\n These Instagram pages offer a way to reach out before ever arriving on campus, potentially assuaging anticipatory worry and first-day awkwardness.\n <\/p>\n
\n For those of you who went to college before social media, it works like this: As soon as acceptance decisions come out, incoming freshmen can post pictures and bios of themselves on class Instagram pages in hopes of connecting with other incoming freshmen at a particular university. These social media handles read something like \u201c@NameOfCollegeclassof30\u201d or \u201cRandomUniversity_2030.\u201d (The number is the incoming class\u2019s graduating year.)\n <\/p>\n
\n Incoming freshmen submit a few pictures and a little about themselves, such as hometown, prospective major, hobbies and interests. Often, they must submit proof of admission, such as a picture of their acceptance letter. Sometimes they have to pay a fee to have their information posted.\n <\/p>\n
\n I followed the Instagram student pages of all the schools where I was accepted and saw hundreds of posts featuring incoming freshmen who might be my future friends or roommates. Every post\u2019s description ended with encouragement to connect: \u201cI\u2019m looking for a roommate and friends, so please reach out!\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n When my parents went to college, people didn\u2019t choose their first-year roommates \u2014 but many schools allow it now. Incoming freshmen can still opt to have a randomly assigned roommate, but from what I\u2019ve seen among my friends and classmates, most people don\u2019t. If students don\u2019t already have friends at the same school, they are left scrambling to find someone. Some schools have roommate-matching questionnaires, but Instagram seems to be a popular method.\n <\/p>\n
\n Eventually I decided on Dartmouth College, which requires everyone to have a random freshman year roommate. The purpose of my college\u2019s incoming students page seemed to be strictly to make friends. I checked the page daily but never posted or texted anyone. I couldn\u2019t figure out what to say.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Incoming](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/freshmen-instafriends-phone.jpg\")
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\n On the drive to campus, my mom told me that everyone was going to be in the same boat, scared and looking for friends, no matter how together they seemed. She told me to just keep reaching out in person and to be as friendly and open as possible.\n <\/p>\n
\n I showed up on move-in day without any premade friends and only knowing two people from my high school. I got assigned a single room. I was terrified.\n <\/p>\n
\n As a result, I made sure to attend events during my college\u2019s orientation week. Jane and I met when we were partnered up to learn contra dances during one such activity. I met my good friend Christina on our first-year trip, when students go backpacking in the woods to bond. Without the early advantage of a roommate, I went with the girls across the hall to events.\n <\/p>\n
\n I auditioned for and applied to multiple clubs and attended a lot of meetings. I didn\u2019t stick with all of them, but the clubs I joined \u2014 choir, one of the student newspapers and the outing club \u2014 have given me wonderful friends. I also met people through classes or friends of friends, and by simply seeing them around a lot.\n <\/p>\n
\n Luckily, I also had buddies from home who advised me before I left for college. Vincent, a senior at Elon University, said that the best piece of advice he could give to high school seniors is to learn \u201ctransient social skills.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI try to say hi to everybody,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt\u2019s so simple that people think about it too much, but the hardest part is literally just seeing someone you half-know and being like \u2018Oh, hey, what\u2019s up, man?\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n My friend Hannah, a junior at the University of South Carolina, told me to \u201cbe a woman of the people. You just keep getting introduced to your friends\u2019 friends. That\u2019s the biggest way I met people is just getting introduced by other people you meet.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Vincent understood my anxiety about the long wait before arriving on campus. \u201cThere\u2019s such a feeling of anticipation you have, and you\u2019re anxiously imagining each little life you could live,\u201d he noted. \u201cThis is a really interesting period that a lot of companies market toward.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n But he said those apps are marketing an illusion of college life. \u201cWhen you\u2019re about to enter college, you\u2019re just trying to hype yourself up. I think the best thing to do, if you want a real college experience, is to just go and meet a random person.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n So, if you don\u2019t actually need to make friends before showing up on campus, why are there so many of these Instagram pages? Who is setting them up? As it turns out, it\u2019s not always the college or university or students attending the school.\n <\/p>\n
\n If you look for class of 2030 Instagram pages for most universities and colleges, you likely will find multiple competing accounts. Some are run by the college admissions office or a student admissions club, but the ones I looked into are run by outside companies and contractors.\n <\/p>\n
\n Some of the accounts are backed by companies or apps that claim to help kids connect by giving them access to group chats, forums and the chance to reach out and meet people before the school year begins.\n <\/p>\n
\n Some accounts ask kids to send them money to have their bio posted on their account. UniPostings offers a graduated pricing scheme, with $25 getting an incoming student\u2019s bio posted instantly. After freshmen get on campus or sometimes even earlier, some of these accounts shift into promotional devices. They post flyers to parties and events that are nearly all ticketed, meaning that they cost money for admission. They also post ads for apartments, rentals and merch.\n <\/p>\n
\n Owen Giordano, the founder of UniPostings and a senior at Pennsylvania State University, told me that he started his pages after seeing his little sister use Instagram to try to decide on a school and find a roommate. He said he doesn\u2019t work with the schools when creating or operating pages pitching their students.\n <\/p>\n
\n Giordano thought kids were willing to pay to feel more secure in a very vulnerable time. \u201cThe payment barrier, it seems that it \u2026 almost gives you confirmation that these are people that are interested in the school,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of people like to start getting posted before they\u2019re fully accepted. It\u2019s just a school that they\u2019re really interested in.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The fee UniPostings charges also \u201cprotects against fake posts or people taking advantage of being posted on 20 different accounts to gain followers,\u201d he added, noting that incoming freshmen don\u2019t want to make friends who end up going to another school.\n <\/p>\n
\n Jonah Liss and Blake Mischley, the founders of MeetYourClass, graduated from the University of Michigan in 2025 after meeting on an incoming class Instagram page. Liss said their company works with about 30 schools to run and manage first-year Instagram pages.\n <\/p>\n
\n There are two reasons universities sign up for his company\u2019s services, Liss told me. \u201cThe first one is that we\u2019ve measured that the average student who gets featured makes 51 new friends before they come on campus. So, from the university\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s just more belonging in our community building,\u201d he said. \u201cThe second piece is that we found that students who get featured on the Instagram page persist at higher rates.\u201d That is, they enroll and arrive on campus in the fall.\n <\/p>\n
\n Schools have a problem called the \u201csummer melt,\u201d a phenomenon in which students say they intend to enroll at a school but do not show up in the fall. Liss and Mischley think that students who post have a better retention rate because they have more of a sense of community and are less afraid because they\u2019re already familiar with a few people.\n <\/p>\n
\n But do those connections turn into friends? Not necessarily, but Mischley said it\u2019s a start toward building community.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI went to U of M, and I followed probably several hundred students,\u201d Mischley said. \u201cNow, obviously was I friends with all of them? No. But I saw them in my feed so much to where when I would see them on campus, I just recognized their face.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n When I looked up \u201cDartmouth 2030\u201d on Instagram, about a dozen accounts came up. Typically, you can figure out who\u2019s running the page by looking at the page\u2019s bio, links, highlights and pinned posts. A pinned post (placed at the top of the account and doesn\u2019t move down when other posts are made) names Dartmouth Admissions and features a link to Dartmouth\u2019s official onboarding site. The for-profit pages often have links to the company that runs it in the bio and pinned posts promoting their app or site.\n <\/p>\n
\n Prospective students can also look on their school\u2019s admission website. The Dartmouth Admissions site recommends the following: \u201cThe easiest way to begin connecting with other admitted students is to follow your Class Instagram account. Once created, the link to this group is posted on our Admitted Students page.\u201d (I reached out to Dartmouth\u2019s office of communications, as well as Instagram\u2019s parent company Meta, to get their take on these pages but didn\u2019t hear back by publication time.)\n <\/p>\n
\n Don\u2019t want to join those pages? Colleges and universities know that incoming students, especially those who went through middle school during the pandemic<\/a>, need ways in real life to meet and make friends, so they have organized events like the ones I attended. Also, plenty of college activities and parties are free and don\u2019t require purchasing tickets from an Instagram account.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI had zero friends on campus before I showed up,\u201d Jane told me. \u201cI definitely lurked on the Instagram (page), but I didn\u2019t post. I didn\u2019t comment. People were saying, \u2018This Instagram is so great! You\u2019re gonna show up to campus with a group and that\u2019s the way to do it.\u2019 That\u2019s not the way I did it, and it turned out just fine.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Remember that many incoming freshmen really don\u2019t know anybody, so it\u2019s perfectly fine to just ask to tag along with people you don\u2019t know. Try stuff out, get involved and don\u2019t be afraid to ask the people you meet for their numbers to stay in contact. It\u2019s important to be able to reach out and ask to grab coffee or a meal. Chances are, they\u2019ll say yes.\n <\/p>\n