In the past few years, the people who have heard early are the ones who applied for commonwealth campuses. So, it is possible they may have already heard. I also don’t believe everything I read on facebook… I have many examples of kids posting on SM they got into Smeal in the first week of November with questionable stats… only to later find out they didn’t.
With EA, there are kids that will find out before Dec. 24th. Usually, they start sending out decisions early November.
In general, the ones to hear early are the high stats kids (getting in) or the low stats kids (getting sent 2+2). Also, some colleges (Engineering, Smeal, LA, Ag, DUS, etc.) may release decisions earlier (or later!) than others. Not every application is created equal.
For the kids in the middle, Admissions needs to see an entire application pool to figure out where to draw the “line”. So I would be surprised (although not much surprises me anymore with admissions!) if kids in the middle hear early.