I notice that some college message boards here on CC are extremely active, while some are almost completely dead. It’s not necessarily related to the size of the college. Do you think anything can be inferred about the school from this activity or lack thereof? For instance, do you think colleges with “dead” boards may not have a strong alumni network in place, or not have students that are as “rah rah” about their school?
Interested in your input on this - thanks!
If you name names, then we can have some interesting speculation.
I don’t think you can infer anything. Colleges with inactive boards may have other ways for alumni to interact.
Sometimes colleges seem to delegate people to “chat up” the college on College Confidential. I gather the reps identify themselves to the site. Such support will drive up user interest, which will produce a more active message board.
But…the colleges which do this may be doing it in order to increase applications.
I don’t think you can infer anything about a school from the activity or lack of activity of message boards on CC. I would argue that most college students, alumni, or parents don’t know about CC, and many more wouldn’t see any reason to post on it. It doesn’t mean there’s not a strong alumni network at a school. A school could have a great alumni network that are actually helping and connecting with alumni and students of their alma mater, rather than answering questions on some random internet message board. Also, a school could have great school pride and energy without ever once posting anything on CC. Most students would have absolutely no reason to. I wouldn’t say online presence on a message board has anything to do with how much pride students have in their school or how much school spirit is on campus.
The people who post on CC are a very small percentage of the actual college-going community. I don’t think you can make any assumptions about a college from the college-specific forums, especially not from something like the amount of activity on the forum.
It might depend on the school.
My alma mater has shows very little activity on cc. But it is considered a “regional university”, and is not well known nationally. It’s a decent school but not a top school and admissions are not terribly competitive. My observation is that a lot of cc folks tend to live on the east or west coasts and it is located in the midwest so it is unfamiliar to them.
About the school, no. About CC attitudes about the school, yes. For example, Davidson has fewer posts than all of the CC Top LACs except Macalester, Trinity, and Whitman – a rather telling indication of the general attitude toward southern LACs. A college’s rise in rankings and/or recognition often coincides with greatly increased posting and chances threads on CC; Chicago is the most notable example, going from one of the least popular forums to the most popular private in its category after Stanford and MIT.
CC is geared toward students interested in top-flight colleges and is heavily populated by northeasterners and Californians interested in business and STEM fields. It’s therefore unsurprising to see a college like Cal Poly SLO getting frenetic posting while a college like BGSU has very little activity.
Also note the outliers. For example, Alabama flings merit money at out-of-state students and is the automatic suggestion for anyone looking for merit aid. As a result of this boom in interest, the Alabama forum has exploded in posts and is by far one of the most active.
I think that all it means is that people from and/or interested in those schools are not on CC. There’s little to no talk of HBCU’s on CC. Some don’t even HAVE a board, others have activity dated years ago, and I notice few posters coming on the generic boards coming on CC to talk about them. So I’ve done my own research elsewhere. It’s a shame, because I know a number of kids besides my own D who would LIKE to find input on these schools, but there aren’t resources like CC has for them.
Warblersrule has it about right, I think. And, there are other boards besides CC that have college info, and plenty of parents out there not interested in the pressure-cooker CC can be at times. They’re more “chill”, as D puts it and just don’t come here to post.
Nothing.
My undergrad U has virtually no activity but is “ranked” higher than and has a stronger, larger alumni network than, say, Bama. But Bama has its own personal cheerleader with 10s of thosuands of posts. (This isn’t a judgment about the poster or the school, but is a reason why there is so much attention on that forum here.)
** CC is in no way an indication of anything other than the attitudes and traffic of CC users. **
It’s a function of the “prestigiosity” of the school.
@hzhao2004 - Well I noticed it on the Tufts board but then I went poking around…
The service academy forums are an example of CC boards with low traffic, but that is because all of the real conversation happens on serviceacademyforums.com so, in this case, CC is just not the best place to look for or post information about those schools.
I can’t even find a board for the University of Utah.
My school offers effectively auto admission to anyone with above a 3.0 and a 22 ACT/ 1650 SAT. Students don’t need to obsess over whether they’ll get in and the out of state scholarships, save for National Merit, are rather average. There’s no reason for students to create application strategies for the school.
My school has fairly enthusiastic alums, and if you watch college football you’ll know that it’s one of the most “rah rah” universities in the nation.
Good game today! 
CC is a bit of an echo chamber, many wonderful schools get short shrift because the crowd focuses on a few institutions whose names are hyped and repeated, and repeated, as the gateways to whatever wonderful life you’re dreaming of. These hallowed institutions have become so revered that every year students develop anxiety disorders trying to get themselves into them. However, there are some very rational people on CC who have useful information on lesser discussed schools. I’ve found that if I do a search for the name of the school I’m interested in, posts from the general discussions pop up. Even if an individual school’s message board seems dead, the school will probably be discussed within other threads.
I’m actually glad I didn’t discover CC until after my older two were launched. I have the benefit of seeing them, their cousins, and many friends going from HS to colleges, some never once mentioned on CC, and becoming successful young adults. Some are homeowners, all are doing well enough to not be struggling. I knew coming to CC that there is more out there than constantly mentioned here. I don’t try to change anyone’s mind, but I do sometimes remind folks that there are nearly 4,000 colleges, not just a select few.
What’s interesting is that the board for the school my son attends had a very active group of parents, generating hundreds of posts in prior years. But this year, for whatever reason, there are only a couple of us on there. I take that to mean that the parents from previous years covered all the topics so well that there is nothing left to ask! Or, there are so few problems and issues with this school that nobody has any questions or concerns!
It means that it has become a safety school. :))
Smaller schools often have less traffic too.
I think it’s a function of many factors including the larger percentage of posters on the coasts and a dose of herd mentality.