<p>that I fell hook, line, and sinker for Ivy Grad's clever April Fools thread.</p>
<p>that rankings don't list BOTH the SAT ranges of those accepted to a college (so you know what it takes to get accepted) and the SAT ranges of those who are going to a college (so you know whom you'll be competing against in the classroom).</p>
<p>that colleges don't start charging MUCH higher application fees if students persist in wasting adcoms' time by applying to 15 or 20 colleges.</p>
<p>that people think there is a significant difference between two colleges when there is a ranking difference of like 5 spots. If there is a ranking difference of maybe 20 spots there could be a difference. But 5 or even 10 spots?</p>
<p>that NYU gets so much attention on CC and elsewhere (you see that poll where it was the #1 "Dream School" for students?). What's the big deal? You're 18! You don't have the age or the money to make the most of life in the Big Apple.</p>
<p>that people think USC and UCLA have a lot of intellectual cachet outside of California.</p>
<p>that anybody thinks people outside of California give a crap if you went to UCthis or UCthat. If it ain't UCB, I don't think anybody's overly impressed.</p>
<p>that nobody sees the irony when people defend the safety of the neighborhoods around Yale, Penn, & UChicago by saying, "It's not that bad...you just have to be careful and not go out alone at night."</p>
<p>that students apply to a slew of colleges and don't seem to get around to visiting them or learning much about them until AFTER they find out whether or not they've been accepted.</p>
<p>Eh I diagree a lot. Here, USC and UCLA are known not just for sports, but as academic powerhouses too. And I'd say outside of Cal, UCLA and to a lesser extent UCSD people don't know much about the UC system. NYU is a sweet oppurtunity for some people, it's not my thing, but come on, Stern right there in the big apple itself! I agree people here are ultra ranking obsessed, but outside of cc no one cares much about whether yale or harvard is better. Application fees are high enough; I applied to 8 and I couldn't get any fee waivers, so I couldn't afford any higher application fees. Rankings aren't reallly meant for accepted students. They're meant for college prestige and to a lesser extent to help applicants.</p>
<p>"
that colleges don't start charging MUCH higher application fees if students persist in wasting adcoms' time by applying to 15 or 20 colleges.
"</p>
<p>I'm surprised you couldn't see this. If anything, colleges will LOWER the application fee. Colleges WANT as many people to apply as possible. Look at WUSTL!!!!!!!
Hell, I'm surprised colleges like WUSTL haven't gotten rid of the app fee just to get more kids to apply and thus push down their acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Hey, this thread is for you to vent YOUR beliefs, not just to tell me what a jerk I am.</p>
<p>And the benefits of a higher # of applications (and thus lower acceptance %) will soon be outweighed by embarrassingly low %'s of those accepted who choose to enroll. So they will raise app. fees to scare off those who have no intention of going in the first place.</p>
<p>I work closely with admissions and EVERY college wants more applicants. Colleges like WUSTL and Harvard shell out truckloads of money in marketing to make this happen. Yield is an liability but as can be seen with WUSTL, apparently gaming the system can make this liability only a small one. </p>
<p>I won't give away any "classified" information but there are very SNEAKY ways colleges can see whether an applicant would matriculate.</p>
<p>I'm also surprised by NYU's popularity, but I also know a lot of rich kids who can't get into Ivys but want to live it up in NYC on mommy and daddy's money.</p>
<p>Ok im venting. Why the **** was I rejected from Penn and Stanford and such? I have a great SAT score, great GPA, showed my passions in my essays, won a great deal of awards. Im a ****ing awsome person.</p>
<p>Maybe you swear too much? Did you drop an F-bomb in an interview? Did you meet a Stanford rep in a classy restaurant and then say, "You know, I really think Stanford is f@$%ing awesome! I mean Berkeley ain't s#*t compared to Stanford. And Harvard sucks %&#@ compared to the Farm!!"</p>
<p>I'm kinda sick of how people feel the need to put each other's schools down...it really puts a damper on students who are only in their late teens.</p>
<p>The ripping/defending of each other's schools is good preparation for college and for life: gathering evidence and data, organizing into a coherent and logical argument, and presenting it in an articulate manner. And if you can't come up with ways to defend your school's honor, then maybe it wasn't such a good choice for you.</p>
<p>No, I have the utmost respect for CMU. Really. A few years ago I hired a really sharp high school kid who went there after high school. He was a typical Midwestern kid, and I warned him that Easterners were a lot more blunt and aggressive than Midwesterners tend to be. (My family moved from the Midwest to the Boston area when I was 16, so I was painfully familiar with the Midwest/Northeast culture clash.) Despite my efforts to toughen him up for the Easterners, he felt out of place and dropped out after his first semester, and came back to work for me. But he got himself grounded and went back the following fall, and eventually graduated and got a good job. He didn't have anything bad to say about CMU except that the NY/NJ/Eastern PA folks were a little rough to be around until he got used to them.</p>