I just graduated from the IB program this year and I think it’s a great idea! It would certainly help those who are in the program now.
I am going to ditto what Mary13 said above. I too am relatively new to CC, and a parent of a rising Senior so all of this is new to me. Please remember that every day, students and parents who are just starting the college process find CC and are hardly bored by the threads that you have been reading for years. One thread that might be WONDERFUL and helpful to parents like me is a “novice” thread. A place where we will not be scolded for asking a question that was thoroughly answered in 2005. It would be a terrific thread where we could talk about our first steps in the college process. Just a thought.
Happy Weekend!
I’m the parent of an IB a student, so definitely count me in as someone who would love a consolidated IB forum to help remove some of the mystique and give all these students (and their perplexed parents) some useful guidance and BTDT experience.
Am also interested in info for students who are stronger students than atheletes, but still want to play competitively in college.
Instead of just restircting the list to American universities, we could add sub-sections on popular non-US colleges. I know that there info on tons of foreign universities begging for organisation and attention.
Also the careers section can definately be expanded furthur.
One important thing to remember is that sometimes asking the question – even an “old” question – and getting answers is much more educational and satisfying than looking through an index and finding the answer that way. So don’t just take all the info on here already, alphabetize it, and provide a link to the index. It’s the give and take and side jokes that makes CC so much fun to be on.
I second the suggestions of specific academic subjects, career guidance, and holistic descriptions of schools.
How about how to “read” a Common Data Set report? What the various numbers would mean to a prospective student, etc.
In light of the changes in many schools’ financial aid policies, perhaps a “stats”-like section where parents of admitted students could post income level, assets, scores, GPA, and FA/merit offers from schools from which their kid received FA offers. That would certainly be helpful to potential applicants trying to guess whether a school might be financially feasible.
A “best practices” section aimed at guidance counselors and school officials would also be welcome. Obviously there are lots of ways schools calculate GPAs and class ranks; develop and update a school profile; and handle student letters of recommendations. Some guidance counselors and school principals who have never had a student apply to a HYPSM-type school could use this as a resource if new outreach efforts by the Ivies and other schools prove successful.
Another thing that would be great is a place under specific schools for students to identify terrific classes they have taken at that college and/or wonderful teachers they have had there.
<li>IB Forum</li>
<li>Athletic Forum</li>
<li>Subject Forum- this way you could easily find additional schools with programs in your areas of interest.</li>
<li>“DI Sports” forum</li>
<li>“DIII Sports” forum </li>
<li>Somewhere near the alphabetic list of colleges, give each state a heading for “other” - for example, under N, New Jersey colleges not otherwise listed; New Mexico colleges not otherwise specified; etc. Something like that. There are dozens of small but great Ohio colleges and discussions of these schools end up many different forums.</li>
<li>Under College Majors, a header for Foreign Languages <a href=“maybe%20even%20consider%20sub%20forums%20by%20major,%20for%20example%20French%20major,%20Spanish%20major,%20German%20major,%20and%20especially%20Chinese%20major,%20Arabic%20major,%20Russian%20major”>i</a>*</li>
When I read the OP, I was thinking, hmmm, until space aliens land and our kids need to compete with them for high school class rank and college admissions, there may not be anything completely new under the sun…
I also like the idea of an FAQ forum or area. [Ask a friend who is unfamiliar with this forum to find the instructions for how to make smiley faces and see how long it takes that person to find those instructions 
]
I would like to see more forums for specific colleges, including some lesser-known ones. Our safety schools should have discussion forums as well. To draw more attention, we could combine several similar safety schools into one forum, so we aren’t left with scores of dead forums with no traffic.
I would also like to see some more discussion about the college academic experience in comparison with high schools of different types. I could make a thread about this myself, but my own threads don’t get the kind of attention that a formal discussion receives. For instance, I attend a small rural high school that almost never sends students to top schools. Will I be as prepared as someone who went to Exeter, or will I flunk out the first semester?
The last thing I would like to see is for CC to become more accepting of foreign language discussions. Many colleges offer foreign-language housing for upperclassmen, so why can’t we provide a similar experience here on CC? However, I do realize the logistical flaws with this idea, such as how to moderate the post content. But I think that it would be nice if we could practice our foreign language skills on this site.
The final thing I have to say is this: CC is a great website for college preparation, and I think that most of the website is too good to change. New discussions are great, but please don’t overhaul the format of the website. It’s great the way it is.
I love the regional schools idea ( i.e. west, south, midwest…), FAQ’s , and what about putting the HBCU schools together in a forum instead of listing rhwm seperately? They get so little traffic.
I would love for CC to have a more efficient search function. As it is, I search the forums entirely through Google (site:collegeconfidential.com) because I usually can’t find anything relevant through the site search–especially for obscure topics referenced by only one or two threads, or alternately for popular topics referenced by half the threads in existence. For instance, a way to search only thread title would be lovely–but I’m new to CC, so maybe that’s already been implemented and I just don’t know how.
How about a Community College forum/subsection?
Annika
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We need more topics on affirmative action. I feel that’s a very neglected topic on these forums… <em>rolls eyes</em>
Keilalexandra, there’s a “search this thread” option at the top of every thread. Even better is the “advanced search” option in the search option at the top.I like it especailly for looking for certain useres posts; they autocomplete as you start typing! You can find threads much older than you would find other ways.
How about sub-forums for
- Seniors
- Juniors
- Sophomores
- Freshmen
Also, could you somehow gather all the “hot discussions” into one forum? Like, threads that are very popular or very interesting… Since they just disappear after a while from the Featured Discussions list… I’d like to know what the old Featured Discussions were.
We could label the forum “CC Favorites” and include the really funny threads and posts
This is true, but I admit I have certain trouble with search functions sometimes as well, as if you type out a word, say “banana”, for example, it won’t lead you to the thread sometimes saying “banana” or the like but totally irrelevant but popular thread saying “Computer games” with a banana post somehow in there. happens occasionally, but I haven’t really used the advanced search function too much so I can’t be sure.
I like the idea of grade-level forums. Would be a great community-builder. The posts going now are soooo long that a newcomer would not be very likely to read the whole thing.
How about a “real” cafe.