<p>everytime i log onto college confidential, my eyes just glance at my dull computer screen, and all i see are posts like "chance me! do i even stand a chance with a 2400 sat score and a 5.0 gpa uw?" </p>
<p>People on college confidential usually exaggerate for the means of trying to dissuade you from applying to college so they have a better chance of getting in. For example, i've been pursuing posts about nyu stern's business program, and when I'm at school, my teachers and some college people i know, don't go "yep, its definitely a reach for you if you have anything below a 2200 sat score or a 3.85 gpa", but when im on college confidential, all i see are inflated numbers about SATs, and gpas.</p>
<p>Furthermore, there are parents on CC who have the interest of trying to prevent you from applying, so their kids will have a better chance. There are some people, whom I know, that got into their dream schools, even though they thought they wouldn't stand a chance. </p>
<p>So please, just strugg, even if you don't get in, there's always an option of transferring when you're in your freshmen year of college or whatever. </p>
<p>:) but, anyways, i hope for the best for you high school seniors applying to college this dec/jan!</p>
<p>Or there are people who genuinely want kids to not obsess with “name” colleges, offer advice to clear up misconceptions, and still plug away year after year recruiting kids to a college with under a 10% admit rate.</p>
<p>“its easier to get into your dream school than you think”</p>
<p>tell that to the 50 or so kids I’ve interviewed over the last 3 years who were rejected. (only one accepted during the same time)</p>
<p>Your cynicism about parents isn’t borne out by what I see. And YES I’m a parent too. My oldest isn’t applying for another 2 years. Same grade as you I believe</p>
<p>@dessie, no problem, also, i hope i plow through more views, just so i can also get the stress off my back. xD</p>
<p>T26E4, “offer advice to clear up misconceptions”, isn’t there enough contradictory information out there in the web? sometimes, things don’t correlate, if you go on the college’s webiste, and take a glance at CC or other website’s info, the facts and stats won’t be the same, and most of the time, it even confuses ME. </p>
<p>Yes, there are parents who try to dissuade ppl on CC, you cannot counter argue against that. and some users, if you take a look, only have 10 or less posts and their few posts are just stats of "2400 sat 9999 gpa, 36 act, super scored everything 10000 aps, 10000000000083895 hours of community service, president of 1000 clubs, saved 1000 lives, blah blah blah blah, rant all you want, but i’m not going down that tedious disingenuous list of yours</p>
<p>Congratulations on realizing that CC is not the place to come for “chance me” questions. A good GC or local Naviance is going to be a better predictor than an internet web site where high school kids like you are the ones mostly responding.</p>
<p>I agree with T2. Most parents who respond don’t have kids applying this year and are not trying to up their kid’s chances (as if that might be possible). The advice may be wrong, but it’s not motivated by self interest. </p>
<p>Is it easier to get into your “dream school” than you think? This is something you, as a high school kid have superior knowledge of? What exactly makes your post more credible than any other post on CC.</p>
<p>As a parent, I learned a lot of useful information in CC. None of it was related to the chances my kid of getting into where she applied. CC is a repository of both great and awful advice. Caveat emptor. And that would include my post as well as yours.</p>
<p>In the words of a famous Wendy’s commercial from the Paleolithic era, “where’s the beef?” How could you possibly make a statement with no basis that people “usually” exaggerate for the means of somehow one upping other students (usually implies more than 50% of the time). And how can you say that parents (I am one as well with a son going to college this fall) have similar motives? You have no prof, and therefore there is no beef.</p>
<p>@MathTeamExtraPro:
I think you’re missing the point of a “chance me” thread. </p>
<p>You ask people for their opinion, they give you an opinion on what they think your chances are. It is just their opinion based on the facts known to them. Nobody is saying “chance me” threads are accurate. You can still get into a dream schools. Chance me threads give you a general sense if you may be accepted or not. Remember that an acceptance rate is just a number. It does not factor in outliers. If the people you knew lucky outliers congratulations to them, but not all people are as fortunate or lucky. </p>
<p>In general a few do not represent the whole. Just because one or two people beat the odds, that does not imply others will too. After all, didn’t they beat the odds?</p>
<p>These scores aren’t inflated. There are a lot of students on here who are the cream of the crop at their school. Motivated and talented individuals who have won national recognition and awards.</p>
<p>That’s the competition you’re against. You better be serious. It can be the beginning of a path for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>Many people with perfect test scores do get rejected. There are lots of great students out there and unfortunately great colleges may not be able to accept them all. Some people are going to be rejected.</p>
<p>What would be the point of inflating your scores on here? It’s College Confidential…no one is going to be impressed no matter what you do.</p>
<p>FWIW, I’ve been on here for a year and made several chances threads and no one has ever told me not to apply somewhere based on my low admissions chances. But I don’t go around acting like my life will be ruined if I don’t get into HYPSM.</p>
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<p>I go to an underachieving rural high school where neither of those things are available. (Well, I suppose the GCs are good at whatever it is they usually do, but people don’t really apply to selective colleges around here so they don’t have much knowledge about the admissions processes.)</p>
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<p>IMO, someone saying they have a GPA > 4.0 without giving the scale is a type of inflation. A 5.0 GPA or whatever isn’t better than the “perfect” 4.0. It’s just on a different scale, and a GPA without a scale means nothing.</p>
<p>MathTeam: I must not view the same fora you do. Could there be pernicious parents out there? I’m sure. I mostly hover this one, the Parents forum and some indiv Ivy fora. I never go to the “chance me” forum. In the ones I visit, there seems to be a cadre of rather well seasoned, mature, and knowledgeable group of parents/alumni offering solid advice.</p>
<p>Is there lots of goofiness on this site? Yep. You cite some prime examples (“I have 4.0GPA 2399SAT I’m freaking out!” or “Will my one A- kill my chances at school X?”“Will Stanford reject me? I hit the submit button 3 seconds after the deadline!”) But I propose that some genuinely helpful people are here to give benefit to site users rather than sow confusion or wallow in anxiety.</p>
<p>I think people on CC typically over-estimate how one’s specific high school success counts when an adcom reviews you for that college. Too many think this is about 13th grade or a lateral move to another high school. They miss that part about the multi-page app and what it conveys. Or not.</p>
<p>Honestly, kids are just so certain it’s passion, stats, hs popularity, so certain the LoR writers lovvve them and will write something that advances them. But, rarely, only rarely, does the advice from one hs kid to another come in fully on target. I can bet OP doesn’t know.</p>
<p>To a point I do agree with the very skewed ‘chance me’ threads - they make you seem bleh if you don’t have all the perfect stats and yeah. </p>
<p>I don’t think parents try to dissuade people from applying for the sake of upping their child’s hopeful acceptance. Many parents have more knowledge than kids when it comes to a lot of things and generally have an interest in finding a kid a fit and dissuade an obsession.</p>
<p>On the other hand, back when I applied - I was told to not even bother applying to one of the schools I applied to because it would be a waste of money/time/an application because it was just never gonna happen - albeit I applied and was accepted. </p>
<p>Take most chance threads with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Chance threads for ivy leauge schools are only useful for saying either someone is or is not a competitive applicant. For most other schools, the most useful information comes from those who are not still in high school. I die a little inside when I see ‘chance me i’ll chance back’ - If thats not the definition of the blind leading the blind I don’t know what is.</p>
<p>Well it is easier to get into the first choice school than most would believe, given that the overwhelming majority of students aim for less selective/open admissions colleges.</p>
<p>Also Halycon, your stats put you in the range for every school in the country. People aren’t dissuading you from applying because you do have a non trivial chance at every school in the country (other than Wabash, Morehouse, and Hampton Sydney). On the other hand, if someone like me were to put my HS GPA (~3.1UW I think) and ask for my chances to Harvard, people would justifiably tell me to save my money.</p>
<p>@classicrockerdad, my school does inform students about naivance, but i have little to no knowledge about it, except for the fact that i gives you college stats of accepted students. I have a question, when will i be able to use naivance? my school hasn’t informed my peers or me yet, (im a rising sophmore).</p>
<p>@Etuck “top 10 university”, nope, i’m not that ambitious, what i mean by a “dream school” is like nyu stern calliber or cornell calliber at most. I’m not talking like harvard level or wharton. if that is the case, then, of course, the school will be harder to get in and there’s not way to escape the harsh reality.</p>
<p>@Math team- you should ask your school about Naviance. My son got his Naviance password right at the beginning of senior year. Now if you’re not a senior then it may be that you won’t have access to it, especially if your school has to pay a few for each student. Best thing to do is to check with the guidance office.</p>
<p>well, most people who are successful in the college admissions usually had a head start in SATs, knowing their EC, etc. </p>
<p>I do enjoy high school, in addition, i also believe that college confidential has made my freshmen year experience even more joyful. I’m very happy to find out that i know another piece of the road that lays ahead of me. I understand, now, how important the SAT is, i thought that i would just ace the math section with an 800 and bomb the CR with a 500. I was dead wrong when i did my research on colleges, this made me reconsider my course of action, now I can score 560s in CR, </p>
<p>I was pretty thankful to find out that CR was important. god forbid i did ignore college stuff and ended up with a 500 in senior year. >:)))) i’m in love with CC. :D</p>