<p>I disagree with most of the posters here. As an applicant I felt that the chance threads offered a glimpse at the competition and also allowed you to gauge your legitimate chances of getting into schools. </p>
<p>For example when I first came here I thought being 16 in your class was really good but then realized it was not on par for some of the schools I wanted to attend. Similarly, the threads offered a wake up call in relation to the standards for tests scores, extracurriculars, and even strategy when formulating applications.This website helped tremendously during the application process and even the offers to read others essays helped as well. All of these things are extremely helpful to the random student from a public high school that rarely sends kids to top schools.</p>
<p>I disagree. In my opinion, which shouldn’t count for much given my age, I think kids should apply to several schools given the highly competitive nature of college admissions. I applied to four schools: the University of Texas, Princeton, Harvard, and Yale, and in retrospect that was a terrible decision. I got rejected from half the schools I applied to and if Yale hadn’t come through I would have been chuck out of luck. Besides college admissions should be more about collecting trophies. It makes you feel like the odd man out when discussing which colleges you were accepted to and your friends say “MIT, Princeton, Yale” and all you have to say is “Yale and UT”.</p>
<p>The average student isn’t apply to that many colleges:</p>
<p>"College-bound students are more likely than ever to apply to multiple institutions. But although the number of students who apply to just one school has declined dramatically, reports suggesting that many students are applying to a dozen or more are greatly exaggerated, a report says.
Only 2.2% of freshmen entering a four-year college last fall had applied to 12 or more schools, a 1.3% increase over 2000, the report says. It was released Monday by UCLA’s Cooperative Institutional Research Program.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t care if anyone finds out that baseline information about me. If you actually want to spend your time finding out info that about me then good for you champ! It’s not anything I couldn’t figure out about the 3200 kids (hint hint! can you find out where I go to high school!!!) that go to my school in a few minutes with facebook and the school directory.</p>
<p>I agree that sometimes too much info is posted. Either people don’t realize that they are positing pretty identifiable information or are okay with the fact. Some posters even choose to list their screenname on the CC facebook group. I know quite a few of the posters on my school’s CC forum and 2 of them are my roommates. Who knows? A CC meetup for my school might be in the works.</p>
<p>I don’t usually visit the chances forum because I prefer to spend my time on other parts of CC. I feel that it is a useful forum, but I also like the college search and selection forum because it is similar and somewhat calmer, IMHO.</p>
<p>Well then maybe people with those types of issues should be a little more careful with their threads but the vast majority of people including me don’t have much to hide that you could find out on the internet.</p>
<p>I think attitudes toward internet privacy have changed a lot for our kids’ generation. We oldsters (OK, middle aged) tend to be much more concerned about it than the kids who have grown up “exposed” to a larger group of strangers. They may turn out to be right in the end; if their entire generation lives in a fishbowl, then the odds of any damage to each individual will go way down.</p>
<p>Although I find such speculation interesting, I too cringe when I see kids oversharing on here, and I try to avoid posting enough information to identify me easily.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Naviance website, if your highschool has it … compare your stats to others from your school accepted/rejected at various colleges </p></li>
<li><p>MyChances website (clunky, and painful setup of Profile… but very helpful to get an idea of acceptance criteria), less useful on the super selective volleges where everybody has stellar stats</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I see the chance thread-ers as just insecure and fidgety, and I always think, “You’d be better off developing your ECs – or better yet, getting a good night’s sleep – than asking for chances from other high-schoolers who don’t have any more knowlege about this than you do.” I especially love “Chance me and I’ll chance you back!”</p>
<p>Yeah that was something that I thought was stupid. If someone can’t assess their own chances of getting into colleges, then how could they assess yours? For some reason SO many people on here fail to make that logical connection.</p>
<p>A lot of the responders are people at college currently, so they are seeing close up who is making it and who isn’t. Unfortunately there are 2 issues regarding chance threads. I know of one poster who is a sophomore in hs, and answers the chance threads as if they have gone through the process. The second problem is that some students will be accepted for other reasons than academic, i.e. a hook. Some students will have lower stats, but maybe they are a URM, and did get accepted for that reason. Some students maybe an OOS compared to IS. College admissions is not based purely on stats and ECs. At Notre Dame they take the essays very seriously, that could be your make or break.</p>
<p>I think it is true, if you can’t figure out that you are Valedictorian with 9 APs, 2300 SAT, Class President, Football Captain and Eagle Scout that your odds are good even at Ivies, than you have no common sense. Yet, many of these kids do not have that type of resume, and acknowledge that they have a whole in their application and are concerned that it will jeopardize their chances. As I said in an earlier post, there is one thing for asking a chance when you are on the cusp, another when it looks like a clear dunk.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s amazing how easy-to-identify some of the posters are! Of course, it’s not just the kids. Last year a parent posted so much information that he and his child were readily identifiable.</p>
<p>Probably many posters are readily identifiable, should someone care to explore the web for such info. Different people have different comfort levels when it comes to privacy vs self disclosure. If a person is comfortable disclosing information, that is their perogative. Bulletin booards like this have the option to be anonymous, but it isnt a requirement. IMO, I agree with Sherpa. Within reason, it can be ok, even helpful to others, to share some personal information.</p>
<p>One problem I’ve seen is that a kid gives incredibly detailed stats, making it very easy for an ad com to figure out who he or she is (especially at some of the smaller colleges). Then the kid writes things on that college’s forum like “I know I’ll never get in” or makes racist remarks like “If I were an URM, I would get in” and thus actually lowers his or her chances of acceptance! I imagine ad coms read this boards regularly - I think kids should be careful when posting their stats and their comments.</p>
<p>I am a high schooler and I also find the chance me threads to be irrelevant. People are simply asking other unqualified applicants to assess their potentials. THis I think is very bad because some chancers are so harsh in that they say things that would make the chancee feel as if they were unqualified, when in reality they never know. The whole admissions process is very unpredictable and no one can determine whether you are a sure in or sure out.(with some exceptions of course).</p>
<p>How identifiable are you? My son, a college freshman, described his roommate. Within three sentences I said, “I know his screen name on College Confidential!” And I was right. Roommate’s response: “Ohhhh, groaaaannn. Don’t read anything I wrote two years ago - I was such a fool*.”</p>