I had 2021 and 2022 high school grads. During that time, I lived on these forums looking at the school specific forums. Now that I have a 2026 high school grad, I came back to research schools and see what other parents are saying about the, and there’s barely any activity. What happened?
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i think, to some extent, there is just more information available outside of CC given online access to CDS from many schools, self-reported data from schools, unpredictable nature of test-optional applications, and perhaps more substantial data analysis from Naviance and SCOIR from their specific high schools (which is more reliable anyways). much of the info here is anecdotal (and unverifiable anyways) so it might be misleading (either way). but i could be wrong and i still think there is a role for the moral support and personal experience from many families who have been through this experience with prior graduating students. i, for one, appreciate the knowledge conferred by this forum!
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The vast majority of the students are on Reddit, the applying to college (A2C) threads. Not sure about parents.
You should definitely join the Class of 2026 thread: Parents of the HS Class of 2026
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Depends on the school. I’m on a few that are very active
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The school-specific forums have been gradually declining in activity for many years. There are a minority subset that are still active and some get temporarily active around decision times (ED and RD). But most have been ghost towns for a while. These more general forums remain active, disproportionately parent posts. On Reddit the activity is far more student-centric or recent alums, though many college forums are far less moderated so you can get ■■■■■■ who have nothing to do with the schools.
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The Parents of 20XX threads are very active. The individual college boards are pretty quiet until admission decisions are released. Then we start to get a surge of Compare College Options threads where the Reddit kids are joining to ask adults for advice. 
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Usually on the Michigan thread we see pretty active but this year it is definitely slow compared to the other years. I am seeing that on many of the other usually busy threads. CC needs to get their SEO going or marketing going, I guess.
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I’ve noticed that as well. But the individual college forums are useful for historical threads, especially when individuals compare schools or give examples of good/bad things on campus. I think it is the reddit phenomenon.
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The kids left CC about 4 yrs ago. They only come here now for adult advice. Theyre communicating with each other on other sites.
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Thanks. Wanted to make sure I wasn’t in the wrong spot. The schools I’m looking at were very active back 4 years ago by mostly parents but really dropped off since then. Oh well.
I find that the college planning FB groups are much more active and you receive responses much quicker.
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It’s unfortunate because those forums 4-5 years ago were very different and active. I guess I’ll go elsewhere to learn about some schools my daughter is considering.
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Obviously, it’s totally up to you as to how you want to do your research, but I have to say that the parents (and occasional students) posting here have a ton of insight, and I can’t imagine what the process would have been like for us without this as a resource.
As an example, this one search, by itself, is a treasure trove of insights. Just replace school_name_goes_here in the searchbox on the linked page with whatever school you want to find out about.
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Thanks for all the opinions. With two kids in college (Purdue 4th year engineering and a junior at the College of Wooster- two obv different schools with different needs kids), I’ve been through this before and will be perfectly fine with my youngest’s search. It’s just sad to see how much has changed in 4 years for the worst.
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It is true that the school forums are not so active as they once were. It’s also true that nowadays students are more on Reddit or social media than on CC. We are however lucky to foster a great community of parents who contribute to helping other parents (and students) with very insightful, school-specific info and advice.
Does anyone have some suggestions on how to up the activity? Is there anything we could do better/more of to boost these school forums?
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I think a lot of people are not aware this site exists. I’ve mentioned it to a few parents recently who are waiting on applications and none had heard of it. I discovered it in 2022 when my oldest was applying to college and now I’m back for my 2025 student.
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Not sure if this will increase the activity - but i find so much if the activity to be non-related to the forum/original poster and they get bogged down with irrelevant back and forth. I find myself unfollowing posts of interest/value for this reason. Not sure how you solve, except to monitor more and that is not fun for anyone 
In the case of students, my kids felt that CC was for adults that wanted to lecture others people’s kids because their own kids don’t listen to them - maybe they were just talking about me They preferred reddit to hear from peers and social media like Insta reels are full of college info now - big increase the last few years. Most of these posts seem to be made my recent college and come across very relatable.
Can google search be optimized ? I came to this site through a google search on a specific topic and it pulled up several CC links. What about Insta or Tiktoc - can anything be put on there to raise awareness of this site? Awareness to influencers in this space line Harlen Cohen and others ?
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I think this is true for some students. Even if the CC adults are giving them good, accurate, realistic information it can sometimes be hard to hear. So, some students will take that feedback as harsh and prefer to hear nonsense from their peers (not that all feedback on reddit is nonsense.) Sometimes CC posters can be blunt, but most try and soften their message where possible. The truth can be hard to hear when one is a teenager.
The right approach, as usual, is probably somewhere between too much political correctness and a free for all