The Secret to College Admissions: Get Off of College Confidential

Applying to College
21

Good thread. One further thought (apologies if it’s already been covered):

Regarding this piece of advice, please be aware that it can only get you so far:

“If you want some accurate chance me’s, results/if you truly want to know if your test scores are good enough, etc. visit your college’s class profiles (i just type [college name here] class profile into google)!! Usually, colleges will post the average stats of students admitted from previous classes–most will have test scores, and if you’re lucky you might get some GPAs. And you know that it’s accurate because it’s coming from the college itself! Still, that’s just the academic portion. there are other parts of the application that matter.”

A college’s class profile can give you some sense of whether you are in the mix for admissions … whether your application will make the first cut. But it won’t give you an accurate sense of your actual odds of getting in with a given profile. Some schools post not only a class profile, but also a run-down of how different profiles fared in the admissions pool, and that can be instructive (and sobering). Find a few schools that do that, check THAT info, and adjust expectations accordingly. Some examples:

MIT
http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/stats
Scroll down to the bottom and note that although ACTs of 34-36 may be their “middle 50%”, only 10-11% of kids WITH THAT SCORE are admitted. Which means you can have a 35, say “oh, I’m in their middle 50%, cool” but not grasp that that STILL only gives you a 10% chance of admission.

Brown
https://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/facts
Same kinda deal. So you’re valedictorian? Great. But still only 23% of valedictorians who apply are admitted.

Takeaway? Understand your chances at schools like that are likely unicorn-level, and not much better at any other school with similar overall admissions rates and start building a more realistic list. Perform the same exercise as best you can with all the schools in the most competitive tiers (only a handful spell it out, but read between the lines). There are a ton of excellent schools out there. Learn about them. Learn to love them. Apply to just enough of them that you have choices when the time comes.

The takeaway should NOT be “oh, I have to try even harder to get in” (or "maybe if I apply scattershot to all the “top” schools one will stick.) Do the good work that you do. Learn about your options. Live life. Develop as a human and a student. Build a good list with a nice range. Enjoy the next step. Tying yourself in knots to get into school X will ultimately backfire.

Note: If your school uses Naviance, that can be helpful for getting a read on your chances as well.

22

If you dislike cc, then why not respond with your feet. Sure there are some silly, unhelpful threads. Like this one. If you don’t like cc, don’t stick around. Its that simple.

23

You are right OP, this site can be demoralizing and stress-inducing, IF all a student looks at are the results and chance me threads. There is solid and very useful advice on this forum, from people like myself who have been through the process with their own kids. There are also people here, like myself, who are involved in the college-related fields, and who know a lot about the process because it is their livelihood. These people are professors, tutors, private college advisors, school counselors, teachers, coaches, college administrators, alumni, and so on.

I know of no other website where a stranger can usually get very helpful advice from another stranger, about something that can be very important to their future. Your post would be more helpful if you encouraged kids to stay away from chance me and results threads, but it’s not particularly helpful to tell students to abandon this site all together. After being on this site for 4 years, I have seen too many posts from kids who have zero guidance at home or at school. There are many kids here who have no idea how to pay for college, who don’t know about merit aid, how to apply for fee waivers, scholarships, QuestBridge, or even that they need to fill out the common app. This forum is primarily here to help people. Your opinion is just that, but you can’t tar the entire site and all useful posters with the same brush as chance me posters.

24

I really like what Lindgaf just wrote: CC is here to help people.

I have been on CC for 11 years now (three kids) and have never even looked at a chance me thread. Many of us stay on to try to pass on what we learned: we don’t pose as experts, only as parents who have been down certain roads (in my case, performing arts and medical challenges).

I think, more importantly, the OP here is going about things backwards. Your use of the site doesn’t have to be about how you fit schools in terms of your accomplishments or stats. It should be about how a school fits you.

I will repeat: don’t try to fit a school, find a school that fits you.

Go to the parents forum and describe your interests and strengths, what affordability/size/location/academics/ vibe you are looking for and people will give you suggestions. Have you even tried that?

And remember this really is not a competition among individual applicants. Colleges are assembling a class, and want an interesting mix. If you view application as a competition, and carry that attitude forward when you are on campus, you will not contribute to campus life in a way that makes the experience better for yourself or others.

Just be yourself, enjoy high school, be a good person, apply to schools that fit, and see where you land. The school you attend does not define you.

25

@jym626 my opinion is just that: my opinion. I did say in the original post that you do NOT have to consider or take anything I said to heart. (It all comes down to reading…).

Regardless about how you feel about CC, I feel as if this post has generated positive discussion, and would be helpful to any new student on here as to what they should avoid, what they can get out of it, etc., if they not only look at the post but look at all the wonderful replies as well.

Despite my argument, this discussion EXEMPLIFIES how CC can be useful, and at the end of the day the goal of my post was to help. (Lol this is not how i orginally planned it would help, but it is helping nonetheless and im happy for it regardless!!!)

I appreciate everyone’s comments. This is truly great!

26

Yes, some posters are very pleased with the perceived importance of their threads :>

“The most important advice readers will ever get on cc?” Gotta seriously disagree with that one.

Be positive, not negative. Helpful, IMO, to point out what is helpful, not what isn’t. The urban dictionary has plenty of negativity about cc. That’s fine. Not sure why dissing it here is “helpful” (other than ignoring the silly “chance me” threads).

27

@jym626 Yes, you’re correct, some are! But I am not.

Unfortunately, I will not further entertain this purposeless discussion with you. Thank you for contributing your opinion, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

28

Again, and other broad brush. If you have helpful suggestions, perhaps consider sending them to the mods or the administrators (there is a section/ forum for that). Like perhaps putting a big disclaimer atop the silly “chance me” threads. Or reminding HSers where the helpful information can found.

You are welcome to complain, and to see this as the most helpful thread/advice ever on cc, but for those of us who have been here for a very long time, and have had the opportunity to see many, many threads, and to see the benefit that so many have gotten here, especially learning to separate the wheat from the chaff, these kinds of threads are sometimes irksome.

29

Well I will end by saying that CC is NOT , as the OP states, “Only causing stress” and this is not “the best advice ever”. Having been here for quite some time, I have read and participated in many helpful discussions, gleaned and given advice and suggestions, and see the benefits of cc, or I wouldnt stay. Food for thought .

30

I want to clear the air. I am very open to discussion. The previous poster edited their reply after I had already responded and made it appear as if I was one sided. I am not and I welcome all opinions.

In reference to “the most important advice” thing: for some it may be, for others it may not. Regardless, I didnt mean it very literally. That is just my “voice” coming through my writing.

And at the end of the day I do agree with a lot the previous poster said. CC does have a lot of useful avenues, you just have to avoid the ones that aren’t.

31

MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Per the rules of the forum:

https://auth.collegeconfidential.com/module.php/hobsonspolicies/policy.php?policy=forumrules

Conversations between 2 members, if they need to occur at all, should be handled via PM. 6 posts deleted.

32

I’ve found two categories of useful information on CC:

  1. Specific facts and guidance from people who have real knowledge, and may be subject matter experts in some specific area, or with regard to a specific school (anything from guidance on financial aid, how best to use a 529 plan, where to find certain resources at a given school, lists of summer programs and tips on them, how to move your kid in or out from college, where to stay/eat in a given college town, etc., etc.). Also people who can investigate a topic collaboratively, and may be able to point you to statistical or other sources you didn't know about.
  2. Words of wisdom from experienced posters who happen to be wise people, often ones who've been through the college process multiple times, have kids at various schools, can provide insights based on their experience and understand how to play the game while maintaining a constructive attitude.

I owe a great deal to some of the above people, and am very grateful to them. Many of the best interactions with them happen via PM, I’ve found.

What I don’t have use for on CC:

  1. "Chance me" threads, which are completely unverifiable and often seem designed to hurt people's feelings. "Results" threads are better, but also of unknown truthfulness, and represent only a small slice of successful applicants.
  2. People who have an agenda, including propagandists for specific schools, posters who made one decision and try to validate it by arguing for everyone else to make the same choice whether it's right for them or not, posters who debate relative prestige endlessly, posters who try to introduce politics or racial issues into threads, sock puppets who take on multiple screen names to gaslight other members, and other posters who are aggressively ignorant and/or insulting.

Maybe there’s a way to do this that I haven’t discovered, but it seems to me that CC would benefit from some kind of poster rating system that would make it clear who was a credible source on what. You can eyeball how many posts and points someone has to get an initial impression, but only a fair amount of reading and research will make it clear who’s really worth reading and on what subjects, and who changes their story over time. I think some set of metrics that includes total number of posts, ratio of points to posts and some indication of which topics a poster actually knows something about (maybe posts by topic and ratios within them) would be helpful.

33

@DeepBlue86, and who would be the judge in that kind of rating system or even come up with a system? The moderators? We don’t have time to look at hundreds of posters in that kind of detail. And what a thankless task! WHATEVER any “impartial” judge thought, people would be up in arms if they weren’t given a high ranking. People are already annoyed at what CC calls “Top Universities,” even after it’s been explained that “Top” refers to popularity only.

34

We miss the little greenies :slight_smile:

35

I assume it would be algorithmic, @MaineLonghorn - you folks have plenty to do, it seems to me. If I may refer to moderation without violating the ToS ;), I think you all do a terrific job.

36

And as for the usefulness of CC, this thread on this topic http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2076553-how-has-college-confidential-helped-you-or-your-kid-or-has-been-not-helpful.html#latest was helpful. Asked for feedback without bashing cc.

37

This is also an interesting read :):

“One of College Confidential’s Founders Says Site ‘Turned Sour’”

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/one-of-college-confidentials-founders-says-site-turned-sour/34897&ved=2ahUKEwjZvtiznOLaAhVJPN8KHTxVBTEQFjAIegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw24YoAoaMWdPGk4XosZ8bDQ

Again, everyone’s opinion is differing but it seems as if we have reached a general consensus that there is both good and bad.

38

That’s old news, @CacciatoreDeco. And he wrote that off cc, not on (5 years ago, almost to the day).

Agree- CC was a different place, “back then”… Miss the good old days sometimes, with the clever, witty banter and evidence of many very bright, talented and knowledgeable folks. There are still many, but its a different place.

39

As a parent, CC has been invaluable. I think the chance me threads are the hook that get you to sign in. Yes I would read them with an understanding that everyone is putting their best foot forward, but then again, my guess is that is what they are doing when they apply to college. I would look at the stats like an admissions officer and say, what value would this person bring. It helped me to look at my d19 to see how she might compare, what her stats said about her. It has made me be more realistic in how my daughter stacks up. After a few weeks, I stopped reading those I started picking up resources. If nothing else, I learned about the common data set, which has been an invaluable tool, and the time some people spend to provide you with ideas, resources, experiences is worth a lot.

If I was to say one thing that irritates me is some of the common opinions that seep into every thread. My latest pet peeve is “you can’t afford it so don’t even look at these schools” view point and if you don’t say what the budget is you shouldn’t be looking at schools. For everyone college is a decision that will make a significant impact on a persons life and we all approach the process differently. And money is one of the most important factors, but if I want to approach it with a “you get in, I will find a way to pay for it” approach, as oppose to “you have x dollars, here are your options” that is my choice.

My D19 isn’t on CC and isn’t planning on joining. I can see where it would be very unnecessarily stressful for her.

40

OP, I suggest learning to separate the wheat from the chaff, taking some opinions with a grain of salt, and verifying accuracy, just as with any other type of information. This is a life skill. On CC, that usually involves, among other things, recognizing differences among responding posters. A poster with 20 posts mostly responding to chance-me may be a young student whereas a poster with 20,000 posts all over the site is likely to have a fair bit of experience fleshing out what is and is not accurate, even where there are differences of opinion. Unequivocally, if you spend some time poking around the forums, you will learn things about college admissions you were unaware of before, and you may find that your opinions both of college admissions and of CC mature a bit.

While I find chances almost impossible to estimate beyond combining acceptance rates with where the student’s stats compare to the class profile, even chance-me threads can take an interesting turn when parents and other experienced adults do some issue-spotting within the kid’s situation, pointing out some considerations for which the kid may or may not have awareness and offering suggestions that might even help to quell the kid’s unease with the the lack of certainty.