<p>I mentioned this site to my college counselor, and to put it nicely, she saw the forum as garbage....she mentioned how a lot of students inflated stats (like stating as a 3.8 gpa and a 2300 sat and he/she actually got a 3.4 and a 2150, etc), lying about ECs, etc.</p>
<p>So I'd like to hear some more opinions, how common do you guys think Grade/EC inflation/lying is on this forum?</p>
<p>I'm also somewhat suspicious because most of the "Chance Me" threads seemingly have ideal stats.... 3.9UW GPA with 7 APs until junior year, 2200+ SAT, helped people in other countries (and other ECs of this significance and magnitude).</p>
<p>I'm curious why other ""lesser applicants" (emphasis on the quotations) don't past in that section.....like the typical student with 2-3 APs until junior year, 2000-2100 SAT, no mind blowing hooks (like a gold medal at the USAMO).</p>
<p>I don’t think outright lying is common at all, mostly because no one is impressed by anything on here. If I wanted to brag about myself, I’d go brag to people who hadn’t done what I’ve done. I’m pretty much the most narcissistic compliment-fishingest person who ever lived and I still don’t understand why anyone would want to make up anything to impress people on here. </p>
<p>There are people who make chances threads with their projected stats rather than their actual stats, though. There’s nothing really wrong with that in itself (they’re asking us to judge them based on what they think colleges will end up seeing), but a lot of them won’t follow through with what they say they’re going to do. </p>
<p>You also have to remember that high school grades are usually inflated by the high schools themselves. There’s nothing mind-bogglingly impressive about having a high GPA, especially if you’re just going to say a number without specifying a scale. People seem to assume everything is on a 4.0 scale and numbers bigger than 4.0 are somehow “better than perfect,” but that’s not the case at all…a lot of people on here don’t seem to understand the difference between weighted and unweighted GPA. </p>
<p>The chances threads are full of top students because top students are way more likely than everyone else to look up “college admissions” on Google and send applications to colleges that reject people. This site is full of people obsessed with top colleges because only top colleges have admissions processes worth talking about. </p>
<p>I agree with the other poster. When people inflate stats, they’re looking to impress others. If you say you have a 2300/4.0, I would just look at you as another part of the crowd on here. (FWIW I have a 2120/3.9)</p>
<p>Also, my HS guidance counselor recommends this site to parents learning about the college admissions process. </p>
<p>Also - I am the “lesser” student you described in your last paragraph with a 2000 SAT and a 3.8 and I’ve been a stranger to chance me threads - before I took the SAT, I would write that I ‘had’ a 2100 because that’s that I genuinely believed I’d get but that obviously never happened so… But I wasn’t lying per se, just predicting. After I got my actual score, I changed my chance me threads accordingly.</p>
<p>I feel like the Chances thread has a lot of liars. Like, if you have a 2300+ SAT score and a 3.9 GPA, why do you think you will get even a remotely accurate chance for Harvard from fellow high schoolers–when you don’t even know the answer yourself?</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s necessarily always people outright lying. You have to remember that CC is not a representative population of students. It’s going to be biased towards students who are aiming for competitive schools and who are very interested and invested in college admissions. Students with high stats who are aiming for very competitive universities are more likely to look for sites aimed towards helping students get into college. These students are also more likely to have higher GPAs, higher SAT scores, and more ECs because they are more focused on college admissions and that is what college admission committees look for.</p>
<p>And you also have to remember that the type of student who’s going to post threads with all of their stats are more likely to be students who have good stats to begin with. It’s common for people to want to share good things about themselves. Students with poor stats are less likely to post them probably because they don’t want to look inferior to other students or be put down because of them.</p>
<p>Also, a lot of times things seem better on paper than they do in real life. It’s easy for students to list things that they’ve briefly participated in or did every once in a while or went to meetings but never did anything of substance. It sounds great when they list it all out, but the meaningful contribution towards tons of ECs simultaneously is probably negligible, unless the ECs are seasonal like sports. Read everything with a grain of salt. I’ve edited tons of students resumes, and it’s really easy to make yourself sound great on paper without actually lying about anything.</p>
<p>Hah, if your college counselor’s opinion were worth a grain of salt, she would realize the futility that comes with debasing a website of pure genius. The new wave is coming. She best learn.</p>
<p>I also wonder how accurate the “Accepted / high reach / low reach, etc” analyses are from the students who answer the “Chance Me” threads. We should make a community poll or something regarding how accurate those predictions turn out to be.</p>
To play the devil’s advocate, it’s sort of like doing peer-editing on papers. I don’t usually write better than my peers, but I can sometimes give them good advice because I’m a different person and I can look at their writing from an outsider’s perspective.<br>
But the point of making chances threads isn’t only to get chances. I used to make chances threads because I’m self-absorbed and I think it’s fun to list stuff I’ve done and get people to look at it. </p>
<p>
There’s no way to assess the accuracy of “high reach” because it allows for any outcome. Just because you got into a school doesn’t mean it wasn’t a high reach.The only way you could say a prediction was inaccurate was if it said you’d get accepted (or rejected) and the opposite happened.</p>
<p>@jarjarbinks23 it’s implied that those “Chance Me” threads are worth a grain of salt, because not admissions officers or anyone offical will be commenting.</p>