trip to DC and gave her career advice.