<p>I'm posting this here because it's probably the most appropriate section, but if not, feel free to move this.</p>
<p>I think chance threads should be banned. I feel that the negative aspects of them far outweigh their usefulness, which is basically just to give an applicant a confidence boost.</p>
<p>With occasional exceptions, most chance threads seem to follow one of the two patterns below:</p>
<p>1) An applicant with extremely competitive statistics being told that he/she is probably a shoe-in for whichever elite school(s) he/she is applying to.
2) An applicant with comparatively-average stats being told that he/she should probably not get his/her hopes up about a school because it is a "reach" for him/her.</p>
<p>I do not doubt that there is probably an applicant on here who has decided not to apply to a school because of an unfavorable impression in his/her chance thread. I do not doubt that there are students here who were fluffed up and assured by posters here that he/she would be admitted, only to find a rejection letter in the mail come decision time. I think these threads serve no real purpose; the poster posts them because he/she wants a confidence boost, and if the reaction is unfavorable it only has a negative effect on the OPs confidence.</p>
<p>Look at the people responding to chance threads. Most of them are high school students themselves. What position is a high schooler in to tell another high schooler what his/her chances are for Harvard? As a matter of fact, who besides a current or former admissions counselor is in a position to provide that sort of advice? None of the advice that is given in these threads is based on any sort of fact or reason, and the idea that it could be affecting an applicant's decisions bothers me. This site should be for kids to get real, applicable, objective advice about college, not hackneyed, random chance ratings from students that they very well may be competing with for the same spots.</p>
<p>This has always bothered me and it took me four years of on-and-off browsing of this site in order to say it. If you're thinking of posting a chance thread, don't. You won't get any concrete information. Believe in yourself and what you can do, put your best foot forward, and apply. Nobody can tell you for sure what will happen until it happens.</p>
<p>I agree 110%. I been browsing CC forums for a while
(few years on and off) and when i saw this thread I had to register just to say I agree. Chance threads can really influence people’s life. I mean we would hope a person wouldnt base their college applicantion chance on a thread full of replies from student who themselves havent even been accepted to college but in the end we are all humans.</p>
<p>If these have to exist, I would suggest CC finds a group of people who could make somewhat-qualified opinions (former counselors, admissions faculty, etc) and makes it so that only they can respond to chance threads.</p>
<p>I think they are quite useless, but some students want the motivation from it…either they are on the right track…or they need to kick it up a notch.</p>
<p>“If these have to exist, I would suggest CC finds a group of people who could make somewhat-qualified opinions (former counselors, admissions faculty, etc) and makes it so that only they can respond to chance threads.”</p>
<p>CC will be a pay site then.</p>
<p>These guys (seniors) are nervous. Let them release their stress.
(Nobody will be stupid enough to believe that CC chance site will give them correct predictions.)</p>
<p>I would argue that chance threads can cause more stress, if the reaction is not what the OP foresaw/desired when he/she first creates the thread.</p>
<p>And I wouldn’t think it’s stupid, necessarily, but a lot of the people posting chance threads have no idea what to expect from college admissions. They’re just as likely to believe something they read on this site as they are to believe anything else, and that’s why these threads are so bad. </p>
<p>There are other ways to de-stress. Giving applicants helpful, qualifiable, objective advice is one of them. Read some replies to chance threads. It’s usually something like “You’ll get in no problem!” or “You have no chance! Don’t bother!” Many of the people making these claims are people who have not been admitted to college yet, let alone set foot in an admissions office or become familiar with the process.</p>
<p>This site is generally a great place for students to get advice from knowledgable people. Chance threads are one exception. They serve no basis other than to allow posters to fish for compliments and their competition to try and trounce their confidence prematurely. The time can be better spent by all parties involved.</p>
<p>I doubt there is a real conflict of interest involved here simply because applicants are applying to the same school and competing for the same spots. I say that because so many still believe simply reaching a particular threshold will gain them admission. They still don’t see that it is where they stand relative to other applicants that will determine admissions. I believe that the high school seniors still don’t quite understand the competitive nature of admissions fully, so to say that they are intentionally attempting to sabotage each other is perhaps a little too cynical. </p>
<p>That being said, these chance threads still definitely have a lot of problems. My biggest problem with them is that applicants get a lot of false hope from other people who probably know next to nothing about the schools the applicant is applying to. A great example is Michigan, where weak applicants that are not anywhere near the middle 50 percentile of admitted applicants get told they have a very good shot at the school. My belief is that people see that from years past, Michigan has traditionally admitted about fifty percent of it’s applicants, thus they draw the faulty conclusion that Michigan is not a selective school that admits only very strong applicants. I have seen quite a few people get built up and when the rejection letter comes, become bewildered and devastated.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with some of the comments here. Obviously, this site is designed, partly, to help those increase their chances into some of the top universities in the nation. Through chance threads, not only may the user who asks to be chanced be given guidance based on what others know about college admissions, but learn about new colleges tailored to their goals. </p>
<p>Many posters who post in chance threads post because they do not necessarily understand the caliber of students a certain college is looking for. Would it not be better for a student to understand that he or she needs to convey certain qualities to colleges than to ride falsely on a hope and be disappointed?</p>
<p>No one who replies to chance thread tries to make the person being chanced feel bad. As high schoolers, we’ve all been going through the same process and understand ans want the best for each other. In the case that it is unanimously agreed that a student is in over his/her head, chance threads provide the chanced person alternatives that are more viable options. Never would people outright reject without guidance. And in the case that a student is well qualified for hi/her school choices, what’s wrong with letting them know that they are well qualified?</p>
<p>Sometimes stress is a good thing. If, through a chance thread, an OP unexpectedly learns that he/she is not qualified, then she a) will not be as crushed when rejected from a college and b)take the opportunity to improve her chances.</p>
<p>@dblazer, You’re ignoring the fact that sometimes a person chances others for schools that he, himself has almost no knowledge about. Yes, there are times that it works out that a person is so over her head that she has no chance at getting in and all others chancing her realizes that but that is in the extreme minority. Usually the problem with these chance threads is that you high schoolers, because you wish the best for each other, overestimate the chance of the poster and cause the person false hope. My biggest issue with these threads is the amount of false hope that is generated. The number of times that a poster can actually benefit based on a chance thread is limited because of the lack of constructive criticism, as well as a lack on knowledge.</p>
<p>For the record, I don’t think students are actually deliberately quashing the hopes of their competitors in order to thin the playing field. You’re right, that is too cynical. Though I would not be surprised if a handful of regulars around here felt that way, that’s not my main issue with chance threads. I’m sorry for failing to convey that as such.</p>
<p>My main problem with these kinds of threads is much more in line with what Anthony is saying. Most responders here are in no position to give the advice or feedback that they do in chance threads. I mean, I’m about to graduate college, and I don’t think I could give you any meaningful insight into Penn’s admissions process. </p>
<p>Rather than chance threads, I’d like to see a member post his/her stats and history, and then the community at large help that member best use those stats to put together an application that paints the most compelling picture of him/her to the school. Dump the element of “chancing” altogether; it’s an inexact, subjective farce that adds no real value to the discussion here. Instead, look at the person and help them articulate their best qualities to a school, without telling them for sure that they will or will not be admitted. Nobody here is qualified to make that kind of judgement.</p>
<p>I guess it would not be a bad idea to have a “help chances” thread. I agree a lot of the chance threads are for seniors for whom it’s already too late in the game for them to add or change their involvement in activities. It would be helpful, I presume, for us to guide each other on how to present ourselves. </p>
<p>And obviously no one, except an admissions officer, is qualified to make a judgment for a top school. But there are certain qualities that admissions officers look for in an applicant and general knowledge can be used to, if not chance, at least guide those looking to achieve success in college admissions. I feel chancing can somewhat guide others, if indirectly, to more reasonable choices.</p>
<p>dblazer: What qualities are these? How do you know for sure? Every admissions counselor is different, every admissions department is different, and every school’s needs are different. Based on the variance of applicants that are admitted annually to schools each year, the only thing that I think we can say for certain is that there is a high degree of variance in the process. That’s why every year, post-decision time, we have threads made by people who are either a) stunned that they actually got into their “reach” or b) bewildered as to how their perfect grades and awesome ECs weren’t enough. </p>
<p>The idea of “chancing” is worthless unless the chance is coming from the keyboard of the admissions officer. A better alternative is to help students figure out what their relative strengths and weaknesses are and help them craft an application that underscores their strengths while softening their weaknesses. Every person is different, and every person’s application will reflect that, but there’s no cookie-cutter formula or commonly-accepted criteria for what students will and will not get in. Knowing this, how can a person reasonably expect to receive an accurate chance from anyone who isn’t looking at their application through the eyes of the admissions committee?</p>
<p>We can help students put together the application that portrays them in the best possible light. We can’t tell them with any degree of certainty that they will or will not get into a school.</p>
<p>Obviously every school looks for different types of students and the process is highly unpredictable, but qualities that, for example, all ivies would look for in an applicant are strong academics, as demonstrated by high gpa/SAT scores. In extracurriculars, they want to see leadership, passion, initiative, talents, etc. I could go more specific, but these are characteristics that it is well known that Adcoms look at. We shouldn’t just shun chancing b/c we are not admissions officers. Now what defines “good” in each of the areas is not solid, yet one has resources such as previous results threads, books written by admissions counselors, etc. which provide more specific information on what is “good.” One cannot say definitively, esp. for top schools, that another will get in, but based on previous history and general guidelines, one can deduce what kind of chances another has. Of course, if someone is does not know what is considered “good” they haven’t done their research and they probably do more harm than good. </p>
<p>And as I stated in my previous post, I agree that b/c it’s too late for most of the people who ask to be chanced, there is really no use in telling them what activities would help their chances. It’s a neat idea to have a thread dedicated to helping people assembling apps to increase their likelihood of being accepted to certain schools.</p>
<p>I doubt that actual admission officers can correctly chance somebody at highly selective colleges except for their own institutions. It will be a decision rather than chancing then.</p>
<p>For example, I am still wondering why I was accepted from NW while I was waitlisted from JHU. I used the same application, very similar essays, same transcript and same LORs.</p>
<p>I am going to say it again.
These guys (seniors) are nervous. Let them release their stress.
Nobody will be stupid enough to believe that CC chance site will give them correct predictions.</p>
<p>I just feel like the energy put into those threads can be put into giving better, more constructive feedback. Not only will that help seniors destress, but it will also give them advice that will actually be useful.</p>