I am a high school senior from California and I have been using cappex.com for a while to see my chances of getting into certain colleges. For those familiar with the extensive information they recommend you put in, it seems like the results would be ideal. I have a 2.93 gpa and a 1540 on the SAT. However, I am getting results that say I am a great candidate for Penn State, which is an amazing school. I didn’t put down any sports or many extracurricular activities in my profile. How much trust do I put into this site, and are these results accurate for schools like Penn State?
Try each college’s Common Data Set instead. There, you would see that your GPA and SAT would not be competitive for University Park.
http://www.budget.psu.edu/CDSRedesign/cds.aspx?reportindicator=FreshAdmn&Location=UP&AY=20142015
(PS. I was waitlisted at a school where similar chancing sites said I had 98% chance of admission.)
Cappex has been a bit dicey this year. I would check other sources as well.
What sites would you recommend?
bump
^ Why are you bumping?
Look up the common data set for your schools, section C. Most of that data is loaded into College Navigator. http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
Are there any other chance sites that are accurate?
If I were you I wouldn’t be so focused on chance sites-- I’m a little skeptical of sites that claim to know the exact percent chance you have at certain schools. With the exception of schools with auto-admit policies and a few other special cases, a lot of schools look at more than scores (e.g. essays, recommendations). I would also recommend looking up school’s common data sets. When you look at the common data set you can see what the average test scores and GPAs are. After that, instead of spending time pouring over Cappex, spend as much time as possible trying to get your first semester senior grades up and writing great essays! Good luck!
No, “chance sites” are not accurate (except for colleges with auto-admit policies like CDOESenior2k16 said). The closest thing to a chance site I would suggest (besides checking each college’s data sets) is filing your info on College Board and looking at how it compares that way. You can get a good idea of how much your scores are in the range/below/above.
You should also check with each college to see how it weights letters of recommendation/essays/EC’s to get a good idea of how good of a chance you have in those regards.