<p>I've been browsing this forum for quite the while now, and I am constantly seeing people ask for their chances at this school, or that school and I want to get something off my chest. </p>
<p>To the people who are wondering about their "chances":</p>
<p>You can provide all the information you want, your SAT scores, background, ECs, or what ever, and people can tell you what they think your chances are and maybe you will get legitimate opinions, but that is all they are, opinions. The only way someone can truly judge your chances is by seeing your entire application, your entire story. The idea that people think they can adequately judge someone's chances based solely on his or her SAT/ACT, GPA, and brief description of ECs is inane to say the least. Unless you have the full application, including essays, supplements and literally everything else the college is asking for (the recommendations included! How can you chance someone without reading one of the most important parts of the application!) you can't get legitimate answers. Now, my last point: people! Understand that the majority of people replying to chance threads are just as informed as you are, and definitely are not experts in college admissions.</p>
<p>So in all, everyone should relax, take a breath, and hope for the best, and do their own real research rather than posting "chance" threads. </p>
<p>I agree that “everyone should . . . do their own real research” rather than posting chance threads to be answered by anonymous strangers on the internet. Students should look up the Common Data Set for the college in question. They should check the college website, which often has a profile of the accepted and admitted stats of the previous class. Take a look and see where you fit in. I am astonished sometimes by some of the responses to “Chance me” threads, especially people who casually say someone is a match for a school where the OP’s stats really fall in the bottom 25% of accepted students. Stats aren’t everything, but it’s a good place to start for a reality check.</p>
<p>Oh, I know. I find it really funny that people play that game because it’s so meaningless. Like the people in the SAT threads that ask everyone to predict what they got based on how many answers the person thinks they got and what people think the curve will be like. There is literally no way of knowing, yet here’s everyone with their crystal balls…</p>
<p>My favorite - I’m a sophomore and I’m planning on having a 3.8 gpa and 2310 on my SAT when I take them in 2 years. Please chance me for Harvard, Yale and Stanford.</p>
<p>There have been about 10,000 threads here at CC expressing these same feelings…everyone gets it.</p>
<p>But to be contrarian, I’ll note a few things I like about Chance threads:
It opens your eyes to what is realistic and what is not. When I first arrived here at CC last year, I thought my kid was Ivy-bound…reading the Chance threads made me realize that she was not…but that she had other amazing schools to choose from.
It allows kids to sharpen their presentation…people will jump in and say, “don’t even mention national honor society…it means nothing…but, hey, look at the fact that you work in the family business…I would build up that.”
Its a good way to burn off excess energy…mid-december is a long way away…and its fun to have dreams before the clouds move in…</p>
<p>@southernhope I agree with your last two points, but I do want to allude to what I touched upon in my original post. There are few if any “professionals” on this forum, and the opinions people may give you can have negative consequences. I have a friend who is a student at Columbia, and he got a 2020 on his SAT, a “low” GPA and got in. Why? His recommendations were outstanding, essay, unbelievable, his supplements were the best I have ever seen, and his ECs incredible. If he made a chance post and told people he has a 3.6 gpa and a 2020, what do you think the reactions would be?</p>
<p>This actually got me to register an account (very long time lurker…I’m a grad student and started looking at this site when I applied to undergrad schools).</p>
<p>Why would chance threads give you an idea of what’s realistic? Chance threads are inherently unrealistic. I don’t see how you would realize your kid would be incapable of getting into ivies from a bunch of neurotic people posting tiny non-comprehensive bios of themselves for other neurotic people to give their completely off base opinions.</p>
<p>Now, it’s one thing if you looked at common data sets and realized that your kid falls far outside the accepted stat ranges, but one thing I’ve figured out from my time at college is that there is nothing that could definitely get you in. Everyone was different. I was not top of my class in GPA or test scores nor was I as impressive on paper as other people on this site posting chance me threads for my school when I was applying. Yet, I figured my chances were as good as anyone since my stats weren’t off base. And I was right.</p>
<p>I’m not saying it’s bad that your kid isn’t looking at ivies or even that she should be. But I really don’t think you should use chance me threads to estimate anything about where your kid could get in. </p>
<p>Plus people lie. We found the college confidential accounts for some people at my high school…man, the things they said…</p>
<p>I’ve done chance threads before not necessarily because i think they are actually very valuable, but because it’s kind of interesting to see what other people have to say. I don’t think anyone who does these chance threads thinks that the opinions given are definitely the opinions of admissions counselors, but it’s nice to get a fresh perspective from someone who has no personal bias (ie friends/family)</p>
<p>Another thing is, it’s very hard to compare to two students from totally opposite sides of the country (or world, in fact). Although there is general criteria for admissions into each respective colleges, a lot of times they compare your application to others’ in your own high school. Admission officers vary by region, and they know their region well enough to understand the context of each school’s applicants.</p>
<p>Some colleges do not compare within high schools, though. For example, Stanford took 7 my year and 0 the year before. We didn’t expect them to be telling the truth when the rep told us that they don’t have quotas…</p>