Universities not discussed in CC

College Confidential Community
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I am a little dissatisfied with CC as far as not showcasing enough schools on its site. They seem to show bias towards certain schools. The posters are the same way.

There are other universities out there and though they are not like the hyps they are worth attending. I don’t see too many directional universities, other state schools, or historically black colleges and universities being discussed. Why is that?

I live in Illinois at there are other schools here besides Northwestern and UIUC that are worth attending like Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western Illinois University, Illinois State, DePaul, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Illinois Springfield, Loyola, North Central, and others. Same goes for Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan.

Please share your thoughts as well

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Sure it is true. There are other good colleges outside the ones discussed on CC. CC, however, is not to blame. The posters are to blame. They just provide the forums for us to use.

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Most of the students at those schools come from instate and the schools are well enough known locally that not much interest or comment will come from a broad based national forum.

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absolutely correct. There are 3,000+ colleges in the US alone. But, the vast majority of them are relatively easy to get into, and have accpetance rates in the 70%-90% range…only the “top” 100 or so are very selective, and this causes all the angst (and posts on cc).

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If you are average and you are looking at this site you are going to get discouraged because I have seen many comments made towards students not going to “selective” schools. I have also seen many minority students get bashed and have AA constantly thrown in their face.

In addition, I thought HBCU’s were known nationally

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Does that make them less of a college student because they did not go to a “selective school?”

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Maybe a handful of the HBCU’s are known to the general population-Howard, Morehouse, Spelman are the main ones, I think.

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Sure, they’re worth attending but why bother posting about them? People from out of state are not going to be, in general, interested in attending North Central Illionois University or whatever because they have a university of that caliber in their state already and should have little difficulty gaining entrance. CC is a forum to discuss the competitive admissions process and search, not just college in general (although these topics do spring up from time to time).

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My main issue is not specifically with my state, my issue is with the other state schools not being reported. For example, UT Austin is not the only state school in Texas. There is UTSA, UTEP Also,
Wisconsin-Madison is not the only state school in Wisconsin there is UW-Milwaukee, UW-Plattville and others. If students go to these schools, CC posters look down upon them as losers. I am sure there are quality high caliber state school in each of the 50 states, but not one post is regarding this. Then what kills me “oh you must be a loser because you can’t get into this school…etc.” there are many factors why kids select schools (affordability, location–not everyone has mommy and daddy to help them pay for this investment).

This is the exact cocky attitude that bothers me about this site. “But, the vast majority of them are relatively easy to get into, and have accpetance rates in the 70%-90% range…only the “top” 100 or so are very selective, and this causes all the angst (and posts on cc).”
Lets see when everyone gets into the real world HAHAH.

Then some of these posters have the nerve to bash minority students claiming AA and that is why minorities don’t attend schools like this.

In my opinion, CC is geared toward white upper middle class kids whose parents are hovering over them.

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I think Jenrik’s post is not about raising awareness about other colleges in Illinois as much as it is about raising awarenes about good but less selective colleges nationwide (many of which are already becoming more popular on this forum). But like I said in my other post (on the same thread in the Cafe), people on this forum tend not to settle for second-best, because they have what it takes to get into the “best.” that’s perfectly understandable.

I agree with bluebayou. People here are overly anxious because they want to maximize their chances of getting into the best school they can possibly strive for.

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Gian hit the nail right on the head----

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Right but these are the kids who will end up being disappointed in the real world when they land their first jobs. They may end up right at the bottom where they would have to work their way up and I don’t think alot of these kids can handle that.

I never said settle for second best. It is perfectly understandable to want to get into the best school.

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Jenrik, you are absolutely correct. I went to Ohio University undergrad. It is just NOW being recognized as a great state university…very underrated.I got my MA at Western Illinois University…in a great program on full fellowship. What more could I have asked for?? Macomb is a bit of a sleeper town, but I never wanted for things to do or friends to be with. It was a fabulous year. Many states have wonderful state schools…in the midwest in particular, you have all those land grant universities. Sadly, I live in New England now where private schools get most of the recognition…the state schools are not well supported except for the flagship U’s. Sad but true.

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Jerik,
I think CC posters have more respect for each other than to call each other losers for going to a lesser known school…I doubt that’s ever happened.

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Kcirsch,
It may have not been stated directly, but it has been implied.

Maybe I would like to see more diverse postings like: college for the LD student, HBCU’s, Midwestern Schools, East and West Coast schools and all that…

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It’s a supply and demand thing. There is a demand for a forum geared toward more selective schools–and CC is the supply. When CC does recieve an influx of students interested in UTEP, UTSA, to use my home state as an example, Louisiana State University–Eunice, University of Louisiana–Monroe, --Lafayette, then I’m sure CC would create forums for those specific colleges.

Is that the problem of which you speak, or are you speaking of the general elitism in CC? Or both? CC <em>is</em> elitist to a certain degree, but, I can assure you, there precious few places for people like this to go. I am one of those upper-middle class white students, but I attend an urban school where the guidance counselor is too busy breaking up fights and stopping people’s grandmothers from scorching cigarette burns into their grandchildren’s skin (I’m not making this up) to get our transcripts together, let alone give any college advice. So my resources are books and CC—and even as an upper-middle class kid, CC is a whole lot cheaper and more often updated than books.

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Most of the posters in this forum are 17-18 year old kids with an absurldly inflated ego. Truth is, no matter which school you’re talking about, most individuals in this demographic simply act the same way, they have similar ambitions, similar experiences, a similar cultural consciousness. While I acknowledge that going to a very selective school will possibly provide for more intellectual discussions and possibly better connections down the line, really, how many 20 year olds are going to change your outlook on life? Subscribe to New Yorker, the New York Times, the Economist, etc. for that kind of superior viewpoints, or just visit your local library.

And for those that use AA as some kind of trump card, well, let’s see them attend a gang-infested inner city school while working a job, not for fake ecs but to help family survive, and still have the time or willingness to post here asking for a Harvard - Princeton comparison. Kind of puts things in perspective.

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I’d be willing to wager that most AA cases at major schools do not come from such schools as you suggest. Most have both parents and live in decent suburban homes.

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I think if you stick around here long enough, you’ll see that we do speak very diversely of school, but probably not the extent thatit could be. I heard DePaul and Loyola mentioned plenty of tmes and have recommended myself. But rarely do we mention or recommend secondary states schools to people out-of-state.

So as for Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western Illinois University… you’ll probably never hear those mentioned unless the person is from that state. And generally, for the people that come on here for advice, are familiar with their own state school and are looking to see what else is out their. And so, for a person Illinois, you probably wont here me recommend UMass-Lowell, UMass-Dartmouth, or MCLA.

Generally for states schools, only the flagships schools are mentioned.

As for HBCUs, in my time here, I’ve seen recommendations for Howard, Hampton, Clark Altanta, Moreshouse, Xavier, Spelman, Dillard, Fisk and maybe once for Norfolk State & Lincoln. I mean, 10 is both a big and small number of HBCUs to know, but the majority of HBCU are little known state supported institutions. I recommend say Morgan State and some other once in awhile, but there’s no reason for me to mention say Southern University at New Orleans, a small public school of 3,000, to someone from California or Pennsylvania, where their is already a hefty public system set up. There is no particular draw or strong program that would come to mind for me to reccomend such a school. If a canidate asks for the best, I recommend what in my opinion may be the best, case closed.

And jenrik2714, I have exstensive knowledge of school for LD students from working at my school, but until some comes on CC and ask for such info or school like Landmark College, then…???

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We don’t influence the discussion except to set up specific school forums where there has been demand. Our initial setup picked up the top few hundred commonly listed in guides, and schools where there had been significant discussion to date. (Our old forum didn’t have actual forums for schools, and members could start a thread for a particular school. That was a pretty good test, as we could gauge whether there was sufficient interest to support a forum.)

We add new college forums when requested by members and we see that there has been sufficient interest in a school by looking at the frequency with which it has been discussed.

As far as what CC members choose to talk about, there’s little doubt that most of the discussion focuses on very selective schools. At these schools, even great students need an admissions strategy and want to improve their chances. There are lots of great schools that aren’t super-selective but still offer an outstanding education, but since they are “easy” to get into (comparatively speaking), there’s just not as much to talk about.