In other countries especially East Asian countries, college entrance is simply getting good grades (though it is subject to variances in the test-takers’ performances).
College Confidential shows me that life is not just about SATs - and grades even. It is about maximizing opportunities that we have in HS and beyond.
CC. . .I would not be the same person if I have not found CC.
And that is just stating it delicately. But the experiences and information and the interactions here have been undeniably valuable to my perception of the world. This is one of the websites I probably would never outgrow.
As for YoPongo. . .good luck on your endeavor to Georgetown! You fully deserved the acceptance and scholarship there.
AHHHH about the procrastinating… CC doesn’t exactly help. But despite this (or because of it? Hehe) I love CC. There are a few rotten apples, but for the most part people here are SO willing to help and share advice. This is a really great community.
OP, my friend is going to be Georgetown 2015! I am sure you will both have an excellent time there; congratulations!!!
I am also an international student that needed a lot of financial aid and I learned about CC on September of last year, when I applied to colleges. I can’t thank College Confidential enough for the assistance received from the great people on this site! This has been of great help in my college appplication process, my 4 acceptances and the great financial aid I have received at 3 of the colleges I got accepted to, are in part thanks to CC! I am a proud member of the Washington University in St. Louis Class of 2015 where I will be attending with a full ride!
Hi there to all of you
I am a mom and from India. I absolutely agree with all of you. I stumbled upon CC during one of research sittings on the net. There is so much that I wanted to know and as you know one can never have a complete ready made list of questions that one just go and get an answer for and be done with .
And so over the last 2 years CC has been a source of great info, great discussions, and a lot of perspective from a whole lot of people student and parents alike. I can tell it is so heart warming and enlightening to get such a wide view and it sort of put me in a comfort zone knowing that for every query of mine there were so many people firstly with same queries and then so many viewpoints.
For me as a mother it has been a great journey of discovery and knowing real wonderful people by their virtual names. People who do not know you but always have something to share and so yes I would also like to say a big Thank you to all of you for sharing your time and experiences and making me wiser in the process. Also just this interaction alone made me very comfortable about sending my D about 7000 miles away from home to pursue her dreams. So Thank you once again and best wishes to all of you .
To the OP:
This is a great post. One of the first truly great I’ve seen. Good stuff.
it’s not easy for you!!!
I wish I’d known cc sooner. I could have used a lot of help. But since I am starting uni this fall… Oh well
CC has been great, especially in allowing me to not get complacent about myself so I can see that there are lots of smart people out there. Without it, I would not have pushed myself through Junior year as hard. I just wish I was on it for Freshman and Sophomore years so I could have avoided my (many) mistakes there. But it’s a great resource for anyone coming from a small school with a crappy guidance counselor. 
Congrats! Georgetown is a phenomenal school. Which college are you attending? I’m assuming the humanities/sciences one?
Anyway, I wish I had found CC earlier when I was applying to colleges. Really such a great resource. I’m continuing to use it as I’m thinking about majors, internships, grad schools, fellowships, etc.
I know I’m late but congratulations! Thanks for this post, it made this neurotic kid calm down for a few minutes 
Hopefully some of the Early Decision (ED) folks from Fall 2011 will add their wisdom to this thread.