<p>Yes, it's very sobering to do a search on one's past posts.</p>
<p>FYI, over in the USNA forum, USNA admissions actually registered and made a statement about a couple of posts which they believed misrepresented the admissions process. Clearly they are monitoring the forum over there.</p>
<p>Hey, adcoms from learning-centered colleges offering merit aid and wanting to up your URM populations!</p>
<p>I've got a junior son, a URM whose PSAT scores put him in line for NM Commended, great ECs showing leadership skills, toughest academic program in the county. His subject interests span the spectrum from the hard sciences to art. </p>
<p>He wants and thrives in the kind of undergraduate learning-centered environment that LACs and a few universities offer, but would need merit aid to go. He is open to traveling virtually anywhere.</p>
<p>Can we talk? PM me. :)</p>
<p>Hee hee hee.</p>
<p>curmudgeon forgot to mention "daughter of parent with great sense of humor."</p>
<p>The point is that they see the negatives ,too. Or could if they chose to. I'm still not sure how common the practice is or if it's common at all.( Although I did search KateLewis' posts and saw the Academy adcom post she mentioned.) When we complain about late nights or lack of ambition or recalcitrance or ...they see that ,also. I, too, would dearly love an adcom to pm me with a wonderful suggestion that D apply for a Bellingrath but I don't see that happening. It would be my guess that more negative results come from identification than positives.</p>
<p>I really don't feel that threatened by any of this . God knows, they could have figured out my kid by post 3. I ain't the prevaricating type and I wouldn't have made a great spy. Tradecraft? Yeah,right. I'm 6'3" and the width of a traffic lane and have a tendency to wear pastels. Another endearing southern trait. We talk and dress funny. So, I made a conscious choice to ignore the downside and post anyway. I would assume most of us have done the same.</p>
<p>". I, too, would dearly love an adcom to pm me with a wonderful suggestion that D apply for a Bellingrath but I don't see that happening"</p>
<p>For all we know, though, some of the anonymous posters making suggestions may be adcoms. </p>
<p>(I am not one of them!)</p>
<p>Curmudgeon definitely has a point. I really think if anyone is listening they will overlook a little venting, especially in and around "crunch" times.
Do you truly believe that kids that have seriously discussed gaming the ED system, etc, are "lily white" in their other dealings? Some of the attitudes I've read here can't help but spill over into other aspects of their lives. The kids that I worry about are those who "free associate" on the keyboard - typing the first (and everything else) that comes into their heads.</p>
<p>Oh and Curmudgeon, she should definitely try for a Bellingrath nomination - she's a great kid, at least based on all the hints you dropped ;).</p>
<p>I wish you were, NSM. LOL. I'd least the goofy girl at my house would get a look from someone who understands "merit aid". </p>
<p>BTW, she came home last night a brunette. When she left the game she was a blonde. Doesn't it usually go the other way? Just wondering. I don't know if she is heading back to natural or if this is an attempt to look like that "Alias" girl. (What'll they make of that personal tid-bit?)</p>
<p>Oh, and BTW to Cangel. Sorry about the "Alabama" address. I hit "Pool Hall" and Alabama just seemed to fit. (You gotta say it like Hanks saying "Greenbow". See? It works.)</p>
<p>Love it, Northstarmom! They should have an E-Bay for college admissions. That way colleges can fill some of their hard to find slots and kids can find some matches. It's like a needle in the haystack search at times.</p>
<p>I think an employee might from time to time read chat room discussions about their school to get a feel for what people are interested in or how their institution is be portrayed. They might consider if people are complaining about the process or the food or the classroom size. I don't think admission officers have enough time to try to track down and match postings with applications. If they could they would be foolish to use it in their decision process to reject someone because a person could get on to this site with their best friends (or worst enemies) stats and pretend to be anyone they want to be. </p>
<p>Furthermore, I don't think admission officers will have a lot of free time to surf the web for a few more months. </p>
<p>Sometimes when I begin to stress over getting a child into the right school, I think about the parents who are hoping to get a child out of an operating room or home from a war. Lets keep our perspectives. Good luck</p>
<p>"I don't think admission officers have enough time to try to track down and match postings with applications. If they could they would be foolish to use it in their decision process to reject someone because a person could get on to this site with their best friends (or worst enemies) stats and pretend to be anyone they want to be."</p>
<p>Excellent point Mr. B. I would fire an admissions counselor if they spent enough time on this forum to identify a specific student. 20,000 applicants at an elite school. I hope they don't have time.</p>
<p>"Excellent point Mr. B. I would fire an admissions counselor if they spent enough time on this forum to identify a specific student. 20,000 applicants at an elite school. I hope they don't have time."</p>
<p>A person doesn't have to spend a lot of time to identify a student here. Sometimes it can be done by simply looking at the name and one post. Some posters' names are very similar to their real names. I have spotted several people on-line whom I know through that method. In the old CC, some people put their real names in the profiles. I spotted someone else whom I knew that way.</p>
<p>It would be particularly easy to spot applicants posting their stats under the various forums devoted to certain schools.</p>
<p>Remember, too, that adcoms aren't each seeing 20,000 applicants. </p>
<p>Also if someone posts something unethical such as, "I tricked the adcoms by plagiarizing my essay" or "I routinely cheat on tests," they may be turned in to adcoms by a classmate who knows their sign-on here, and points adcoms to their post. An adcom would be nuts to take something like that at face value, but if a talk with the GC and references indicated the student had a track record of cheating, etc., that could lead to a rejection.</p>
<p>I have seen students posting messages here to the effect of "Everybody cheats. This is how I cheat." Anyone who thinks that everybody cheats probably is blabbing with peers in real life about their cheating. Some of those peers may not agree, and could turn in such a person if the person were dumb enough to post their biz on the Net. Some of their peers also could agree with them, but might take advantage of the other person's posts in order to clear a way to a college admission for themselves.</p>
<p>I agree that the marketing arms of the admissions offices could learn a lot about student perceptions about their schools...I also wonder about some of the posts by current upperclassmen at many schoolsgorilla marketing is a very hot way to reach young consumers...</p>
<p>A year ago a few posters on the SAT and ACT Testing forum were punished harshly by the College Board for posts regarding test questions.</p>
<p>NSM's post of today at 5:41am (Eastern) today nails it.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon...thanks for the details. Just a sec...now another sec for Mapquest...got it! Mind if I drop by to say "Howdy?" Say around 3pm or so? See y'all then.</p>
<p>Yeah, yeah, got to get your licks in, dontcha?! I put my shoes on and my teeth back in just to answer you. I won't say a word about Tenn and A&M - "THEY" have got to do something about the bowl games - now there's a thread that won't quit.</p>
<p>TheDad, I've got a brisket on the smoker.You bring the tater salad. I'll meet you at the gate in the mule 'cause the spillway's still running over. Your city rig might not make it across.</p>
<p>Regardless of what one may think about it, we might all admit that if we were admissions officers, there are student posts on these boards that would be more than enough reason to move the application to the big pile.</p>
<p>If I was an adcom and a student working in the admissions office came to me and said look at this post of a student who says they applied here and commited plagerism...I might take a second glance at the application.... but I don't think I would be cruzing the internet looking to catch screwups. I think I would be reading, reading, reading and occassionally calling a school to check up on a puzzel or two.</p>
<p>I beleive that every applicant should be judged based on the articles they submit or have submitted on their behalf. There is a reason that the colleges ask for 3 recommendations, essays, and all that other good stuff - I find it impossible that a student could "pull the wool over the eyes" of so many people along the process. If a student is a dishonest person, it will come out long before it hits a random message board on the internet. </p>
<p>As an admissions officer, I would certainly not take anything posted on here as truth. Many kids post purely to incite some feedback from parents or peers...a game, if you will. In addition, even if you think you have 'pegged' someone, that does not mean that the online person is an accurate representation of their real life character. For example, some students on here could be frustrated and use this area only as a place to describe temporary feelings. Saying that you don't want to go to Yale but you are applying there anyways is probably something a kid would say in the heat of their Harvard-obsessed moment...not an accurate indication of what the student would be feeling on April 1st. The poster could also be joking or making up certain things. The poster might not even be who they say they are. What if someone posed as a friend and said something incriminating? Would that be fair grounds for rejection?</p>
<p>I think what I am trying to say is that this is an internet forum. It is not the equivalent of an interview, a year long relationship with a teacher, a four year relationship with a guidance counselor, etc. Anything that might be said on here is just plagued with unreliability. You never know who is saying it, in what tone, or for what reason. Admissions officers, in my opinion, are smart enough to figure that out - especially in light of the stressfulness of the process.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon...wait a sec...where I do tell my pilot to land the helicopter?</p>
<p>Dadx...I think you have it nailed too.</p>