Ethics of "Chancing" students

Parent Cafe
276

Specifically in reference to chancing here on CC…

Does any (sensible) OP ever walk away from a Chance Me thred thinking “Oh, randomstranger43 on CC says I am a shoe-in at X University, must be true! I will sleep better tonight!”. Maybe, if the OP takes then time to notice that the responder is a mega senior poster, like ucbalumnus or lookingforward, who through experience have a bit more credibility, the OP can walk away with a bit more confidence at the response being, marginally, more accurate.

But, IMO, Chance Me’s are rarely about assessing the true potential and more often about the OP looking for:

  1. a pat on the back/ reassurance that “Ya done good kid”
  2. an opportunity to brag
  3. a lame attempt to scare the competition.

and for the responder it is indulging in:

  1. idle curiosity or a chance to stroke their own ego in comparison
  2. a chance to flex their “muscle” and show off just how much the responder thinks they know about the admissions process (essentially bragging)
  3. and a pat on the back/reassurance “Awww, ya done good responder you helped someone out”.

I am not saying that Chance Me threds are always about those things, sometimes, OPs are seeking genuine advice and responders are looking to be genuinely helpful. Certainly, reminders to be sure the OP has real, tangible, options or that their choices are financially feasible etc. are valuable. But, if you boil things down to the essence, Chance Me threds are not usually so altruistic and I am not sure that it is necessary to hold the responses to them to some hypothetical ethics bar.I

When chancing someone professionally there definitely is an ethics bar and in my mind the professional has a responsibility to be as realistic as possible.

ucbalumnus has a good point…most responders can, in good faith, say a kids with a 2.5 GPA and a 22 ACT is not going to get into Harvard (most likely, lol) There are more gray areas when you are talking about bubble kids/mid stat kids at mid tier schools. And I know from experience that some senior CC members were dead wrong about my own kiddo’s shot at certain schools.