Instagram page spotlights acceptances
Eloise Pearsall, a senior at Haldane High School, has wanted since ninth grade to run an Instagram page of college announcements for her class.
So when the time came for the school’s 70 seniors to begin receiving early admissions decisions, Pearsall volunteered to take over @haldanecollegedecisions2024.
Her growing gallery of posts, featuring childhood and current pictures of her classmates, the names and logos of the colleges they plan to attend in the fall, and their intended majors, has become a resource for younger students interested in the same schools.
The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, where some Philipstown residents attend high school, also has a page, @masters2024collegedecisions.
Pearsall, who will attend Syracuse University to study broadcast and digital journalism and statistics, designed the posts using Canva.
“Even though Haldane is a small school, and most people have known each other since kindergarten, word doesn’t spread as quickly as one would expect,” said Pearsall, who is one of the first to learn when classmates receive acceptance letters.
“I love seeing everybody support each other when they ‘like’ a post, and students reposting [on their personal Instagram] stories is fun to watch.”
Although she is a ninth grader, Talia Hird, who lives in Cold Spring, follows the Masters page. When a new post appears, she said she sometimes researches the college, its programs and the campus. She also stays in the loop with her former school, Haldane, by following its college-acceptance page.
“I reach out to seniors from Haldane who I haven’t talked to in a long time, just to let them know how proud I am of them,” she said.
Arjun Bagaria, a Garrison resident and a junior at Masters, said his school’s page helps relieve stress as he works on applications. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that three Masters seniors had been accepted to schools he wants to attend.
