If this is a thread for minor venting, I will add that the opposite problem - young high school students who confidently and cheerfully volunteer uninformed, often erroneous, advice are equally exasperating. I hate to be the wet blanket, but when someone is suggesting unrealistic colleges, or just advising "aim for a 2200+, and . . . " to a thread where an OP is in serious need of a reality check and a sober assessment.
Can we talk about “Chance me and I’ll chance you back”???
Loosely translated as: I can’t figure out whether or not my top choice will accept me. Yet I’ll confidently advise you on the same subject.
Basic questions that can be easily googled and found in seconds, which are asked over & over can be frustrating. I mean at least try to find the answer before asking someone to find it for you.
I work in a mental health position dealing with much younger kids, it is pretty much the same when dealing with younger kid issues, parents, teachers, and even doctors. Some people don’t seem to want to use the resources available or to accept or follow good advice when it is given.
Those are my “favorites” @bjkmom! (I’ve never understood that…)
My “favorites” are the ones who jump in on a chances thread and say if the OP thinks positively and believes they will get in, it will happen. And that people saying it is out of reach are just downers.
Or apply to a full set of reaches and you’ll get into one or more.
@lookingforward - That’s one of my favorites as well. I posted a little math exercise that showed, all things being equal, if you apply to 10 schools, each with a 10% acceptance rate, your odds of being rejected by all of them is still quite high.
I wasn’t in trouble school-wise when I came on here, I was searching for info on the National Merit Program. But it opened my eyes to the wild process that college applications had become. The reach, match, and safety strategy was a new concept to me. Both my parents only applied to a couple CA state schools and attended the most affordable (and far from prestigious) option. I didn’t know that applying to more than 1 or 2 schools was normal for high achieving students. Once I saw what a process it was, I didn’t regret not doing that, but it’s been interesting to learn about.
I’d venture to say most parents only applied to a couple of schools. My H and I have commented many times on how different the whole process is today!
But oh, would this old lady have loved to have access to Google back the late '70s. Books. That’s pretty much all we had when seeking college info. I think I made my decisions based on the paperback Yale Insider’s Guide.
My parents barely finished high school. College wasn’t on their radar. My parents are the most supportive, loving people but gave me the “You’re smart, you’ll get money.” thing. I believed that mostly until the economy collapsed my junior year and all of my friends suddenly had unaffordable options. I lived in a well off area and most college bound kids had parents paying. My family is dirt poor and I had to do it on my own but I believed the money would come thing because NOTHING in my experience up until that point showed me otherwise.
I stumbled onto cc my sophomore year of high school looking for summer programs. It wasn’t until after the collapse that I started really long at what CCers were saying about college and costs. I had to rethink everything.
My story is far from unique.
Back in the day I applied to a reach, match and safety. Harvard, Brown and U Penn. I got merit money at Penn. 
(Do they even have merit money these days?)
Times have changed!
I also only visited Harvard, Barnard and Tufts. So why I thought Brown and Penn would be okay beats me!
I would bet the majority of students still only apply to two or three schools. I know in our high school which is upper middle class to upper class that is still the case. Usually an instate public, a bordering state public and a private. You don’t hear a lot of talk about the selective schools kids on CC agonize over. Maybe because they are all pretty much full pay families. It is only the top 10 or 20 kids who apply to a lot of schools.
In my school, it’s far more likely to be 10 or 12. We’re a college prep school, and every year we get a number of kids into the Ivies and the Academies. But even the typical, B average kids tend to apply to at least 8 or 9 schools.
I think it’s a matter of casting a wide net, then seeing where the results take them in terms of finances. At least, that’s the approach we’re taking with my son-- absolutely NOT aiming at a top ranked school. He’s applying to 9 schools. We’ll see where he ends up once the numbers come in in the spring.
Hi dig!
This sounds like a version of the “most annoying threads” thread. But agree. Its annoying when some expect others to do their research for them. But if they choose to listen to the suggestions of other HS kids with not more experience than they have… well they deserve what they get…
Just saw this in the FA forum and thought of this thread.
I see this issue go both ways. Sometimes it’s the responders who don’t bother to read the OP. A thread in the FA section has a student who did his homework and knew he qualified for X. The very first post, an adult who is an established poster, commented that he qualified for X, which he already said in his OP!
I’m just saying it’s not just students who don’t bother to read before posting…
I’m probably guilty of that a lot myself.
I tend to be online at 5:30 am on school days, then again after I’ve done the dishes at night, before I grade papers or prep a lesson. There are always 3 other things I really should be doing.
The difference is that most of those adult responders aren’t asking for help, we’re offering it. So, yes, sometimes we probably don’t read carefully enough and miss something.
But it’s in the spirit of DOING a favor, not REQUESTING one. In my mind, there’s a big difference.
I truly just do NOT get some of these posts.
If you don’t want to help someone on here, ignore the thread. Seems quite simple.
Okay, after posting a day or two ago that most of the posts out there don’t both me, I’ll admit to a pet peeve: People who post something (usually a “chance me” thread) at 9:42a, then post “bump” at 10:13a, and again at 10:39a, and again at 11:03a, and…