Student Instagram accounts and admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys are grossly naive if you don't believe colleges track online interactions. They track what emails you have opened up from the school on down the line.

Agree. YCBK talked about it a lot.

[Anonymous]

They also alot a point system which includes how many times you've logged in on, and from where you navigated, your online college portal.

[Anonymous]

Here to say that NO COLLEGE tracks social media engagement!!! Do NOT let your kids engage with the social media of any school in the t50-60 range, please. It might harm them actually. This goes for all forthcoming admissions cycles. In particular, do not allow your DCs to show interest via social media for the following schools: UVA, William and Mary, Boston College, Tufts, UMD-CP, and Georgetown. It will only hurt them, or it will have no effect at all, so do not let them. Spread the word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools do track the applicant's online interactions...how and when they visited, how long they stayed on a webpage, webinars attended, etc.

Just keep that in mind for those schools who like to see demonstrated interest.

Which schools do this? This would be a somewhat manual process for the AO and outside of attending some webinars, not an accurate or good use of time since they’d have to determine each applicants IP address.

There are programs that do this.

DP. Some things are easy and legal to track, like social media engagement (assuming kid uses their real name in their account) and email open rate.

How long they spend looking at a webpage is not something that would be tracked at an individual level for each applicant. That’s ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools do track the applicant's online interactions...how and when they visited, how long they stayed on a webpage, webinars attended, etc.

Just keep that in mind for those schools who like to see demonstrated interest.

Which schools do this? This would be a somewhat manual process for the AO and outside of attending some webinars, not an accurate or good use of time since they’d have to determine each applicants IP address.

There are programs that do this.

DP. Some things are easy and legal to track, like social media engagement (assuming kid uses their real name in their account) and email open rate.

How long they spend looking at a webpage is not something that would be tracked at an individual level for each applicant. That’s ridiculous.

You are clueless. Stop speaking about something you know nothing about.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/business/college-tuition-price-consultants.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools do track the applicant's online interactions...how and when they visited, how long they stayed on a webpage, webinars attended, etc.

Just keep that in mind for those schools who like to see demonstrated interest.

Which schools do this? This would be a somewhat manual process for the AO and outside of attending some webinars, not an accurate or good use of time since they’d have to determine each applicants IP address.

There are programs that do this.

DP. Some things are easy and legal to track, like social media engagement (assuming kid uses their real name in their account) and email open rate.

How long they spend looking at a webpage is not something that would be tracked at an individual level for each applicant. That’s ridiculous.

Idiot moron. Stop spreading misinformation.
Brian Zucker, 68, founder and chief executive of Human Capital Research Corporation, has been competing with EAB and RNL for years. He and his colleagues refer to this real-time data as footprints in the sand.
“It changes minute by minute,” he said. “It’s texts, visits, clicks, opens, number of seconds on a particular webpage using a particular URL, monitoring forms, of which there are many

[Anonymous]

My son had no social media. Hit into multiple T10s/20s last year- at an Ivy. Neither parent is on LinkedIn either, no SM

[Anonymous]

^got into

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools do track the applicant's online interactions...how and when they visited, how long they stayed on a webpage, webinars attended, etc.

Just keep that in mind for those schools who like to see demonstrated interest.

Which schools do this? This would be a somewhat manual process for the AO and outside of attending some webinars, not an accurate or good use of time since they’d have to determine each applicants IP address.

There are programs that do this.

DP. Some things are easy and legal to track, like social media engagement (assuming kid uses their real name in their account) and email open rate.

How long they spend looking at a webpage is not something that would be tracked at an individual level for each applicant. That’s ridiculous.

Idiot moron. Stop spreading misinformation.
Brian Zucker, 68, founder and chief executive of Human Capital Research Corporation, has been competing with EAB and RNL for years. He and his colleagues refer to this real-time data as footprints in the sand.
“It changes minute by minute,” he said. “It’s texts, visits, clicks, opens, number of seconds on a particular webpage using a particular URL, monitoring forms, of which there are many

Idiot moron? Jesus, calm down. I thought you meant random visitors to the school’s website. There’s no way they’re matching organic traffic to particular individuals.

But if your kid clicks a link from an email or text, then yes, time spent on the landing page can be tracked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys are grossly naive if you don't believe colleges track online interactions. They track what emails you have opened up from the school on down the line.

Correct. There are many ways to show interest. IG account isn’t necessary to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools do track the applicant's online interactions...how and when they visited, how long they stayed on a webpage, webinars attended, etc.

Just keep that in mind for those schools who like to see demonstrated interest.

Which schools do this? This would be a somewhat manual process for the AO and outside of attending some webinars, not an accurate or good use of time since they’d have to determine each applicants IP address.

There are programs that do this.

DP. Some things are easy and legal to track, like social media engagement (assuming kid uses their real name in their account) and email open rate.

How long they spend looking at a webpage is not something that would be tracked at an individual level for each applicant. That’s ridiculous.

You are clueless. Stop speaking about something you know nothing about.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/business/college-tuition-price-consultants.html

So a NYT article makes you an expert?

[Anonymous]

Big Sis is right ... IG presence is a must unless a hermit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forgive me if this is a dumb question, I'm from the 1900s...

My rising junior doesn't have any social media accounts. She's plenty social, but this was a decision she made back in 8th grade when she saw other girls attached to their phones, and now she's kind of hung onto the choice out of principle. But her older sibling who just went through the college search is telling her that she *needs* an Instagram account so that she can follow other university pages and that Admissions Offices keep track of that kind of thing. I can't tell if big sister is just fearmongering or does her warning have some merit?

Wanted to add ... your child has a great college application essay topic if she wants to share. Not having any social media accounts makes her stand out of the herd a bit.

[Anonymous]

My DC got into two Ivies without an Instagram account.

[Anonymous]

My 11th grade DC has an Instagram account mostly to follow clubs and admissions. The admissions offices feel a lot like the marketing they send in email and mail, but the clubs are great! I’m not sure if it’ll make it into any essays but it’s been so helpful to see others with her interests and what they are doing at various colleges.