<p>Can someone tell me if princeton reviews online "counselor o matic" is accurate or not? i have had some pretty good colleges come up as matches even though they are tough to get into for a student like myself.</p>
<p>its pretty stupid, but then again so is my real counselor, so i guess its accurate for me.</p>
<p>Haha.</p>
<p>Yeah, it's full of crap. Although it <em>usually</em> has the general gist of things correct.</p>
<p>i just use it to see what kind of colleges i shld look at.</p>
<p>its total crap for me, listed columbia SEAS as a safety with 3.1 GPA and 1370 SAT and cornell as a match.. er.. hello?</p>
<p>Counselor-O-Matic will at least show colleges that fit within the parameters you set (usually). I wouldn't necessarily agree with their safety/match/reach categories - some years they are harsher, some years they are easier. Use C-O-M as one tool to search for colleges that might suit your interests, but don't rely on it as your sole source of information.</p>
<p>it is for basic knowledge abt the fiiting colleges and a hint to ur list preparation for college app.</p>
<p>LOL, I filled it in for fun a few times. I took it once and it was disgustingly optimistic (dartmouth a match? haha), I took it another time and it looked about fifty times bleaker. It's an interesting thing, no doubt.</p>
<p>I use it to sift through some colleges, but not as an accurate prediction of anything. Use it to look up some colleges, but don't count on it accurately classifying your reaches and safeties.</p>
<p>It's crap.</p>
<p>It said I have no reaches, and Harvard is my match school.</p>
<p>Yeah, I wish.</p>
<p>Yeah. It's crap. I had a similar sort of thing. There's no way it's realistic.</p>
<p>I agree with all that's been said... especially firefly... I'd put my son's stats in about 6 months ago and came up with a somewhat realistic list. About 2-3 weeks ago, they must have changed some things about it because now what used to be matches are now safeties, what were reaches are now matches. Take it with a grain of salt and check out each college's criteria from either their websites, or PR's Best 357 Colleges, USNWR's or similar. :-)</p>
<p>anyone got harvard listed as SAFETY? :)</p>
<p>I tried with Princeton. I said both my parents graduated from there and donate large sums of money and I have perfect stats... and I still got it as a reach.</p>
<p>I'd say for an average student like me with a 3.0. I think it can do decent, just because a lot of the schools I'm looking at are typically stat driven, as is pr.</p>
<p>I'd say it's an <em>okay</em> tool to use to research universities. If you're lookin' purely at the safety/match/reaches, that might change cause it's so driven by numbers, but what I find sometimes a little helpful (yet at other times annoying) is the use of percentages to fit your wants/preferences. What if you usually prefer the Midwest and New England, but Agnes Scott (I think in Georgia?) is a semi-divine fit? </p>
<p>Like others said, take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>And <em>grin</em> it's fun to play around with the stats for GPA/SAT/celebrity parents and funky group/activities. </p>
<p>Hope it gave some good results. It was somewhat accurate for me, though it listed Bates as a Match. <em>laugh</em> No way that's happening.</p>
<p>im a URM with an average GPA(3.2) and decent test scores (30 ACT) and it definitely listed dartmouth as a match and cornell as a safety .... yea nuff said</p>
<p>URM? What..kind? Maybe they're looking for diversity or it might depend which major you're going for? <em>shrug</em> C-O-M is a weird thing. But I love it.</p>
<p>Im african-american but no amount of diversity searching would get me into dartmouth ... not that i would go anyway</p>
<p>ok I am a freshmen in college and decided to try this thing out for fun. I am seriously impressed. I applied to a lot of schools... way too many. think double digits... anyway</p>
<p>In my list of match schools this generated nearly all the schools I applied to and got into were on there. Also the school I ended up at near the top of the list in matching my preferences. As for the reaches I found 2 of the schools I did not get into but applied to on there. I could have just gotten lucky but that was defineately some good results generated just by numbers and a few questions.</p>
<p>I think those on-line college match services do not take into consideration, the human factor. How many stories have you heard of people with perfect scores getting rejected from top schools (non-ivy)? How many people have you heard of getting rejected from "match" schools, but then getting accepted into "reach" schools. It happens. So, the on-line college match services are just as good as adcoms themselves.</p>