<p>So to recap: there seem to be mixed views about people asking other people to chance them. Some people encourage it, while others (such as myself) don't agree with it. I'm only a student, and I was wondering how parents perceive it. Do you think it's good or bad? Why or why not? Just wondering what other people are thinking...</p>
<p>Be thankful for the Chance-Me board. If that board didn’t exist, the other useful boards would be clogged with inane “chance-me” threads.</p>
<p>The only upside of the Chance Me site is correctly described by GMT. Most parents view it negatively. It’s very much a kid’s section, full of 12-13 year old curiosity, angst and bluster. It provides no real advantage to anyone, IMHO.</p>
<p>It’s like a horoscope or Tarot card reading: for entertainment purposes only. But I can’t just brush it off as harmless, silly musings of children. I think there are a few very real problems with chances threads on the boarding school forum.</p>
<p>First and foremost, eighth graders are not as likely to realize the inanity of chances threads as high school seniors. And, given the number of high school seniors who don’t grasp that truth, there are going to be too many people who are even younger who rely on them. </p>
<p>Second, again because eighth graders are not so worldly-wise as to be discreet about personally-identifying information – and again, given the propensity for high school seniors to freely share that information on-line – there are a lot of kids needlessly posting specific details about themselves on the prep school chances threads. </p>
<p>So, yes, I’m personally thankful that the forum is there and that its presence relieves these other forums of the weight of the insipid content. It’s like a garbage dump…but it’s also an attractive nuisance that entices young people to do foolish, if not dangerous things.</p>
<p>There should – at the very least – be a sticky warning from the moderators in that forum advising would-be posters</p>
<p>(1) to use it for entertainment purposes only,</p>
<p>(2) to recognize that even an admission officer (at a school using a holistic review process) would not pretend to know the outcomes based on the sketchy information that gets shared,</p>
<p>(3) to understand that sharing LESS personal information will generate the exact same rate of uninformed replies as one would obtain by uploading their complete application folder, including the significant recommendation components that applicants don’t typically see themselves,</p>
<p>(4) to get educated and speak to their parents or counselor about the dangers – not just in terms of having some admission officer download your CC posting history into your application file but in terms of other people, now or years from now, who may use that personal information to do harm to you, and</p>
<p>(5) to consider spending time they might spend on chances doing something more beneficial, like reading other information about admissions on CC and consulting all available resources on boarding schools so that they are making educated and informed choices about which schools they wish to apply to and which one they may ultimately attend.</p>
<p>Additionally, there’s no point to retaining the content posted there in perpetuity. If there is value to it, that value exists only in the hands of someone with a malicious intent. After 30 or 60 days, threads posted there ought to evaporate. It’s still the Internet and the information is probably going to remain floating around, but there’s no point in having it filed and indexed and sorted.
*
In case a moderator reads this and considers deleting this thread or closing it, please consider that this is an appropriate conversation for the parents forum because it deals with a very real and very valid concern that parents have about how our children acquire information regarding prep school admissions and about their on-line safety.*</p>
<p>You all are absolutely correct about the “chance me” forum to corral the those threads. I always thought of it as an ego-boost, honestly. I see a lot of kids just like me posting about their stats and grades. Once in a while I’ll see a parent correct a kid for showing too much personal information, but I never thought about the safety aspect of the thread…on CC it’s so easy to reveal your identity; simply by putting the day schools you’re applying to you giving a range in which you live.</p>
<p>Also, with kids beginning to post their SSAT scores, I believe that’s a little revealing. Thoughts?</p>
<p>Ummm… I did that yesterday… I just thought some more about it and realized it wasn’t a good idea… How can I get a moderator to delete it?</p>
<p>Report problem post I think. Preppossibly, this is what I based my post on. You may want to just say you got your test scores back, you’re happy with the results, they match what the boarding schools want to see, and if anyone wants to know your score you can PM them. I’m honestly just looking out for you guys. I used to post them too, in that huge acceptance thread, but it’s actually quite revealing to talk about scores.</p>
<p>Revealing your test scores is fine. There are so many students taking the test each year and some kids take multiple times. It’s very unlikely that AOs will try to identify you based on test scores you report here. Chances of many kids getting the same scores are too great.</p>
<p>thanks! I realized it was probably stupid of me to post them</p>
<p>There’s also nothing wrong with lying about them…on CC. You can raise one score just a little; and lower another just a little…and the advice you get here will be every bit as much conjecture as the advice you’d get if you were accurate to three decimal places in reporting your academic telemetry.</p>
<p>I know that some people get miffed when people make up facts about themselves on chances threads, but – seriously – does it matter?</p>
<p>I seriously doubt the AO’s have the time (or inclination) to obsessively match up SSAT scores reported on an internet bulletin board w the scores in the huge pile of applications they get.</p>
<p>The AO’s want to have a life.</p>
<p>It’s not that I’m upset people make up things about themselves…I just think that now more than ever, because these students have all their scores and report cards together, they are more likely to reveal things they shouldn’t on the internet. Food for thought…</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure my first post here that wasn’t 7th Grade SAT related was something like “Does anyone else find the ‘Chances’ threads ridiculous?”</p>
<p>SevenDaughter is not on this forum, and if she were, I’d advise her NOT to venture into the “Chances” section — for herself or to comment on the threads of others.</p>
<p>@Aristocratt,
“If it is not an AO trying to corral all the applicants to their school, who in the world will sit here and constantly post? …Don’t others have day jobs?”</p>
<p>The reason non-AO’s might post is to share learnings from going thru the admissions process. </p>
<p>Wish we had known last year what we know now. How we went thru the process was so haphazard. S was admitted into BS and is thriving now, but wonder if the decisions would have been different had we been better informed. </p>
<p>And, yes, we have day jobs, though mine is probabably at night where you are.</p>
<p>How can the constant posters have the time to work outside the home? And, given the level of knowledge of some of the posters how can they not be employed by schools now or in the past?</p>
<p>So who are the constant posters on here? I know frequent posters, but there isn’t anyone who constantly sits here and posts on everything. This conversation is going straight over my head…“parent speak”.</p>
<p>I take back my jest about “work outside the home” as not being even what I meant to joke, and possibly being interpretable as disrespectful in a way I did not intend. Substitute: have children at home, work outside the home or have other major responsibilities. All intended as a lighthearted remark.</p>
<p>By the way, some of the folks on this board either work or did work at schools (based on the unmistakeable authority of their postings) or should rent themselves out as consultants. </p>
<p>Students that make detailed postings do so at their peril: particularly provocative postings about specific schools.</p>
<p>Okay…so the students that post particularly revealing things about themselves are doing so at their own risk? But shouldn’t we have some sort of warning for them?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There is a warning. First of all, in the terms of service, you’re told not to post personally identifiable information. Then, specifically for the prep school board, the moderators made this thread “sticky”</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/427714-if-youre-new-cc-please-read-before-posting.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/427714-if-youre-new-cc-please-read-before-posting.html</a></p>
<p>I make the case that it can come back to haunt you in terms of admissions…but, as the final comment in that thread (from a BS admission officer) points out, the real concern is one of Internet safety.</p>