So PrepScholar, aside from offering SAT and ACT practice/tips, offers information on various colleges. On top of all that, they have an “admissions calculator” to calculate your chance of being accepted to that school.
So my question is, is this calculator dependable? Does it tend to be correct? If not, how much does it tend to be off by?
Specifically looking at its viability with the UCs.
These types of calculators shouldn’t be given much merit. Admissions decisions are unpredictable, and while you may think you’re the perfect match for a school, you might be rejected while people you didn’t think stood a chance to get in manage to get in. Calculators cannot take into account essays, admission officers’ thoughts, applicant variety for admissions years, etc. If anything, the calculator may be somewhat reliable if you want to assess target and safety schools. What I mean by that is, say, you research school A and it has a middle SAT of 1700, standard GPA of 3.7, the whole deal. You happen to have, say, a 2200 SAT, 3.9 GPA, and a well developed resume. The Calculator says you’re a 95% chance to get in. By all means, that’s probably true, and you should apply there because it would be a good back up.
@DaedricSaiyan thank you for the feedback. So I’m assuming if the calculator says I have a 75 percent chance, I should take it as more of a target school rather than low safety?