Admissions social runs on a yield-and-melt calendar: admit release, deposit deadline, summer melt. That is enrollment work, not brand work, and it needs tooling that treats it that way.
Medians across 497 tracked undergraduate admissions Instagram accounts · last 30 days
2.6%
+0.9 pt vs main accountsengagements ÷ followers
1.9
-1.5 posts/wk vs main accountsposts / week
Donor/Fundraising/Endowment Content
3.1% median ER · 34 posts
+1.1%
-0.3 pt vs main accountsfollowers, last 30 days
Across 465 tracked undergraduate admissions Instagram accounts, the median engagement rate is 2.6 percent, and across 497 the median cadence is 1.9 posts per week.
Admissions accounts post most on Fridays between 9 AM and 1 PM local time, across 492 tracked accounts.
Across 34 Donor/Fundraising/Endowment Content posts in the last 30 days, tracked undergraduate admissions Instagram accounts earn a median engagement rate of 3.1 percent — the highest of any content type.
Across 34 posts in this category, Donor/Fundraising/Endowment Content posts have a median engagement rate of 3.1 percent.
Across 67 posts in this category, Homecoming posts have a median engagement rate of 3.1 percent.
Across 153 posts in this category, Aesthetic Content posts have a median engagement rate of 3.0 percent.
Among the 51 tracked institutions with Under 1K students, the median follower count is 846 followers.
Among the 202 tracked institutions with 1K – 5K students, the median follower count is 1,920.5 followers.
Among the 89 tracked institutions with 5K – 10K students, the median follower count is 3,299 followers.
Among the 79 tracked institutions with 10K – 20K students, the median follower count is 6,416 followers.
Among the 41 tracked institutions with 20K – 30K students, the median follower count is 10,097 followers.
Among the 35 tracked institutions with 30K+ students, the median follower count is 20,255 followers.
Figures cover the last 30 days of posts. Last updated October 6, 2026.
Explore the full Instagram benchmarks →Admissions accounts grow a median +1.1 percent in 30 days on Instagram, across 487 accounts.
On Instagram, the median 30-day follower growth across 487 tracked accounts is +1.1 percent.
Across this cohort's tracked accounts, 1 maintain a Facebook presence, 0.2 percent of the cohort.
Across the baseline cohort's tracked accounts, 3,370 maintain a Facebook presence, 41.4 percent of that cohort.
Shares are computed over tracked accounts on every platform, so they describe where these teams maintain accounts rather than how those accounts perform.
The undergraduate admissions handle, the admitted-student community and the counselor-facing feed — accounts one prospective student actually follows, at one moment in their life. Most tools measure the account; admissions teams need to measure the class.
One calendar carries the admit-release push, deposit-deadline reminders and the summer melt sequence as a single campaign, with aid and deadline language approved before it posts. Student-worker drafts join the staff queue, and every number sits beside comparable admissions accounts.
The same calendar and peer data run the institution's wider social program, carry this class to the alumni side of the house, and serve two-year colleges on a faster clock.
Admissions offices run yield and melt campaigns across admissions and admitted-student accounts in Reach, with approvals, student-worker drafts and peer benchmarks in one place. Detailed accounts follow as institutions are ready to share them.
The main account speaks to alumni, parents, faculty and students on a year-round brand calendar; an admissions account speaks to one cohort in one funnel, timed by admit releases and deposit deadlines. An institutional average misreads it every season.
Content that answers an admitted student's real questions: what move-in looks like, who else is coming, how to read the aid letter, carried by current students rather than the institution. Reach plans it as one campaign, admit release to deposit.
Melt prevention is a scheduling and consistency problem: deposited students must keep hearing from you through a quiet summer while your staff runs orientation. Build the summer sequence in advance and watch engagement from the deposited cohort.
Reach tracks undergraduate admissions accounts across higher education and publishes their median performance with the sample size beside every figure: medians, so one viral post cannot set the bar. Connect your account to compare against the cohort.
Reach measures how higher education social teams actually post, so you can compare your own accounts against the cohorts these figures come from and see the gap in your own numbers.