<p>How accurate is Princeton Review's "counselor-o-matic"? I ask this because it listed Reed and UC Berkeley as matches for me, where as my own impressions and chances threads imply that these would be reach schools. Is Princeton Review too optimistic or cc too pessimistic?</p>
<p>It's complete nonsense. Don't listen to it. It's alternately too optimistic and too pessimistic.</p>
<p>It told me that Gettysburg was a 'reach' when I could've gone there and gotten TONS of merit aid. Instead I'm going to Columbia.</p>
<p>Yeah...I just did it and it wasn't even close. It told me Stanford was a match for me...um yeah no. lol. No way would I get in there.</p>
<p>I agree with the people above. Just don't use it.</p>
<p>The "College Search" under the Students section on collegeboard.com has more useful information.</p>
<p>lol wth...it told me that Caltech was a safety and that Cornell was a reach school............................</p>
<p>It said that West Point was a match for my daughter. I'm not sure she agrees....</p>
<p>Oddly enough, the school suggestions it gave me were worthwhile. While they were SO not in the right categories (I'd pretty much completely revise the organization of reach/match/safety schools) most of the results were schools that I'd already seen and liked, and also a few similar ones that I hadn't considered or forgotten (Colorado College flew low on my radar until then... and now I'm really liking it).</p>
<p>So go back and re-consider the information you gave it... especially about the size and the activities you really care about (as in, if you were like me the first time and selected 40 ECs I wanted the school to have, go back and remove all of the superfluous ones). At least it gives you an idea of where you might look.</p>
<p>But then if you see something nice College Board's Like Finder is amazing and fun.</p>
<p>The above poster is correct - Princeton Review makes good suggestions, but the chances categories are pretty unrealistic.</p>
<p>It's not accurate at all. It told me that Yale was a match.</p>
<p>I dont see why it should be even used - look up colleges on google yourself and collegeboard.com, because the first step is seeing if you want to go to the school and then if your qualified for it</p>