To MIT adcoms/influential MIT alums...why are you on CC?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>Why are you here? Seriously, why do you stay on CC? From my observations, this site is a terrible resource for information. Its even got a terrible reputation outside in the real world (Check Yahoo! Answers for example. I see so many complaints). </p>

<p>And the complaints are understandable. So many people here talk out of their butt and gauge themselves in prestige/ranking battles. Parents apparently put down students who ask for help. </p>

<p>Is this something you want to associate yourself with? I can't figure it out. So I genuinely ask, molliebatmit, MITChris, jessiahl, Karen...why are you here? I don't see so many alums in other forums...
People like Ben Golub and the great Ben Jones himself seem to have quit a long time ago.</p>

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<p>i go to yahoo! answers as a source of entertainment</p>

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<p>precisely because people do come here for information, whether it’s good or not, so I might as well spend time trying to make it a good source, knowing people will come no matter what. </p>

<p>ben didn’t give up - he works at oberlin now.</p>

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<p>collegeconfidential is terrible in most respects but it’s not going to get better unless folks like me and mollie and piper and oasis and etc continue trying to help.</p>

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<p>I don’t know if I’m cool enough to be considered an “influential” alum, but I have been asking myself this same question lately, and I think my answer is simply, “habit.”</p>

<p>I created an account when I had just been admitted to MIT and was annoyed by some obnoxious comment about MIT girls all being ugly. (Mollie has a very similar story, actually.) I posted here throughout college because I worked in admissions and just got into the habit of answering people’s questions about the school. And to anyone who has ever been annoyed by my snarkiness, I am honestly truly trying to take the frantic tone of admissions down a notch, because I believe it is harmful to students. (In other words, I am actually trying to make your life better, not be a b****.)</p>

<p>That said…I mean, it’s a forum. It’s obviously going to be unreliable. I don’t think it’s any more or less inherently unreliable than any other forum on the internet where any random person with access to a computer and an internet connection can post whatever they feel like. Trust me, I can be College Confidential’s biggest critic, sometimes I ask myself why I’m here while banging my head against a desk =) but it seems sort of silly to come to ANY forum expecting it to be “reliable.” This is the internet. That’s how it works.</p>

<p>@haloshots: me too. There are some real gems. :)</p>

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<p>I think that if the perception is that CC is a terrible resource for information, my goal is to mitigate that reputation in whatever way I can. I mean, isn’t it better to put out information and help people rather than just to criticize the people who aren’t being helpful?</p>

<p>I’m different from most CC people I know in real life in that I don’t think CC is a bad place. I tend to give people who seem annoying or clueless the benefit of the doubt – people come off differently on the internet than they are in real life, and college admissions is a subject that is stressful and worrisome for a lot of people. The CC posters I have met in person, as well as those I’ve gotten to know better over the internet, have been great people, and I like them a lot. I have trouble tarring CC with some sort of negative brush just because people come here with a lot of questions. </p>

<p>As a mod, I’ve also seen how many of the most obnoxious posters are actually ■■■■■■, and many of them are the personas of a few persistent people who apparently have nothing better to do with their time.</p>

<p>I’m here because I’m compulsively helpful. And yes, this is a place with which I associate myself.</p>

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<p>I will note than neither Karen nor MITChris are alums. Karen’s a current student, and Chris is part of Admissions (web communications) :P</p>

<p>This is also sort of illustrative of another aspect of MIT culture. In many circles, alums (or “cruft”) stick around. If they happen to be in the area, they’ll come around for some events, or talk to friends, or to otherwise be helpful ^.^ MIT’s a great community, you don’t necessarily want to cut yourself off from every MIT-related thing after you’ve graduated.</p>

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<p>Crap, when did I graduate?</p>

<p>(real-life MIT 2012, apparently much older on the internet :slight_smile: )</p>

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<p>I’m neither an adcom nor an alum. I’ve posted here for the past 3 years because I joined MIT’s ParentConnect, a volunteer association that works to provide information and assistance to prospective students and parents. Some parents open their homes to host meetings of admitted students; others help out at CPW and Parents’ Weekend, and so on. When I initially talked with members of ParentConnect about ways I could volunteer, the idea of answering questions on CC came up. </p>

<p>I agree with Mollie, that the MIT board can be very useful to prospective students. It’s true that sometimes incorrect information appears on the board, but in every instance, a current student or alum – and these days MITChris! – will provide a correction within about 24 hours. Every year a significant minority of the students who pose questions here gain admission to MIT. I believe that at least two of them went on to become bloggers for the MIT admissions department. </p>

<p>For students without access to expensive, private college counseling, this board is very useful. It is a lifeline for international students living in areas where no one has heard of MIT. In that sense, the board provides a very real public service.</p>

<p>Last night my son boarded the Coast Starlight train to Willamette University in Salem. As I write this, he’s probably still sleeping as his train crosses the northern California border into Oregon. Very few individuals post on the Willamette board in CC, but most have been very helpful parents. I’ve posed some questions on that board, and they’ve all been answered thoroughly and fairly quickly. I’ve decided that as I learn more about Willamette, I’ll periodically visit that board to answer questions there too.</p>

<p>Taking the metaphor of CollegeConfidential as a polluted swamp, I can revise the OP’s original questions as follows:</p>

<p>"Why are you here? Seriously, why do you stay in a polluted swamp? From my observations, this site is a terrible environment, and probably bad for your health. Its even got a terrible reputation outside in the real world. (Just Google “Most Polluted Swamp on Earth!”).</p>

<p>And the complaints are understandable. So many people here just toss out their garbage and don’t seem to notice that they’re spewing toxic waste everywhere. Is this something you want to associate yourself with? I can’t figure it out. So I genuinely ask, molliebatmit, MITChris, jessiahl, Karen…why are you here?"</p>

<p>If you want to make a difference in the world, one swamp at a time, you have to wade in and clean things up yourself. CollegeConfidential is definitely a mixed bag; the quality of any given board depends on the community that maintains it. Because of posters like Mollie, Mikalye, Karen, Oasis, MITChris, Jessie, Laura, and many others, this is a particularly reliable and useful board, imo. The “compulsive helpfulness” to which Mollie refers may be part of it, but the desire to provide good and useful information, even when standing hip-deep in a swamp, fits with MIT’s mission.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your input, guys. I’m really sorry for not including you, Laura. I believe you’re very influential and good among these boards. :slight_smile:
And Karen, you’re as knowledgeable and mature as an alum. I like your posts.</p>

<p>But why don’t you guys step into the “College Admissions” and “College Selection” forums rather than sticking to the little MIT forum? I understand the MIT forum has become very rational and friendly (at least from what I see), but those two forums I mentioned…the Duke forums, Stanford forums, and UCLA forums…people are just talking out of their asses.
I’m not sure what to do to clean that swamp up.</p>

<p>I’m not sure what my point is anymore. I’m just flabbergasted by how disgusting some people can be. I believe there’s an argument right now on how Columbia shouldn’t have been ranked #4 over Stanford and MIT. :rolleyes:</p>

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<p>Actually, without CC, I’d know next to nothing about US admissions. It’s like my savior. And having spent some time reading other colleges’ boards, I think it’s safe to say the MIT board is one of the most reliable for information, precisely because so many well-informed people who actually have a relation to MIT are on here. I can’t speak for all of CC, because I haven’t remotely discovered it all, but the MIT board is very informative, and I’d venture a guess - very accurate.
In addition to some of the more high-profile colleges having excellent info on their boards, the SAT prep forum, while occasionally filled with some amazingly wrong ideas [as is every other board or forum or site on the planet, though], has some extremely qualified high school students aiding in prep and writing guides. I didn’t even know practicing for the SAT was a ‘thing’ until I started posting on CC. Though people just - took it.</p>

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<p>I do from time to time, but I also just care more about MIT. I go here, I love it here, I want people to be informed about what it’s like to be here. Some things on those boards are rather different when we get MIT-specific, and so my advice would be less-than-useful.</p>

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<p>@Saiyan - </p>

<p>Because: </p>

<ul>
<li>I only feel comfortable speaking about MIT issues, and </li>
<li>I’m too busy to handle that too!!</li>
</ul>

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<p>I’m with Chris and Piper – I know most about MIT, and I’ll step in on the main boards when there’s something I can speak about, but often I don’t have the expertise. I used to spend more time there a few years ago, too, but my life has gotten more hectic as I’ve progressed through my graduate training, and some things had to go. I’m occasionally on the Harvard board, too, as I’ve learned more about Harvard during my PhD.</p>

<p>

Absolutely. Being compulsively helpful is something that grows out of an MIT education – it’s very in line with the collaborative nature of MIT. </p>

<p>When I was a senior, I [observed</a> that](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/mits_mission_who_we_are/who_we_are.shtml]observed”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/pulse/mits_mission_who_we_are/who_we_are.shtml)

Thankfully, I haven’t become rabid yet in my advanced graduate age. :)</p>

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<p>Neither an adcom nor an alum here, not even a prospective student. I must say, however, that CC is useful and MIT site is helpful. I got to know Course # etc through mollie’s links, and I was convinced to visit the campus. There, I got the best impression among many campus visits. Location-wise it’s better than 40 min. down the street. Why worry about ranks, it will be different next year anyway.</p>

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<p>Actually, considering the anonymous and open nature of the Internet, I am surprised on a regular basis by how high the percentage of posters who respectfully seek help or helpfully give it is. TheSaiyans666, I think that you might have a skewed perspective, as I almost always see you embroiled in and, in fact, contributing to those college battles on the College Search and Selection forum.</p>

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<p>Actually, the MIT cc forum has provided much more valuable information than what I hear from friends/teachers/parents/counselors (most of which are completely incorrect). I totally agree w/ CalAlum’s comment. “for students without access to expensive, private college counseling, this board is very useful”. How am I suppose to know how college admission works without having to pay an extravagant amount for private counseling. Every alum/student/officer who posted here provided me (what I deem to be) extremely important information, especially MITChris and Mollie</p>

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<p>I would like to add, also, that I am tickled pink to be referred to as an “influential” alum. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>I am not sure how far my influence extends, but if it extends to the purchase of exorbitant amounts of handknitting yarn, I would like to note for the record that quitevaliant, one of last year’s applicants, bought me yarn last year and got into MIT EA. (Not necessarily in that order.)</p>

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<p>

You’re actually somewhat right. But I try to set things straight in the college forums and I somehow upset someone. He retorts back unreasonably and I lose temper. I guess I realize retorting back solves nothing no matter how rational it is.
I give up. Summer is going to end pretty soon and I’ll be taking a break from CC anyway.</p>

<p>The MIT forum isn’t one of the best forums on CC. It’s THE best forum on CC. I wish others eventually turn out as helpful and peaceful.</p>

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<p>It’s called a forum. People throw a bunch of stuff out there. It serves just as much to alert people as to what people think is true as to inform people what is true. When someone has a lack of perspective, even if you know the answer, understanding why someone else doesn’t is more interesting. </p>

<p>It’s not like all the junk going on CC isn’t going on in other people’s heads. You just notice it here because it’s concentrated here. Spend some time on CC and you know the level of ignorance that’s out there, and also know how to correct it (in yourself and others) in a productive way. </p>

<p>So many parents are incredibly rude in person about college issues. Sorry to pick on parents, but they should know better and don’t have the same excuse as some all too young brat of a middle schooler asking how to get into MIT. I think if they spent a little time on CC, in particular reading Mollie, etc, they’ll feel a little prick when they spout BS next time, and be less likely to do it.</p>

<p>The MIT forum rocks, it’s one place where I’ve consistently found productive threads, and actual attempts to address questions. When people bring up dumb remarks, instead of having someone defensively insult them, they can be referred to a thread where MITChris posted almost every statistic a CC-er could nightmare to have about admissions percentages. </p>

<p>Also, keep in mind that when someone has a moment of awakening here (and many do read CC, as horrible as it may be), the someone is then equipped for almost any conversation in real life to say something intelligent. Knowledge is transferable.</p>