<p>This may be a stupid question, but, as my coach once told me, "The stupid question is the one not asked." With that in mind, what's the purpose of a chance thread? What are students seriously hoping to gain from them? I'm inclined to take quite a few of them with a grain of salt because I have no clue where people get their information from. How many results are just random guesses? How many answers are based on real information? What can and cannot be trusted on here? I want to know what everybody else thinks on this issue, be it negative, positive, or objective.</p>
<p>Most chance threads and chance posts are a total waste of time. Take the typical “Chance me and I’ll chance you back” request. If a kid doesn’t know his own chances, how could he possibly help a stranger?</p>
<p>Finally. thank you for the question. I did a “what are my chances post”, but I now realize that the whole idea is a bit funny/stupid. </p>
<p>There is no point. No one here can remotely tell you what your chances are. Why? They are not the ones reviewing your application and making the final decision. A reply from What are my chances threads and two dollars will get you on the Subway in NYC. </p>
<p>Kids obsess over college. They work hard, strive for a perfect SAT, ACT, GPA, activities. They have a dream of going to Harvard, becoming a lawyer, having a family with two perfect blue-eyed American children, a golden retriever, an Audi with tan leather seats, and friends with whom they can drink Scotch with at the company picnic.
They apply to their college of choice, thinking that the hard work the have put in makes them a shoe-in. Then they wake up from their dream and realize their are hundreds of thousands of other kids with identical stats, and the nearly the same dream. The need someone to console them, to tell them that everything will be ok. Its like a prayer that their dream will become reality.<br>
Little do they know that no one, except Admissions officers can determine their fate. </p>
<p>And that is the purpose of “What Are My Chances” threads.</p>
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<p>I can assure you that “hundreds of thousands” of kids don’t have perfect SAT,ACT, GPA, and activities.</p>
<p>thats why I said “strive for” perfect Sat’s, ect.</p>
<p>It’s good to know that there are other people out there with some common sense. I’ve never really known what to make of chance threads for two reasons. These people have no clue whatsoever what goes on amongst admissions, so who are they to say where we can and can’t go? Additionally, these people are our competition. Whose to say that they’re not trying to psych us out to up their chances in admission? Honestly, there are days when I think College Confidential is the best place to find your best frenemies. This is Gossip Girl for admission stats, lol.</p>
<p>Couldn’t agree more.</p>
<p>The “chance back” thing is BS. I’m inclined to discount most of the opinions from kids who do that.</p>
<p>However, chance threads become useful for juniors who are trying to pinpoint the weak parts of their application, and seniors who want to know what people find most noteworthy or most mediocre. Some people have carefully studied past admissions decisions (from CDSs, their school’s Naviance, perhaps CC self-posted results information) and know the numbers and purely quantitative chances. Some have heard from adcoms or deduced from the promo material that universities put out what the adcoms for a particular college are emphasizing or looking for.</p>
<p>That kind of information might compose 20% of chancing. But by and large people start chance threads to solicit reassurance and have people give them the green light that yeah, they should apply to their super-reach school…and then they go and chance their peers. It’s an odd system.</p>
<p>Personally, I see chancing as a mindless pastime. It can be fun, and it can even be informative–chance threads can tell you a lot about the average student applying to your choices, and whether you fall above or below that standard; and the comments people leave, the impressions they share with you, can be very useful as well. But I don’t think it should be taken too seriously as, ultimately, most of us don’t really know what we’re talking about, and even those of us who do can be wrong.</p>
<p>Personally, I like the analytical aspect of it, when people comment on specific aspects of each other’s applications and give advice.</p>
<p>Greekfire explains it pretty well. I’ll admit that part of the reason I made a chance thread was because I am very nervous right now over whether I’ll get into my top choices or not. It does give many of us that sense of false security. But at the same time it helps me gauge which schools I’m in the ballpark of getting into/getting rejected from based off of not just stats (one could simply find his/her chances by comparing GPA and SATs to the school’s averages posted online) but subjective information like ECs. </p>
<p>It’s also a good way to see what our competition is.</p>