How are Reddit applying to college (A2C) and CC different?

[CCadminMike]

Some of you on College Confidential may have noticed that there is a large internet forum out there called “Reddit”. On that forum is a discussion board called ApplyingToCollege. There is a bit of an… ahem… rivalry between our sites and the tone and culture of the sites seem very different. Some of the main comparisons:

Category	College Confidential	Reddit r/ApplyingToCollege
Rules	CC Site-wide Rules	A2C Rules
Mods	Community Moderated (12 for all of CC)	Community Moderated (10 for A2C)
Threads	Single-level Threads	Multi-level (Nested) Threads
Categories	School and Subject Categories	School and Subject Subreddits
Images	Posting allowed (waiting period)	Posting allowed after sign up(no wait)
Most used word	stats?	bruh

(ok that last one was a joke)

We think there’s room on the internet for both of us, but we’d genuinely like your opinion on a few things:

What does /r/A2C do well?
What does CC do well?
Is there anything you wished CC did like Reddit? or vice versa?

Remember to keep the discussion civil. This is not a place to bash either site, but to give constructive criticism about how we can best serve our users and provide awesome places for college admissions discussions.

[MWolf]

My impression is that Reddit is younger, with most of the posters being high school or college students. It is less formal, less structured, and really more about students interacting with each other.

It fulfills a very different function than CC, IMO, and think that having both is very beneficial for students.

Personally, the nested thread arrangement of Reddit confuses the hell out of me, and I don’t like it. But Reddit users seem to like it, so it must work for them

[MrQster]

How about putting a down vote on comments you can’t stand? Hide the down-voters identities like on reddit so that people can be more open to down vote.

[skieurope]

@MWolf summed it up nicely. And I will point out that A2C is very unstructured on Wednesdays.

I will add that A2C is but one subreddit that shares information a la CC. There is also, as examples, r/chanceme and r/SAT

[Lindagaf]

@MYOS1634 , any insight to add?

My brief foray into A2C was interesting. Definitely student oriented. What I learned: students like A2C because it’s very supportive of other students. Students said they come to CC when they want the brutal truth.

[LA91116]

I love r/A2C and I’m a parent. The kids are awesome! They create resources and share information in a way I’ve never seen before. They have a crowdsourced spreadsheet with projected and confirmed decision dates. Easy to look at on my phone. I’ve been using CC for a long time and it’s confusing, cluttered, lots of ads, etc.

I love the anonymity of Reddit and also have had multiple conversations through the messaging option. There are not just kids on there: tutors, verified admissions officers, etc. I go to CC occasionally; I go to Reddit multiple times a day. In fact, I clicked through to this link because it was just posted on Reddit!

[2plustrio]

The decision calendars and megathreads are fine on a2c.

But their main thread I would say is only about 25% helpful to a parent. It really is more for kids to get support.

I read both. I guess Im at an age where I tolerate and can skim through anxious parents more than I can handle unrealistic or entitled kids so I find cc more helpful to me as a parent.

[MYOS1634]

the “most used word” joke made me laugh out aloud
I don’t use reddit because it looks “cluttered” to me… but will give a look.

[toandfro]

Longtime lurker diving in! Reddit has the power of a ton of users, and can discern trends very quickly. The emotional support aspect is very powerful, though it can get toxic in there as well. The biggest negative of Reddit is the info flies so fast that the same issues get repeated, and worthy advice and knowledge gets lost and replaced by less helpful answers. And because kids don’t want to hear bad news, the truth can sometimes get buried.

[skieurope]

@CCadminMike

|Most used word|stats?

“Budget?” might be a close second.

@CCadminMike

|Most used word|bruh

This tends to be more trendsetting, reflecting the younger demographic. “Simp” is all the rage this year; last year was "girlypop."

[Lindagaf]

What happens on Wednesday?

[skieurope]

In theory, tongue-in-cheek and troII postings are limited to Wednesday, which they call $*!tpost Wednesday.

[Picklenut6]

Am I the only one who wants to use reddit, but can’t really figure out how to navigate the site? Did I just disclose how old I am? Seriously though, if there are tips, I’d love to have them!

[CCadminMike]

@Lindagaf

What happens on Wednesday?

Wednesday is when Redditors who want actual info come to CC. (I kid, I kid) Any Redditors want to show @Lindagaf an good example of Wednesdays?

(I’ll even unlock image posting for you )

Personally I think sh!tpost Wed is hilarious.

[MYOS1634]

@skieurope

“Simp” is all the rage

Dating myself, but… what does that mean?
(I recently learned the term “$h*tposting” so at least I understood that part…)

I do find Reddit very confusing.

[Lindagaf]

I looked it up. A simp appears to be primarily a guy who is pretending or really is overly sympathetic, presumably in the hopes of gaining likes or admirers or something?

I have been on Reddit for the last half hour. It’s a rabbit warren of stuff. I have always found it’s very old fashioned structure to be off putting, but there are some really great advice redditors and they are clearly writing for the kids.

@CCadminMike , another thought. I know CC is working hard to broaden appeal, but there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with CC being geared more towards adults. It’s fun to learn the latest lingo on Reddit and it is important to see what matters to the students, but there is also a ton of useless garbage there that isn’t constructive or useful. A lot of kids are just adding pretty meaningless comments, which is probably appealing to, well, kids.

[skieurope]

Kinda, sorta. In general it means a person desperate for attention from another person in a romantic or sexual way. But it evolves based on context. In the A2C context, it is a person looking for acceptance from a college.

[LA91116]

Ask your teen! I always do. DD had to explain “girlypop”

[LA91116]

I love to hear other kids’ perspectives, and have learned about issues I had no clue about (like the huge admissions hurdles faced by international students who need aid). Makes me feel more connected to the world at a disconnected time.