These issues are irrelevant to an individual asking for help. Even if the question is a lie, the answers can be valid for the lie.
Many of us have many years experience helping with the college application process, and some of us are relative experts on some schools. Many answers from high schoolers might be better ignored, especially those giving chances.
Being realistic is better in the long run, I think.
Like any site, there are good and bad aspects. Itās up to you to use this site in a way that helps you. What I learned from this site is there are many caring and knowledgeable parents and anxious students; and different strokes for different folks. Also, when I post stuff, I am just sharing and not trying to prove to anyone I am right and someone is wrong. Even when I donāt follow someoneās advice or approach, itās helpful to see other approaches. I have gained a tremendous respect for any student who goes to any college to try to accomplish things despite obstacles. Kudos to those kids and supportive parents.
@vonlost "Being realistic is better in the long run, I think. " - YES! I have seen the results of students who have not been realistic about their college search process and it has not been pleasant. My DS18 has classmates who would have greatly benefited from some realism. As a parent, this site has been invaluable to me. Do I sometimes disagree with the advice or opinions given - sure. But the good far outweighs the bad. Without this site, Iām not sure where my DS would have ended up in this process. As both my DH and I went to public state schools ( in a state with high acceptance rates for all of our public schools - not like CA or TX) I had no idea of how the private/competitive public school landscape truly worked. I knew nothing about ED, EA or SCEA. In the end, Iām not sure my DS would have been admitted to his top choice school if he had not applied ED. I donāt find the Chances Me threads useful for many of the reasons stated above. I use the Parents Forum, College Admissions, College Search & Selections and the specific college threads. Many thanks to all the posters who have taken time to help me and so many others. My DD19 jokes about how several of her classmates needs CC for a reality check - it probably wonāt be nearly as funny next year when acceptance time comes!
CC has been very helpful to me as a parent, specially for researching colleges. I love the plain talking and experiences.
BUT neither of my kids are on it snd I do not tell them about it. I agree that it would just stress them out more during HS.
@CacciatoreDeco Would you care to elaborate? (without violating ToS, of course) I ask because I found this place because every time I had a question about a specific school: āIs X a party school? How religious is school Y?ā google bumped me to a thread on college confidential.
I have seen students who are facing unpalatable or unaffordable choices in April and CCāers rush in to provide last minute suggestions of rolling-admission, economical choices. Then there are international students with very low income that get steered to realistic options for their stats and income level. Or students at high schools where every college counselor has a case load of several hundred rising seniors. CC can be really important in cases like these.
As a parent, helpful strangers steered me towards schools that I had never heard of that proved to be good choices for my child. It helped our family to figure out the financials and to apply to schools that were feasible for us. It helped me to help my child to craft a realistic list and to temper her expectations about the reaches.
One of the best threads ever @Lindagaf 's āaverage excellentā discussion helped to put my child into context regarding the national pool of applicants.
Your points about the stresses of the application process are well taken. Yes, avoid the āchanceā me threads, and yes, CC, like most things in life, should be consumed in moderation.
Many adult posters (and some younger posters, too) are done with college admissions and are out here helping others benefit from their experience. Applying to and paying for college is a complex undertaking these days. There are many posters who are here to help and arenāt ācompetitorsā.
Thereās a world of great information on this site. Iāve learned about great schools I hadnāt heard about before, and a great deal about financial aid.
So unless students know all there is to know about college, college selection and know their parents can pay for whatever school they get into ā great, avoid CC.
For the rest, the Search and Selection, Financial Aid and the Parentsā Forum will offer invaluable adviceā¦ advice many people have to pay for, but here itās available free of charge.
Agree: Avoid āwhat are my chances.ā Itās useless.
Agree 100% on the Chance Me threads. And sometimes when I see all those ECs listed in a Chance Me profile I sometimes wonder if the person writing can multiply by 24, 7, or 12. I also often wonder just who else is in all these clubs that everyone seems to be the founder and President of. No one seems to be just a member of a club.
Mystified as to why anybody would want to pretend to be something they arenāt in the flesh let alone on a website. I find that really sad.
That said, Iāve learned a lot reading this forum.
Grade deflation, competitive v collaborative environments, to make sure listed courses are offered all the time, housing options, ED v EA v RD, I could go on. All of these things may seem obvious to most of you but for someone like me this place has been tremendously helpful.
I actually found chance threads are usefulābut not for the original purposes.
You can chuck all the chance threads into a bulk sample. Pretty soon you realize that there isnāt much to distinguish one candidate from another. 34-36 ACTS and 750-800 SATs are nothing special. Ditto for most ECs. Captain of this, founder of that, self-proclaimed passion for X. Yawn. (Even worse when you see the transparent admissions posturing and puffery described above!) If your eyes glaze over when reading a chance thread, you have an inkling of the plight of an admissions officer. The bulk sample reveals how not to look like everyone else.
The most useful part of CC I find is the result section of each school that comes out after early round and RD. Unfortunately, starting this year most of tippy top schoolsā result pages after RD are empty because of lack of posting by vast majority of disappointed kids. If this trend continues CC will be even less about the data more about the opinions.
If you are coming to CC for Chance Me threads, you are coming for (IMHO) one of the least helpful, most toxic aspects of the site.
Whenever I see a poster comment that everyone here is a student or competitor I am always puzzled. My CC experience has found much more non-student participation in the forums. It may just be what I am interested in and pay attention to, I suppose.
College Confidential is needed now more than ever before due to the increased competition for admission to US colleges & universities.
Even with decades of experience, I learn something new every time I read CC postings.
Advocates for particular schools are very helpful as their familiarity with that school often provides insights rarely found elsewhere.
I view chance me threads as a request for advice.
OP: Yes, I agree that too much information can be overwhelming & disheartening, but it is much better than too little information in my opinion.
Also, I learn a great deal from the different perspectives & varying experiences & needs of other posters.
āI view chance me threads as a request for advice.ā
I look at chance me threads as a plea for affirmation of ego. Itās like getting ālikesā on a comment one posts. It has no value but makes you feel good.
I think itās a matter of choosing whose opinions you listen to.
I enjoy read SO MANY posts from kids who acted like they knew their stuff, when in reality they were merely repeating what other kids had told them.
There are a number of people here who really, really know their stuff. Their advice has been incredibly helpful as I helped my 2 older kids navigate college admissions.
The problems in separating the wheat from the chaff.
College confidential has been so helpful to me as a parent. I learned a lot about the small lac my son will attend. I have received a ton of helpful advice from many sources including cc. The chance me section doesnāt make sense to me so I avoid that. My sonās high school guidance counselor told us where she thought he would get in and she was spot on.
āI look at chance me threads as a plea for affirmation of ego. Itās like getting ālikesā on a comment one posts. It has no value but makes you feel good.ā
I agree with this but with a different take. I think they are from kids looking for comfort during a terrifying process, like the kid next to me on the Twilight Zone ride once ā he just needed someone to tell him he would survive, and he really wasnāt sure.
Chance threads are also useful points for the knowledgeable posters (not me) to say āDonāt forget to add safeties, UNM might be a good choiceā, etc
Iām not sure about others but CC was a HUGE wake-up moment for me and my D.
Before CC:
and I donāt even need to write out the post-CC mindset.
We came here in the nick of time!