@momzilla2D It depends on the the school. Some are only for those who have committed, while others are open to all who have been accepted. I know my D has been added on 2 of her accepted schools FB pages–and they have both been very helpful to her in sensing the vibe of the participating students. (However please note that only a portion of students will ever join these pages, and these tend to be the more outgoing, social types, so they may or may not truly be representative of the class, particularly in larger schools).
Re FB groups they do NOT seem to be for only committed/decided students, from the ones I am in. Many kids posting “not sure but it’s in my top” kinds of things.
@Trixy34 I totally hear you! My DH is exactly the same. Works in IT, hates FB and social media and is aware of not only the exploitative side, but hacking. (Hence, none of us use FB messenger on our phone). We keep our profiles really locked down and private. Since you choose what to follow and what to allow to be visible (which for me, is hardly anything), it seems manageable and that you could truly only use it for admitted student groups. But I understand this issue.
@momzilla2D Haha - did he change his mind once UCF lost? 
I have never in my life watched college basketball (I am a pro team fan) but got sucked in while out at a bar last week. So glad I decided to watch that UCF game yesterday -might have been one of the most exciting games of any sport that I’ve seen in a long time!
D just joined Facebook last week with the sole purpose of joining the accepted students page. She resisted for a few weeks - not sure if it was because she thinks FB is lame or because she was nervous to join when she hadn’t made her final decision. But yes, you can join even if you haven’t decided yet. I am part of a parents group and lots of the people on there have kids who have not made their final decision.
I am hoping D will spend some time on there and maybe find some friends and even better if she finds a roommate. She signed up on Thursday or Friday and they have not accepted her yet, not sure how they check to make sure the kid is actually accepted?
The UCF is a sore spot with me. Had one of those two shots gone in, it would have knocked 3 of the 6 participants in our family bracket challenge out. Grrrrr. Oh wait…this is supposed to be about college admissions. Sorry. 
Is anyone else’s kid so caught up in HS that they really haven’t begun to think about the next step yet? DS was accepted ED in December, and he hasn’t really visited the portal since. I think he could have gotten a school email and filled out the housing questionnaire by now, but it is never on his mind.
It’s track season, prom is coming up, college-level classes are eating his time, and he has another essay/speech to write (he was named Val on Friday- yay!).
He signed up for the admitted students’ FB and Insta groups cause we said he should, but has never checked them.
Great idea on the FB accepted students groups - going to get son on that straight away!
Don’t have the mail in hand yet, but thinking son is a denial/wait list at Lafayette. Good thing as he doesn’t remember a thing about the place given our whirlwind tour of PA last April. We really targeted match-ish schools so this will be his first rejection. Our last school will be Bucknell on 3/28.
It seems very doubtful that I could get S to join a facebook group but we’ll see.
Prom was Saturday night and the kids lucked out with the beautiful weather we had. They looked so glamorous and grown up and it was tough to think about it being the last school dance for them. Fortunately they had a group of about 30 for photos so we could get a lot of good shots. They did it up with a party bus, a catered dinner at a friend’s in town house, and lots of dancing. I’m not ready for the next two months…
My D finally decided to join the accepted students FB of her top-contender school–at first she was hesitant since she’s still waiting to hear from 2 more schools and hasn’t committed yet, but it turned out a lot of them were also still deciding. It’s been very positive, though! So far she feels like it’s an amazing group of kids (with whom she has a lot in common!) and it’s really upped her enthusiasm! I really do think it’s a good way to get an early read of what kind of students you’ll find at a particular school.
My D19 does Instagram occasionally, but really doesn’t do social media. We built a fake Twitter account for her (linked to her “college junk” email address), but Facebook? Too much effort for a throwaway account, really.
I find it kind of amusing that right as colleges go full-bore into the use of social media as a way to communicate with students, students’ use of the types of social media that are good for such messaging starts to fall off a cliff.
Congratulations on all the acceptances, and commiserations on all the waitlists/denials over the weekend. Good to know that this process is wrapping up for many of us, and certainly getting closer to the end for the rest of us.
D19 was waitlisted at Carleton over the weekend, which on the one hand, disappointing, but did free up the calendar enough to book a trip to Macalester for ASD. We are now waiting only on Reed, which considering that some Reed students are reporting having received an admissions box last week, I am thinking that it will not be an acceptance. But we need to hear whether she was waitlisted to decide if she wants to accept that theoretical waitlist, Carleton’s waitlist, or Haverford’s waitlist (that last one is unlikely). I’m in the adult camp of “love the one who loves you back,” and she’s got some fine schools she’s already in at, but the heart wants what it wants, and I’m open to her waitlisting for one school (because if she’s going to waitlist, then she really needs to pull out the stops in her LOCI and part of that is saying, “if you accept me, I will attend,” and she can’t say that for 2 schools).
D19 went to prom last year. I have no idea if she’s going this year, but maybe now that college craziness is (mostly) over, perhaps she and her friends can start thinking about it…
@momzilla2D I think UCF is rolling admissions, so it would be possible to apply, but I’m with you-why add another school at the last minute?
Besides, UCF has been very, very slow with admissions decisions for many students this year and way more competitive for traditional fall entrance than you would expect, especially for OOS kids.
My kid was hoping to get away from the Sports Is King attitude of our home state. We’ll see if she’s successful.
I know how you feel @peachActuary73 …crazy isn’t it. We are in GA too and I have heard of so many kids with great stats being denied by UGA and GTech. On a positive note though my S17 went to KSU (didn’t even apply to UGA as he didn’t have the stats 2 years ago), worked really hard and he just transferred in his second semester of sophomore year to UGA. I am advising many of my friends with kids who want to go to UGA to consider this path. My S19 didn’t apply either (great ACT but not such a good GPA) but is lucky that his father lives in Tennessee so he is getting in-state tuition at UT Knoxville. Sad to give up that HOPE scholarship though 
DD is on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat groups with her future classmates. It has its good and bad aspects, but I guess with the bad she is learning who to avoid The good is the cool people she’s found and the realization that even though it’s semi local, it’s still a big world there. And maybe when she’s on campus and needs a buddy to go to an activity she can hop on the chat and see if anyone will join her.
@professionaldad Congrats on valedictorian!! DD has been ruminating on her speech for a while. To answer your question, DD is pretty caught up in her current HS life, lots going on and having tons of fun. Not a lot of college planning to do right now other than local scholarship apps and she has some free blocks at school so she has time for both HS and college stuff.
PS I love your profile pic, my DD’17 was Clifford obsessed and still sleeps with a Clifford stuffy (shhhh…)
It seems that the accepted student online activity at the college where my kid is heading is mostly on Instagram, or at least that’s what my D is following. She only got FB a few years ago because that was where the school dance company exchanged info, and only uses it for that and some of her social activism.
@professionaldad I think it’s just how ready a kid is to get out of HS. Your son is still not tired of HS, which is actually a very good thing. My D is emotionally and mentally half way out of HS already. So she keeps up with her email from college, follows the accepted students’ Instagram group, interacts with other students who are attending or have been accepted and are thinking of attending, etc. It makes it more difficult for her to focus on her last dance show, IRDI competitions, keeping up with her classes, etc. I would rather have had her more focused on finishing HS, like your S. Congratulations on your S being named as Val, BTW, very impressive!
@professionaldad My S is the same. Part of it is that he got in with ED so college stuff has been off the radar end of the year. S19 is focused on HS sports, HS classes kind of or to the extent necessary, and his new social life. He didn’t have much of a social life at school before. But this year, his friend group is actually doing stuff together and he’s on student council and that’s pretty social.
@MWolf - DS thought he could cruise through this semester, but an energetic (and Harvard educated) Calculus teacher plus Accelerated Russian at the state flagship uni is crushing his free time. He claims that he’s checking out of HS. That he’s “not trying to be perfect, just all A’s”, but clearly that still takes quite a bit of effort.
@liska21 - Turning 18 and having some wheels has definitely opened up his activities outside school with friends.
@bjscheel - Thanks. I have used that avatar before on various media. Clifford and I have roughly the same hair color! ?
Congrats on all the acceptances! And condolences on WLs and rejections, although I really believe the kids will end up where they are meant to be.
There were hundreds of messages when we got back from Spring Break, so I wasn’t able to congratulate everyone individually, but I read every post and tried to “like” all the acceptances. This is talented group of kids!
I think we are on the home stretch to a decision. We should have all the information by Wednesday, but I think our son is about 90% sure. He is visiting again this weekend, so I think we’ll have a decision by next week.
To ease the pain of having my D19 move out for college, we just picked out a puppy! We already have a 10 year old mini schnauzer. D19 didn’t like it when I told her that we are replacing her with a dog. D21 & D25 are ecstatic!!
I’d say we are just happy all the accepts/rejects are in now, and looking forward to making the decision in the next month and then pausing to just enjoy the last 6 weeks of HS (both parents and daughter!) without thinking about college at all.
My D had a day of existential crisis last week. She was invited to a fully funded fly-in program at her college. It starts while she would be away for spring break on a long saved-for vacation to visit her friends on the opposite coast. She tossed out the need for a cross country flight, I guess secretly (mostly) hoping that they’d deny the request considering we only live 180 miles from campus. They immediately agreed though, and once the realization set in that she’d have to leave her friends a day early it was like the flood gates opened. She’s sad to leave her teammates- they’re her best friends here. Really sad. She’s moved so many times and it all finally came to a head that she’s always leaving- always left everyone she’s loved- except our immediate family, and now she’ll be leaving us too. Yes, we are close by, but only for a year and then the Corps is sending us far away again. She also knows from experience just how poorly most people handle long distance friendships. She came around the next day, grateful that the college was so willing to help her financially and logistically, but there were many tears shed about growing up and moving on.