nice to see a return to the op.
does anyone have any ideas for how this could happen? ( i pmed the admin, but i doubt that will do anything…)
I suppose you could try posting in the Community & Forum Issues page, or PM a moderator or an admin.
I tried to send a message to the moderator to add a school (MTSU, specifically) to the list of colleges, and he/she never replied or added the school.
Just felt the need to tell you, so even if you send a message, they probably will not reply.
On second thought, the ivy thread might be more promising than the addition of MTSU, so you should definately send a message to the moderator.
there is a simple reason why ivys recieve few applicants. the UC system, you do 1 app and it goes to all schools so you have nothing but a little cash to lose. aside from the fact ivys have different apps from eachother, they are also very hard to get into. why would many people waste time applying to harvard with no shot. ivys have alot of self selection based on people thinking they cant get in, distance from home (if you are in cali UCB and UCLA arent as far as ivys), cost (if you are in cali UCB and UCLA are cheaper) and alot of more factors. also, people living west of the rockies would probably prefer Cali schools to ivys based on location.
and i have a theory about why ivy forums. america is obsessed with fame and prestige. why else do we care about britney spear’s baby or tom cruse’s religion, or the fact lance bass is gay. it’s because they are famous. it’s the same thing with colleges. if you say “i went to harvard” people will respect you more than if you said “i went to rpi” even though you could have barely gotten out of harvard with a degree compared to leaving rpi as the val. the ivys are the most recognisable colleges in the country, and very well known throughout the world. most people in the world know waht harvard is, but how many have heard of rpi in america, let alone the rest of the world. and dont kid yourself, if an ivy gave you a full ride to attend you would probably take it over any other college.
The reason why the Ivy forums are listed in the index is because the index should have some direct links to forums in order to provide accessibilty. On the other hand, it is not possible to have a direct link to every school, so only a few can be there. As for that, I think the Ivy league is the least-controversial group for the index page. At least I think it’s better to have the Ivy league there rather than the Pac 10.
Yeah. The Pac-10 and ACC both have schools that have more forum posts than some Ivies, but as a group they can’t compare.
- Ivy’s don’t receive few applicants. 2) Ever heard of the common application? 3) Over $60 per school, to many people, isn’t a little cash. 4) Admittance into the UCs, especially Berkeley and UCLA and especially certain programs throughout (such as engineering) isn’t exactly a cakewalk by any means.
Look, this forum is for kids who are looking at the best colleges…in general, this includes the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, CIT, Duke, Northwestern, Chicago, Georgetown…etc.
Out of all of these, the Ivies are the only homogenous group in the sense that they are an athletic conference…because of that, why not have its own group, just makes it easier
The rest of the elite schools can go in Top Schools, the same exact process it takes to go to a Ivy school
Think about it. College Confidential first and foremost is a business.
What is College Confidential’s core business (definitely not the discussion boards; are just an extra added perk)? It’s college counseling.
Where does their bread and butter come from? College Counseling.
What is the target population most likely to enlist their services?
Go to their home page (not the discussion page that most of us click on).
It says:
*Welcome to College Confidential!
Welcome to the best source of college information on the Web! Here you’ll find hundreds of pages of articles about choosing a college, getting into the college you want, how to pay for it, and much more. You’ll also find professional college consulting services, and the Web’s busiest discussion community related to college admissions!.
On their home page there is a box that says
**Special Focus: Ivy League Admissions **
*As a group, Ivy League schools are the most selective in the nation - and the most sought after colleges by many students. *
Academic Index How Ivy League schools use the Academic Index, plus our free Academic Index calculator.
Big Gold box that says Ivy Guaranteed Admissions Program
"Ivys dont receive few applicants. "
I was commenting on annother post that showed they do recieve fewer than stanford, UCLA, USC and UCB. they recieve alot of applicants, but if kk19131’s numbers are correct, not as many as these other schools. i probably should have said “fewer” my bad on diction.
"Ever heard of the common application? "<br>
yes i have. last time i checked, you still have supplements. thats about 2 essays per school and more added information. last time i checked, it doesnt take too much brain power to rewrite your name and social securty number (which is the main part of the common app), but writing essays takes time and thought and is the toughest part of the admissions process. also, the common app isnt used by columbia and brown.
“Over $60 per school, to many people, isnt a little cash.”
I understand that, and if the student doesnt hav fee waivers that can become expensive. but in the end, what is $60 extra if you somehow get into berkely or ucla as a big reach. i think kids who take the risk and get rewarded will think the money was well spent.
i only made the comparison to show that some lower level students would be more willing to take the plunge and apply to out of reach UCs because it is only money they are adding and not extra time and effort into apps along with money.
About two essays per school? Certainly not on the average. For example, Harvard has one OPTIONAL essay, which my friends and I never bothered to do (in fact I think one of my friends, who was accepted, didn’t bother to do it). Cornell’s two optional essays are only 250 words, and I did them in one afternoon. In fact, the optional essay for Harvard could also be used for the Yale supplemental essay, and I’m sure that goes for other Ivies too.
True, the common app isn’t used by Columbia or Brown. But Columbia uses another app that is also commonly used by the likes of Stanford, MIT, and (I believe) Duke. I’m not sure if Brown uses the same app but it’s likely that it does. And again, the app is just generic information which can be filled out in 20 minutes, and you could simply use your common app essay for the one Columbia essay.
If Ivies have a lot of self-selection from people because of distance from home, then the UCs have even MORE self-selection, because of OOS admissions. Simply put, it is very difficult for out-of-staters to get into a UC, much harder than a Californian resident, so most don’t even bother applying. The result? Most of the applications to the UCs are only from California, while the Ivy League receives applications from all over the country.
Actually, I think the controversy is whether the Ivy League schools should be there at all. That is, why not just have another section called “Ivy League” next to “CC Top Universities,” “CC Top Liberal Arts Colleges,” and so forth? Why have a special “Ivy League” Forum with individual links of each college on the front page? I think it is because students are particularly interested in these colleges so doing it this way makes it easier for them, but I think it also promotes an unhealthy obession with these schools, as the separation suggests that they are the apotheosis of higher education, when other colleges such as MIT, Stanford, and Cal Tech are often just as good or better, but ignored because they are not on the front page.
It’s fine. We just have to keep things in mind, that they receive fewer relative to the Pac 10, they still receive a ton of applications. More per spot? No idea.
You certainly do have suppliments for many schools, but as far as I know, many times you can use basically the same thing for many schools. Columbia and Brown didn’t use the common app? I didn’t know that. But neither does Stanford- it’s the only school with its application. But like most college appliactions I know about, much information can be used for multiple apps with minimal revision.
I agree, but I think the same is true with the common app. Sure, it’s often easier to apply to multiple UC schools than certain groups of school with the common app (although some schools have no supplimental information on the common app), but the situation isn’t that different a lot of time. It’s true of the UCs, sure, I think it would be foolish to say otherwise, that if each school had a very different application fewer would apply to each, but I just think it’s also true of a lot of schools which accept as a possible application the common app and little additional suppliment.
But as vicissitudes mentioned, there’s also a lot of self-selection against the UCs, especially the non Berkeley and non UCLA UCs.
Having the Ivy schools directly linked on the index isn’t perfect, but it’s better than not having the Ivies linked. The reason is that if the Ivy forums aren’t directly linked, navigation overall would be more difficult and hence the forum, overall, would be weaker.
If Stanford and MIT are added based on “prestige,” then people would argue that CIT should be added as well. Then, other would argue that Williams and Amherst are just as prestigious in their own domain, and that those should be added as well. The Ivy league is the only coherent group for top schools.
I doubt if we’ll do an “Ivy League” forum, as the Ivies are quite different schools and other than their high level of selectivity and generally high prestige don’t have that much in common. While a UC forum makes some sense because of common policies and students who target UCs as a group, an Ivy forum makes less sense since they have different policies and few students target the Ivies as a group.
Since the days of our previous forum, the Ivies have drawn many more posts than almost all other schools, hence our decision to make those forums prominent.
In general, our forum decisions are driven by our community - we started a “musical theater” forum before we had an “engineering” or “communications” forum because there was a huge amount of interest (as measured by number of posts) in that area.
if youre judging by interest, i think there is quite a bit. plus, i think the assertion that there arent very many shared policies among ivy league schools is stilted.
they share the ivy league group statement, some athletic recruiting policies, similar financial aid problems, geographic similarity, similar policies on standardized testing and hs preparation, and selectivity.
plus, the “what are my chaces at the ivies” threads could easily go here, as could people generally inquiring about the ivy league as a whole.
with all due respect (which is a lot), i really think that there is enough demand for this kind of forum. why not give it a chance? plus, its not fair to judge on demand without giving it a shot and seeing how many posts it gets?
But saying that there shouldn’t be an Ivy League forum is just bad judgement driven by who knows wat…
Also the people who apply to Ivys would commonly apply to a lot of them, whereas the UC’s are in all different scopes of intelligence and interest, which means that as a group less people would look at the whole, and perhaps just look at say only berk and ucla (no offense at all to the others, and just using these 2 as examples)…which leads to the whole being a weaker area of argument. Therefore the argument for posting them as a group is just not really there anymore
I know the people in the UC system want their own link, but if it comes down to it that you guys don’t get it, believe me people respect your colleges no matter where they find them on CC and people will always know the top quality of them.
(1k post mark!!!)
Congrats on your 1K posts, Figgy. 
lol thnx, you’ve got a great site here
- A lot of people do apply to almost all, all, or most of the UC system. 2) I think the Ivy league has sort of different schools, and the UC system may very well be more homogeneous than the Ivy league, at least with regard to the schools and how they operate. Then again, it may not, but it seems hard to tell, and it doesn’t really matter.
As far as I know, it already exists. Does it not?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=510[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=510</a>
I meant the level of acedemia/opportunity/so on and so forth