Viewer noted,“When my son and I attended an information session for Yale last fall the first question the admissions rep asked was how many went on College Confidential. Nobody raised their hand and he then said how happy he was about that because it’s a horrible place filled with useless information. That really turned me off. This site has been so valuable to my children during the college admissions process. We have nowhere else to turn for this information”
Response: Although the interviewed admission officers didn’t like much of the advice given on CC especially in the “Chance me” threads, I wonder if they weren’t put off by having people show their exact stats on getting admitted based on both race and ethnicity. I wonder if they think this could be a potential problem for them.
In addition, people will know what scholarships are being given out. This could present a big problem that would result in more negotiations. Overall, I can see why an admission rep would consider CC a big potential problem for them.
My kid had the best admissions result in her high school class… and I think it is primarily due to CC (thanks, everyone!). She didn’t have the highest GPA or the flashiest ECs in her class, either. Her test scores were great, but that was certainly partly due to CC advice. Her school guidance counselor is fine, but no way does she have the time to spend to give us all the info we got out here. Nor is she inclined to deal with issues like FA questions. I think it is a bunch of sour grapes on the part of GCs who complain about CC.
College Confidential has proven invaluable to me, both when I was deciding which college to attend and which colleges to apply to as a transfer (my current school is a perfect social fit, but doesn’t offer a major I decided to pursue after starting college). As much as the current Emory admissions officer likes to disparage College Confidential, it’s a truly valuable resource in terms of figuring out how to finance college, how to select a school, and the pros and cons of various institutions.
I’m a current Emory student who regularly posts on the Emory subforum, regarding my program. While there’s certainly quite a bit of misinformation spread about the school, it’s by and large by high schoolers. Many current students and recent alumni post on the forum to correct these misconceptions, including those intentionally or unintentionally fostered by tour guides. Given the student and parent responses, I’d say we’re taken far more seriously than the high school senior trying to offer advice on what he’s seen at the school. We also often direct students to the appropriate person if they have specific questions that we can’t answer.
There are some parts of college confidential that are almost totally worthless. The Chances forum, the college search and selection forum when it’s dominated by only prestige obsessed high schoolers with little knowledge about how college operates, and other places. It also tends to be too East Coast oriented (may be a commentary on the fact that outside of the Northeast, the vast majority of students are very pleased with their in-state publics and thus don’t need to search for colleges) But by and large CC is an excellent resource for students and parents who are willing to look beyond those aspects and consider all of the positives that the forum has to offer.
I lost almost 75 pounds through the diet and exercise thread. There are others that have lost small and large amounts of weight and generally have a much better quality of life. What is it worth to go from obese to normal weight and be in great physical shape? What’s advice about finding internships or jobs worth? What is it worth to have others help you with a turnaround plan when your kid is in a slump? There are a lot of areas that weren’t covered by that article.
I’m also on trading, sports, and technology forums. Those can be pretty rough places compared to CC.
Personally, I think the chances forum is a good tool for some of the seasoned parents doling out advice to get involved.
The kids need to be asked pointed questions about their safeties and financial safeties when they post the chance me thread so they start thinking more rationally. In some cases, getting into the college of their choice might be the wrong thing for them.
There’s a local (national?) men’s clothing store that has the mantra, " an educated consumer is our best customer." The same can be said for CC and its benefits. Is it perfect? Far from it but if you want to know about safeties, financial safeties, merit aid, EA vs ED, SCEA,timing of when to take SAT2,demonstrated interest, common app,FAFSA, I can’t think of a better source. Our son’s high school barely mentions the subject tests but from CC I learned of the schools that require it and our older son took a few at the end of his junior year. I remember sitting in an info session for one very large university that following summer and they mentioned that they require two of them and there was an audible gasp from all those students who hadn’t taken any or knew that they needed to take them.
While our school has Naviance, CC led me to other sites with analytics and scatter plots to help give a realistic view of one’s chances, especially with variables included. I learned that 2300 and a 4.0 is NOT a guarantee of Ivy league admission unlike some of our neighbors/friends who along with their children got a very rude wake up call at the end of March…
There is a huge learning curve and by the time we assimilate all the info, often it is too late to be helpful, at least for the first child applying to college. CC is a piece of the pie used to go through the process…
It occurred to me that I don’t ever remember seing a post on CC from a high school guidance counselor (or at least admitting to be one). Perhaps there are some who participate.
I don’t find articles like this helpful. Everything has its pros and cons, CC notwithstanding. Every forum and discussion is not going to appeal to everyone. I think the author really missed the point along with the more positive aspect of CC.
Personally I have found CC to be enlightening. Where else can you go on the web to ask questions on college topics, while catching up on Downton Abbey discussion, all the while offering support for an ailing poster?
I stumbled upon CC one day while searching for SAT tips. Xiggi’s SAT tips and strategies threads have been immensely helpful to my kids and my friend’s kids. (Thank you, Xiggi!) In addition so many offer their advice on paying for college, what worked for them, current events on different campuses, and even middle and high curricula. Thank you CC members, for giving of your time to help educate others.
When I was reading the article I was wondering if some of the regulars here, one in particular, would be quoted, to convey the flavor of CC. I was pleased to see PG quoted in a way that well conveys her personality and contribution to the forum:
The funny part is, people spend way more time on Facebook talking about what they ate for breakfast or on Twitter hearing about whats on sale at Target in 140 characters. And this information enlightens people how?
At least here on cc, we are having actual conversations that you might have at Starbucks with strangers. No one walks away from the forum thinking they have heard God’s word.
CC picks up where our HS GC doesn’t even start. Ours were terrible.
What the article did not touch on was the support people give one another especially in poor health. I can’t remember the name of the mom who developed cancer and posted on cc-“How was she going to tell her kids?”. After I think 2 years she passed away and the people on cc were so supportive to her. People who only knew her from here.
I’d like to think that because of some very valuable info I learned on CC, I was a 100 times more helpful than DS’s GC, not that she was not helpful, but I was able to gather much more information for my own son, and this was very specific to what he was interested in studying. I agree that the chance posts are somewhat ridiculous, but there are some very good resources on this website to help students in their search for finding the college with the right fit.
Hi, my name is psycho dad, and I’m addicted to college confidential
I don’t think “chance me for Harvard” threads are of much use, but I’ve seen plenty of threads more along the line of, “help me develop a good list,” or “tell me some schools that might be a good fit for me.” Often those provide really helpful tailored info.
This site has been a lot more helpful than the writer gives it credit for. Sure, if you visit the most popular threads (about Ivy League admissions and so on) you’ll see a lot of desperate kids and a lot of bad advice, probably. But looking beyond that, I’ve gotten unbelievably helpful advice from current college students who have firsthand advice that I couldn’t have gotten otherwise, all from the comfort of my computer. There’s definitely something to be said for that.
Visiting the site has also given me a much more realistic outlook on the college admissions process. I go to a rural high school where I get virtually no help from teachers or guidance counselors, because as a few posters above mentioned, they simply don’t have much experience with high achieving students (not a knock on my school, it’s just a numbers thing - small school=less competitive students). So this site has helped immensely with just getting a feel for how the whole process is.
I realize I’m preaching to the choir, but I just wanted to express myself. People can call it what they will, but I am very grateful for this website and the people who post here.
