<p>So, the past week I've been addicted to princeton review because of it's counselor-o-matic feature, but it just now occured to me that I am completely unaware of it's accuracy. I'm sure anyone who has accessed the website has seen this very impressive feature and I am curious if anyone can give me somewhat of an idea of how much I can trust what they're telling me.</p>
<p>I personally don't give it any credit, it gave me no reaches which I find practically impossible especially when I considered eight of the schools I had applied to as personal reaches so I think it's really missing a selectivity aspect to it, though I hear it's not too bad if you're looking for environment matches, though personally I am more fond of collegeboard's survey because most of the ones that it gave me were the schools I ended up applying to, so...</p>
<p>Well...I'll tell you one thing. Its "reach," "match," and "safety," are usually pretty accurate. Meaning, the "reaches" you have little chance of getting into, the "matches" you have maybe a 50% chance, and the "safeties" you are pretty much guaranteed (in fact, I think the safeties are often "too safe"). As for fit? I don't think it's very accurate at all. You really need to visit the college and research it to see if it's right for you.</p>
<p>That thing told me that Harvard, Brown, and Stanford were good "matches" (twice, when I filled it out as a "high school senior" and as a "transfer"). Granted, I think it's useful for putting some colleges in your line of vision.</p>
<p>There was a more thorough thread on this exact topic a little while back you might want to check. I think the general conclusion was that it was pretty good, but better at identifying schools you would like than accurately assessing your chances of admission at them.</p>
<p>Counselor-o-matic isn't accurate at all.</p>
<p>It had Rice as my number one reach match and after I did a little research I ended up really liking the college. I applied ED and will be attending this fall. I think it is more accurate than collegeboard. I completed the CB survey twice. The first time I was matched with over 150 schools. The second time I was matched with 4 schools. And I only changed a few questions between the times I took it.</p>
<p>From my experience, it's pretty accurate. You still have to do your own research, but it's a really nice resource and I think everyone should try it, if only for fun.</p>
<p>it atleast informed me about other really interesting schools...so if you dunno where ya wanna go yet its atleast good for telling ya some places you might like =D</p>
<p>Try the petersons site college search. I went through their criteria process and it came up with two schools - my top two choices.</p>
<p>Sometimes it recommends crazy safety schools-- like Columbia or Harvard -_-. But I like it.</p>
<p>I'd say that Princeton Reviewe is very good eye-opening tool. It becomes valuable when you use it with discretion and in pairing with CollegeBoard's College/USNews Data Directory to verify the school selectiveness.</p>
<p>But four of the 9/10 schools that were on my list were brought to my radar by Princeton Review (Arcadia, Richmond, Drew, Bucknell).</p>
<p>Also, it is very helpful when looking for safeties unless you are on the high-end of the spectrum, 1500-1600 SATs and 4.0 GPA, those stats completely throw off the program, which is why it is near useless for the average CC nerd.</p>
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Sometimes it recommends crazy safety schools-- like Columbia or Harvard -_-. But I like it.
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<p>I don't think that's possible. I once filled out everything perfectly for fun; 4.0 GPA, perfect SAT scores, play many sports, the best I could with the options it gave me, and it only listed schools like Harvard and Columbia as matches.</p>
<p>It totally ignored my price threshold and size stipulations. As others have said, most useful for bringing up names of colleges you might not otherwise have looked at.</p>