<p>It is true that many posters here do not know a lot about college admissions. It is also true that many do know a lot about college admissions. No one knows everything. Nothing you see on this site will be the perfect answer. However, there is a lot of good information on this website. I have learned a lot from this website.</p>
<p>The main problem is that people come in with their own opinions and experiences in admissions. They know what their stats were and where they were accepted and rejected and have an idea of their friends and peers and where they were accepted, so posters will have opinions on how they think different schools do admissions. For example, if a poster got an 1800 on the SAT and was accepted to H and rejected from Y using the common app so most everything is the same for his application, he would assume that Y values a higher SAT score than H and share that opinion on CC. That doesn’t make them correct or wrong.</p>
<p>About the SAT score thing, you can see for yourself on the school’s website what the middle 50% SAT score is. You can be bellow and get admitted because 25% of the class is bellow that mark. However, for an unhooked applicant (and I would say the majority are) you have to factor in athletes, generous legacies (the guys with buildings named after them), and applicants who are truly amazing (like an 1800 to HYP who also cured cancer). They probably populate a portion of the lower 25% of SAT scores. There are people who are unhooked who get in with scores in the lower 25%, but there are far more unhooked applicants who are admitted in the top 75% of SAT scores (by virtue of there being more students in the top 75%). The question you have to ask yourself is are you comfortable applying trying to be the exception to the rule? Isn’t it a little less nerve racking if you are in the range of an average student accepted to the school?</p>