<p>After seeing people come and go on this board, humbly offering their amorphous resumes and asking for "chances", I'd just like to make it clear: a lot of the people chancing your threads are high school students themselves (many of them in the same situation) and you should take everything that is said with a grain of salt. When someone offers you percentages on your chances at admission, remember that these numbers are arbitrary to a point, and should not at all limit you. </p>
<p>Just use what you hear here for perspective.</p>
<p>You'd probably get better context on your prospects for admission at that ever-fleeting dream school by doing your own research- reading up on how admissions work, what colleges are looking for, the MEDIAN SAT range for schools (collegeboard.com), etc. The people on CC are pretty damn knowledgeable, but there is no substitute for amassing a knowledge base yourself. </p>
<p>I say this because when people first come to these boards, one of the first things they do is follow their desperation liek a divining rod and head for the What My Chances, where they are ripped apart or glorified, only to leave the board and rarely come back. The same people may be depressed by what they see here or gain a skewed perspective. </p>
<p>ALWAYS REMEMBER that the people seeking out these boards are often the overachievers, upper decile SAT scorers, national contest winners, etc. Don't let this dampen your hopes for college admission, and don't let CC dictate your life. Treat it like an informative book. You usually don't live your life by what you're told in a book, and you shouldn't let CC hold you prisoner to it's tales of 2200 being a benchmark for any Ivy League, or 3000 community service being a prerequisite for getting in anywhere above a community college. There are millions of applicant's around the nation, there are maybe a few hundred over achievers here. Just remember that whatever you come away from CC with, your looking at a minuscule sample of the population, and there's always a college for you.</p>
<p>There is so much misguided advice here as to render this board useless. Kids assuring anyone with higher stats than their own will get into top colleges. All this when the facts of who gets in stats wise is available!</p>
<p>This post is more intended for those just entering the college admissions world and are susceptible to a lot of the biased analyses you see on these boards. I just don't want people to beat themselves up over what they read here.</p>
<p>This is my first post, but I have been "lurking" the forums for the last couple of months. Thank you, DerrickA, for putting things in perspective. My S is in the process of looking at colleges, and I got caught up in reading posts, and initially felt a little bit discouraged. Eventually, I came to the conclusion as you did - that CC is a wonderful source of information, but we still need to do our own research, and reach our own conclusions. I'd like to believe, though, that most posters are well intended. Overall, I appreciate the wealth of information found on CC.</p>
<p>Well, we try to do our best, and the advice is free, but yes, I agree that many who post on here are extremely tough and IMHO rank people's chances lower than they should. </p>
<p>P.S. Some, like myself, have been out of school for years, and do know a lot about what it takes to get in based upon some study of the colleges over a few years. Others are experts on certain schools (take floppy who is an expert on UC admissions and Alexandre, who knows Michigan and many of the midwest schools better than anyone). There is also suze, who I often disagree with (I think she is too rough on applicants), but on the other hand, she knows Ivy league admissions much better than most--including yours truly--and is a student at Dartmouth currently. She has also been through the prep-school route--and so understands that area better than those of us who never attended a prep school.</p>
<p>I guess my advice is to get to know your poster as well--and realize that we are giving estimates--and that only the schools can tell you in the end who is getting in and who isn't.</p>
<p>P.S. Let me also add that in many cases the students on here don't even know some of the basic stuff--like how to compute a UC GPA or which schools are in the UC system--or which colleges have business schools and which don't--or which schools have Early Decision and which don't, or which schools use freshman grades and which don't. So in answering those questions at the same time, I feel like we are providing a useful public service.</p>
<p>If I did say that about your chances I am sorry if I cam eon as harsh. But the message still stands, just because I critique you doesn't mean you should listen to me or anyone else. I'm not even in college yet.</p>
<p>I'd like to add that it's also a disservice when posters tell a student, even a student with a great application, that they are "auto-admits" or "shoo-ins" since anybody who follows these boards has seen many great applicants be deferred, waitlisted, and denied from top schools-given current admissions pecentages, it happens more often than not! Remember, the term "match" does not mean you are getting in, it just means you meet the schools criteria for admission.</p>
<p>Lovely post. Much-required at this time of the year. Every applicant for the class of 2012 ought to read this. May we make this a sticky, at least till admissions season ends?</p>