<p>Yeah a lot of the people on this site annoy the crap out of me. The chance threads are so ridiculous sometimes, especially when the OP has a 35 ACT or 2350 SAT and is valedictorian of a competitive prep school w/great extracurriculars. One would think that these people would be able to figure out themselves that they have as good a shot as anyone at ANY college. Most of the time I think those people post chance threads for a self-esteem boost. How hard is it to look at a school's middle 50% for test scores and its average GPA in order to chance oneself. Anyone can judge his/her essay and extracurriculars for him/herself. Not difficult people.</p>
<p>I also am annoyed by the people on here who seem to have a superiority complex about themselves. Nothing is worse than someone who looks down on or talks about other colleges in a condescending manner. Some people here deem others who don't attend elite colleges as inferior, which I personally don't like at all. Just remember, there is life outside of the ivies and other elites. It's the same deal with standardized tests here. Someone posts that he/she got a 24 on the ACT and the people here look down on it. The "should I retake a 35/2360 threads need to stop.</p>
<p>For those of you who have been accepted at elite colleges, I'm not trying to take away any sense of accomplishment you are feeling or have felt. Being accepted at that first choice school is something you have worked your entire life to achieve, and you should be able to enjoy the success to the fullest. However, some of you do get a little too big-headed at times.</p>
<p>As for me, my stats are respectable, but not the typical CC uber freak. If the people here speak truthfully of their accomplishments, my 29 ACT would probably be about 5th percentile for members of this site. I'll be applying to WashU ED, but if I don't get in...meh. I don't need an elite college to become successful. There are plenty of colleges that would gladly take me and as long as I stay dedicated to my career I'll be successful regardless of where I go.</p>
<p>Sorry, I just wanted to rant before leaving this dumb site.</p>
<p>I never make chance threads on this site because I know how ridiculous the comments/advice will be. I'd rather just talk with "normal" people in the real world.</p>
<p>i agree with guitarman on a lot of points. but i must admit, i post chance threads and whatnot because i have high ambitions and a lower GPA. (not superlow, but not superhigh, just enough so that i get confused about what i should do.)
i don't like the kind of "this school is better" talk. yeah, some schools are easier to get into. but to be honest, even if i do end up getting into NYU or Northwestern, i probably won't go because i don't have that kind of money just for undergrad. and in those schools, the hardest part is often getting in.
also, i don't like it when people feel like mentioning their scores all the time. ("oh i feel worried sometimes, but then i remember that i have a 4.0!")</p>
<p>the purpose of this website (to provide info on competitive colleges) is going to attract more hyper-motivated students. and so the stats of the members are going to be way higher than the average pool of high school applicants. so i feel like i'm getting an obscured viewpoint when i look at chance threads for kids with better stats than me, and they are told to improve themselves so they can have a "solid" chance. </p>
<p>well, of course you can always improve yourself. there is always something you can do to make yourself a more attractive candidate. work your ass off! but will you compromise what's supposed to be your fun and care-free teenagehood? (i know mine has been nothing of the sort!)</p>
<p>i've seen a lot of kids on here who sound real bright, and are constantly being discouraged because of their numbers. i have a 1320/3.6 and it would be my dream to go to william and mary- but based on what i've read here, it won't happen (i'm out-of-state). maybe if i begin to believe it's hopeless, my forlorn attitude will rub off in my essay, and the admissions folks over at w&m will think i really don't want to go there all that much! </p>
<p>really, there are a lot of useful things to be found here, but i try to avoid the 'chance me' threads for that reason.</p>
<p>^Agreed 150%!!!!!!!!!!
And I'd like to add that there is such a thing as "too busy". If your days are comprised of constant work and no time for slack and normalcy, you have no time to reflect on your experiences and therefore you seem much less "human" on apps</p>
<p>In my eyes, there are two kinds of chancing threads.
The first one is like many of the posters above have talked about. That is, the student could just use their SAT and GPA and gauge their chances. And many times they don't even post in the chances forums, and every time I see that, I just think to myself, "You have a 2350+ SAT average, you have a 4.5/5.0 GPA, you are a published author whose book is on the top 100 NYT bestsellers list, and you CAN'T POST IN THE RIGHT FORUM."</p>
<p>However, I must defend chancing a little bit, as I have posted chance me threads before. I see myself as an abnormal candidate for the top schools. I am top of my class in some classes, like history and get 5s on my APs, and 800s on my SAT IIs, but I get B-s in math (i know it's not too bad, but for top colleges...). I also go to boarding school and thus my ECs are just average because we can't do a lot of ECs after school and then start working on homework at 11:00 PM. Thus, I am heavily skewed towards humanities (though my science is above average), my ECs are average (tennis) with a few exceptions (interested in computers), and I consider myself hard to judge based on just SAT and GPA, because without math, my SAT is a lot higher (780-800 CR, 650-680 Math, 700+ Writing) and all As or A-s without math. Thus, I feel that I have a legitimate reason to ask for others' opinions.</p>
<p>I agree with guitarman. People on this site can definitely be arrogant and worry too much about getting into the ivies. I always see at least one person here posting about HYPS everyday...there's other colleges, you know. And then when asked about colleges in general, someone will always bring up the UCs when they were not even talked about in the thread. People here are too obsessed with US News rankings and will only apply to the top 20 schools...it's ridiculous. I never go to the Chance boards for these reasons. And people act like a ACT score of 30 is nothing or just average. Way to be full of yourself. I only go on here to get important information related to me. This board is helpful in certain ways but has its negative points as well.</p>
<p>Seriously. Every time I see some kid implying that their "fit" schools are harvard, yale, princeton, stanford, duke, williams, MIT, and dartmouth, I smell BS no matter how "diverse" they claim their tastes are.</p>
<p>(my very first) bump!</p>
<p>I live in CT and go to a pretty competitive prep school, and frequent CC regularly. I knew that I was getting a rather skewed perspective on college admissions, but I didn't realize how skewed it was until I started working this summer. Almost all of the kids that are also rising seniors tell me that their absolute dream school is UConn, but it's a huge reach for them, even in-state. Most of the kids already in college go to Central or Southern CT State U, and are thrilled to be there. My friend and I were talking about this last night; UConn's desired SAT on a 1600 scale is about 1100-1200...as a minimum. In the grand scheme of things, that's a REALLY good score; 100-200 points above average. But do we acknowledge this? No. We live in our elite college prep world where an SAT below 2200 is embarassing and the only acceptable colleges are the top 50 on USNWR rankings. Plenty of successful people go to colleges nobody respects or has heard of, or don't even go to college. There is more to life than an Ivy League degree and I think sometimes we forget that.</p>
<p>I have something better: hindsight. I went to a lower-tier liberal arts college without stressing out over any of this stuff. I'm headed to a top 10 grad program next year.</p>
<p>My brother didn't go to college at all. He just skipped it and got some vocational training. He's making $40K/year at 19, which is way more than my grad stipend pays :D</p>
<p>Living in the real world gives you some perspective. ANYONE who goes to college period and finishes has a better chance at middle-class than the 75% in our country who DON'T go. I just want to give everyone a huge chill pill.</p>
<p>And I HATE those chance topics. No one on a chance topic can ever tell you anything other than what you can already find on the Internet elsewhere -- acceptance rates at the top colleges are usually below 25%, some below 15%. It is relatively easy to find where one is in the pack by simply going to CollegeBoard.com and looking at their mid 25%-75% ranges for scores and GPAs. Beside that, they are frequently filled with bad advice. I am convinced that the vast majority of chance threads are just for self-validation.</p>
<p>"I am convinced that the vast majority of chance threads are just for self-validation."
That's so true.
I suppose there's something about posting "2400, 4.0 UW, captain of every sports team in existence, finalist in twelve million competitions, published research, written 16 novels, and good-looking" that makes 4 years of hard work pay off, in a small way.
Of course, for everyone who's done phenomenally well in high school, congrats. I mean, you deserve the lauding.
And really, if I had all those stats to brag about, I'd post them up too.</p>
<p>So far I haven't seen anyone address my defense of chancing in certain situations, that is, when just an SAT score and a GPA seems inadequate to judge the chances of an applicant.</p>