<p>Hi everyone.</p>
<p>Let's paint a quick picture of the old adage "blind leading the blind." Many of you guys come here looking for advice. You're young, nervous, overachieving, and don't want all of your hard work and effort to be shot down when you're applying to the school of your dreams. I completely understand - but please be careful to take advice from so-called board "experts". Nothing, absolutely nothing, makes a fellow high school senior more knowledgeable than yourself when it comes to the admissions process. There are certain statistical patterns that emerge, but even then there are so many cases of outliers and too many variables to accurately predict your legitimate chances. Do the very best you can in your classes, have a challenging course load, and be involved in varying degrees of activities. Differentiate yourself. That is about the best advice anyone on here can provide you when it comes to your chances to get in.</p>
<p>"Experts" - Please stop senselessly acting as if you have any legitimate insight into the process. You are only accomplishing the goal of making an already nervous group of applicants even more nervous by telling them that they have an "inferior" SAT score or they "really need to get some awards." This is childish and ignorant, and quite frankly incredibly irresponsible. Swallow your purported "expert" label and a bit of your ego in the process.</p>
<p>Thank you kindly for posting this.</p>
<p>People that say “chance me and I’ll chance you back” - I don’t understand why they say they have the knowledge and authority to chance another applicant but cant chance themselves.</p>
<p>I dont know if I completely agree. Ya, I definately acknowledge that outliers exist at every school. However, there are MANY brilliant people on this forum (I am not one of them though) who have many inciteful, helpful things to say about the college application process. I know that my app wouldnt be a strong without them or this site. Additionally, there certainly are trends in admissions and practices that are unique to each school. People here have done a great job of assessing these trends in admissions. In fact, we even have a former wharton admissions officer on these forums! I dont know who can honestly assess one’s chances better than her. However, I agree that no one can give a definate answer to the “chances” question.</p>
<p>Listen to the guys who’ve gone through the process and have a few years of experience.</p>
<p>Cough cough.</p>
<p>Benjihana, what exactly are you proposing? That knowledgeable individuals completely ignore the myriad of “chance me” threads?</p>
<p>By creating one of these threads, an applicant is simply asking the community to provide them with some honest feedback, in most cases well aware that no individual can ever have completely perfect insight into such a complex process. I would contend that if one truly does has at least some legitimate insight, they should give the applicant an accurate assessment of how they perceive their chances of admittance. </p>
<p>In fact, in my mind, not doing so would be the incredibly irresponsible thing to do.</p>
<p>Rtgrove, Just be mindful of your advice. Your posts are a few that I think are a little misleading. You offer very explicit advice without a whole lot of insight. This isn’t really a personal attack, but I can definitely see how your responses might add to an applicant’s anxiety, and not with any real rhyme or reason.</p>
<p>legendofmax, Wharton '08 here.</p>
<p>enigma,</p>
<p>Too many posts here revolve around explicit advice. You “should do this” or that “you won’t get in unless” or “your chances are not good given that you…”, etc.</p>
<p>Wait a minute. Benjihana.</p>
<p>Dude, we know each other. ■■■■■. I can’t believe it took me that long to actually read your name.</p>
<p>So Benjihana, how do you feel people should respond that would be in a constructive manner?</p>
<p>Honestly, your best bet is to just look at the old RD/ED threads to get a feel for which CC applicants made the cut and which didn’t. Try to see where you can improve and work from there in a very modular way.</p>
<p>In my opinion, there is not really a constructive response that answers the question “What are my chances to get in here?” Max, who are you? LOL.</p>
<p>I think from now on everyone should answer ~17% then. Actually, I’m seriously doing that to the next person who posts one of those threads because they’ve always kind of irritated me.</p>
<p>The Admissions Directors told me that you have a good chance of maybe getting in.</p>
<p>I can definitively tell you that if you decide not to apply to Huntsman due to perceived inadequacies then you will not be accepted into the program.</p>
<p>Benjihana:</p>
<p>I dont really agree with you. I mean if a person is applying to a HYPS or Wharton school with a 2000 on their SAT and is unhooked, they probly need to know that their stats will definately hurt them. Or if someone has literally no awards, they probably should be suggested to get some. I mean if you dont believe my advice is correct go look at the HYPS results threads.</p>
<p>Benjihana: My name’s not really Max – next time you’re on FB, I’ll toss over a chat message.</p>
<p>Rtgrove, your manner of “suggestion” is from a position of knowledge, which you do not have. You very clearly position yourself as a person of insider knowledge, which again, you do not have. Statistical tendencies do not make you an expert, nor do they qualify you to make the following /definitive/ statements:</p>
<p>“ECs: Your [sic] a bit weak here too. … However, I cant find any distinct leadership here. Leadership is CRITICAL to these schools … without the ECs your chances will be hurt a lot actually.”</p>
<p>“Awards: I dont see any…get some.”</p>
<p>“If you are applying to Wharton (business school) you have a pritty [sic] small chance of admission. Sorry, the school is about as competitive at HYPS. However, you have a decent shot at the CAS. I mean its still not a GREAT shot, but you could definately [sic] get in.”</p>
<p>“All in all, I may not no [sic] for sure what I am taking [sic] about.”</p>
<p>Your provided information is hypocritical. While you provide very definitive and “in-the-know” responses (see: You’re a bit weak here; Get some; You have a … small chance"), you openly admit you really know nothing about the process (see: “could definately” (sic) - what does that even mean?; “I may not no for sure what I am taking about” (sic)).</p>
<p>This is what I mean by this whole thread. You DO NOT have insider knowledge, so when big-eyed applicants come here looking for what ultimately boils down to an attempt at pacifying their own anxieties, you are doing them a severe disservice by attempting to portray an admissions expert. You are not, plain and simple.</p>
<p>First of all, I don’t believe what I was saying was hypocritical. I simply was telling the OP that while I am not an admissions officer, this is how I would view their application. Now, there is more than just statistical tendencies on the results threads of the HYPS threads. I can find key information about how a given college looks at ECs and the like. However, I’ll just go down the list of your complaints with what I said and address them individually.</p>
<p>The response about ECs and Awards came from my Wharton regional admissions officer. He told me that Wharton really wants to see demonstrated leadership through both “special recognition” (awards) and club positions. So, I feel pritty confident in saying that its fair to objectively look at one’s profile and say “you need awards or leadership because you currently do not have any.” Now, I could understand your complaints if the OP had those things and was attacked by me. At that point (according to another individual on this forum who interviews for a HYPS top school), the way you convey passion takes over. </p>
<p>Now, I feel fully justified in saying that he had a slim chance of admittance to Wharton. His stats were not realistic for this school and he didn’t have leadership and awards that admissions officers have said are key to admittance into Wharton. It wouldve become harder to say if he did have those things.</p>
<p>Lastly, negative feedback certainly is critical in this process. In fact, I feel it is more helpful than positive feedback because it only sets the person for good things in the future. I mean I doubt you would jump on someone who said “your a shoo in for Wharton…just relax.” However, if the OP really didnt have a great shot at Wharton, then he prbly would be more hurt over his rejection because of comments like that. </p>
<p>Again, as I said before, I am not expert on the admissions process. However, I have spent literally every day for the last year reading more and more about the process and I feel that I am competant enough to give you a general feel for your admissions results.</p>
<p>Rtgrove, look up what [sic] means. The OP was subtly making a point that he was too polite to make directly.</p>
<p>I think Rtgrove has a point - this is a free forum haunted by high school students. Nowhere does CC “guarantee” 100% accuracy or reputable advice, and certainly CC has no legal or moral obligation to anyone seeking it. If a person asks for advice without realizing that the responses they receive are never completely reliable, then that’s their own naive mistake.</p>
<p>Asking people on CC for advice is just like asking friends or family members for advice. No one is claiming expertise, they just give the most informed suggestions possible based on their own experiences. And I think the OP should not spend time lecturing people who give sincere counsel, but the people who are gullible enough to request and internalize it unquestioningly.</p>