<p>tokyo... maybe we aren't asking the questions you think are best..but please give us enough to credit to ask the questions we want answered. It is like we are a jury deliberating and are asking for evidence while you are the court reporter outside screaming "why aren't they asking for this piece of evidence!!!!" </p>
<p>Maybe we already know that info or simply do not find it useful. either way, let it be</p>
<p>In many cases, you can tell that the person didn't do his/her research and is simply bragging about getting in. Example:</p>
<p>"I GOT INTO YALE ADN STANDFORD!!!!!!!!!!111 WHERE SHUD I GO???/ IM SO CONFSUED!!"</p>
<p>Well, there you go kyledavid80. </p>
<p>Oh and by the way, oracle1, the concept of America being a "free country" means you can say whatever you want, but it also means that you have to expect to take fire for whatever you said as well. "Freedom of speech" is a two-way street, and it only protects you from being arrested by the government. Since I'm not the government, expect to take a verbal pounding. Oh, but I shouldn't have to say that because thats just part of being in the real world.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</p>
<p>I disagree.</p>
<p>They have the right to make "versus" threads. You have the right to completely ignore them.</p>
<p>Besides, I think theyre quite helpful for someone trying to get other peoples opinions. Besides, a weekend visit, a call to an admissions office, and a talk with a few students does not give you the full story. People who answer these threads are usually fairly knowedgable about the school that they support or don't support. I think its great that theres a place where people can come to get some others opinions.</p>
<p>PS not saying that these first-person encounters are not the best way to find out what you want and like just to let you all know. But this is another fairly useful way of getting some opinions.</p>
<p>Oracle, that's not how our free country works ;) but it's a good thought.</p>
<p>And since I know people will ask... this BB is not a piece of public property, so our right to say whatever we want does not exist.</p>
<p>In case someone couldn't tell :) as the owner/ runner of multiple websites, I see "this is a free country!" about 50 times a week too many. Research!</p>
<p>Yet another good point Carpe Aeternum, although it doesn't exactly apply here, people should know that "Free speech" does not mean "Speech without consequences". </p>
<p>And WatchMeShine, to assume that the majority of the responses to versus threads are knowledgeable is very naive.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Now is your chance! Now is your chance to make your own decisions, ones that you make because you feel strongly about how you want to live and what you want to become in the very near future. All of you must find this to be important. If this is true, then why do so many of you seem to haplessly depend on the opinions of others to make your choices about where you should go to college?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yet we should depend on your opinion regarding whether or not to make a versus thread hmm?</p>
<p>You can't impose free will. It's up to the posters whether they want to do independent research or ask for advice on CC. From the threads I've read most go something like this (using Stanford and Yale as examples):</p>
<p>
I got into Stanford and Yale. I don't know which one I want to attend. Stanford has good weather and this engineering program I am interested in, and it's giving me 10k in scholarship, but the city is pretty boring and I've always wanted to go to the east coast. Any advice is appreciated.
</p>
<p>Most of the time the thread starter lists the schools he/she is considering, brief reasons for each, and asks for advice. This seems perfectly fine to me. Responses usually go something like this:</p>
<p>
stanford is a lot stronger in engineering than yale. I went through the program you mentioned. this year it is run by so-and-so who's won this-and-that, plus it's giving you money, go with stanford
</p>
<p>Some posters just write a quick response with which school they think is better, some posters try to write a more detailed response with new aspects to consider. Yeah some responses aren't great like the first one (doesn't give any reasons...) but it's easy to tell that it's not a good response, and at least you get an idea of the general consensus (in the example everyone picked Stanford). So I don't see anything wrong with these versus threads. If they bother you this much, don't read them.</p>
<p>if it makes you so upset dont read them..</p>
<p>Before I find it annoying not to be able to edit your own thread afterwards, but now I love it.</p>
<p>
<p>^This is what you said in your original post, I will not argue about the correctness of this statement because I think you are being disproved already by other people, even by yourself. (such as not able to visit campus, taking in opinion from other people. etc)</p>
<p> [quote=tokyorevelation9] Thus, I am not blaming users of College Confidential for asking their peers for advice. What I am saying is that versus threads are not getting students good answers.Prospective students need to be smarter when they ask their CC peers for advice about college, and that is the bottom line.
</p>
<p>^This is what you wrote in post #17. You realized that what you said was wrong because "versus threads" are aimed to asking their peers for advice and you accepted that, so now to not embarrass yourself into the situation you changed your wording to "Prospective students need to be smarter when asking questions," now that's a completely different story.</p>
<p>Excuse me sir, that gives me an impression that you are critisizing a group of "developmentally delayed" prospective students. Lemme ask you this, who doesn't want to ask good questions, it is their own future, one of the biggest choice they have to make in their life, why would they not try to come up with the best questions they can think of? And if somebody is not as smart as you, does that mean they can not ask questions or even if they do they will have to be bashed upon by you? How do you know if they are not asking good questions? Are you labeled as "the illustrious one"? and if you truely want to help out, why don't you do something constructive such as posting a thread of "must-asked questions" so we can assess it, instead of merely critisizing with "you guys should ask better questions, end of story"?</p>
<p>Tell you what, I think sometimes versus threads are much better than good and straightforward questions. Why? Because versus is much more open-ended. It gives people more room to respond, rather than a good question where there is only 1 true answer with several different versions, because everybody is biased, you can not escape the fate simply by eliminating versus threads.</p>
<p>Versus threads can reward you with something you never ever have considered before. For example, in my versus thread, Worcester Polytechnic Inst. vs. Boston University, I presented my problem and the things I've already thought of, and in the end I got some new stuff which I never took into consideration before, which indeed mattered alot, such as vacation accomodations. And so now I can actually go ask the directors in BU and WPI for a real answer. I simply get more stuff out of versus threads because it is open.</p>
<p>Link:</p>
<p>And what will happen if I only ask questions that are merely "good?" Guess what, I only get a narrowed answer, though it helps, but it will hardly guide me to areas I haven't considered before. A good answer needs to address specifically the topic, and if you are being off-topic, it is not helpful, unless you ask general questions which to me is completely crap, such as "What's good about MIT?"</p>
<p>To end this rant, good questions don't always get good answers, especially on this virtual world called the Internet where everybody can pretend to be a proffesional and convey false information, and that includes you.</p>
<p>I never said I was a professional inspike, I am simply a concerned user on this forum. Right now you are talking out of your behind, to put it politely. You are trying to deny the fact that most versus threads aren't researched in the first place, and they don't ask good questions. I suspect most are merely attempts at eliciting pointless debates on the forum, or if not that, they are just students not upright enough to make informed decisions for themselves. </p>
<p>So maybe you asked good questions, I applaud you, I merely state that this is far from the norm.</p>
<p>Tokyo...I guess I made a mistake and did not get my point across. I meant more that everyone has their OWN opinions and are knowedgable about what THEY like and what they dont. This is very beneficial to anyone.</p>
<p>Think of choosing a college as a sort of "democratic process" and your president. Although your opinion counts more, you still want to hear peoples opinions.</p>
<p>Again I'll state, if you dont want to answer, dont. Choose to skip right over that thread. If you would like to answer, be my guess.</p>
<p>guest****(10char)</p>