Using Facebook group to estimate class fullness

[Welshman]

As a neurotic pre-med a thought just popped into my head, since Facebook is ubiquitous in our generation could the official acceptance groups, run by the schools, be used to estimate how full the current class is/how many acceptees are actively considering the school? Of course this idea rests on the premise that everyone accepted is as excited to be to join said group and the admissions staff staying current with the additions.

I thought it could be useful to gauge how much potential waitlist movement there could be.

What do you guys think?

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[ForHumors]

No bueno. Plenty of current students at the school can join those groups to give perspectives/advice. At my school, pretty much the entire first and second year class will join the admitted students group. So unless you look at each person individually, you won't know who is an admitted student and who is a current student.

 

[Carmiche]

Doubtful at this point... I am in two, and one I know for a fact has filled up its entire class with offers but only has half the number of members (which include current students).

The other one I know has sent out only a few pre-match offers and has like 300 members of almost all current students.

 

[Welshman]

Darn, the two I'm interested in both only have ~100 members which would seem to make sense based on their total class size and where we are in the cycle but I guess it's not a rigorous indicator at all

 

[Carmiche]

Darn, the two I'm interested in both only have ~100 members which would seem to make sense based on their total class size and where we are in the cycle but I guess it's not a rigorous indicator at all

Neither of the schools I was accepted at have actively been inviting people. I found out about both from SDN. Maybe they would be a better indicator of the school was inviting people to join.

 

[Welshman]

Perhaps, the one I'm most interested in invited people the day after acceptances went out on both occasions it seems.

Well, it makes me feel better thinking the school has only accepted half its class so far, so I might just keep believing it lol. Maybe ForHumors can give me some Sucrosa to soothe my anxiety too haha

 

[ADSigMel]

I haven’t joined any of the FB groups I’ve been invited to, because I haven’t decided yet where I’m going to school - although, maybe joining the groups and seeing if they’re comprised of complete jerks will help me rule some schools out.

 

[harkas]

Depends on the size of the class. I’m headed to a school with a small number so the FB group is very reflective of how many people have been accepted

 

[NickNaylor]

Useless - many people will end up going elsewhere, particularly given that the “heavy hitters” don’t give out decisions until the end of the cycle. Some people don’t use Facebook and probably wouldn’t join in the group anyway. You probably don’t have an idea of how many people a school accepts unless they tell you outright.

There’s no way to get any useful information from this kind of stuff. Relax and take a deep breath.

 

[Sharknad0]

No bueno. Plenty of current students at the school can join those groups to give perspectives/advice. At my school, pretty much the entire first and second year class will join the admitted students group. So unless you look at each person individually, you won't know who is an admitted student and who is a current student.

Definitely. My UG has ~5-6,000 students per grade but the class pages push 10-15,000

 

[Welshman]

Definitely. My UG has ~5-6,000 students per grade but the class pages push 10-15,000

Yeah, definitely not possible with a class size that large but I thought when comparing existing groups with the current cycles size might be telling, eg if all other sizes are around 200 and the current group size is around 75 there likely a lot more room for growth.

Not scientific or likely reliable at all but perhaps a bit better than a group with thousands of students

 

[BombsAway]

I haven’t joined any of the FB groups I’ve been invited to, because I haven’t decided yet where I’m going to school - although, maybe joining the groups and seeing if they’re comprised of complete jerks will help me rule some schools out.

I recommend you use it as a lower tier data point for deciding where you end up going. That's what i'm doing. Gotta make sure I have a couple climbing and skiing partners before I commit to a school.

 

[Chelsea FC]

this is pretty unhealthy.

 

[LaPola19_MD]

I don't have Facebook so I haven't join the group for the school I was accepted so far, I don't know if creating a fb account just for this is worth it. What do people think?

 

[Welshman]

I don't have Facebook so I haven't join the group for the school I was accepted so far, I don't know if creating a fb account just for this is worth it. What do people think?

Probably not

 

[narla_hotep]

Not useful. Those initial groups are full of people who are only considering the school and end up going elsewhere, plus current students there to give advice. My initial class facebook group was twice the size of what the class ended up being. We had to make a new group after a few months rather than kicking out all the other applicants and upperclassmen.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

This is dumb, don’t do that

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Im tempted to make a novelty xanax RX dispenser bot. Maybe even use machine learning to detect neurotic posts.

 

[fourandtwo]

Facebook suggested SGUSOM entering class of 2018 to me and they have 1.2k members in their group. I wonder if they're full (of ****) yet

 

[BombsAway]

Facebook suggested SGUSOM entering class of 2018 to me and they have 1.2k members in their group. I wonder if they're full (of ****) yet

Poor kids