I often type then decide not to post on Chance Me posts because I worry about the effect my words could have on a fragile teen.
The financial prodding often crosses a line into inappropriateness. Reminding an applicant once about understanding the financials is reasonable, but some turn it into a value judgement about family choices. Adults who would never question another adult’s BMW purchase (even though a Chevrolet still gets him where he wants to go) think nothing of badgering teenage applicants about spending $X on their education when $1/2X gets them where they want to go.
I personally think we should say, “unlikely”. Because “while you have an unbelievable and amazing stats, profile, resume, and have as good a chance as anyone, only 8 out of 100 kids similar to you will be offered admission. It’s not personal.”
I agree that turning it into a value judgement about family choices is wrong. But for me the difference between car prices and college prices is that car prices are transparent, while college prices are anything but! And it’s easy to see the difference in features between a BMW and a Chevy and realize that they fall into the category of luxury rather than “getting you where you need to go.” For me, anyway, the differences in features between elite colleges and less selective colleges were not at all clear, and I have learned a lot.
I think the posts that are early in the process are very helpful. It is the chance me posts after students have already applied that have less value to everyone.
Oftentimes a listing of where a student is considering is super helpful as the advice on here can be better than a fairly expensive college counselor. Also since we are all in different areas of the country, it really helps to have local insight as to safety etc.
Although it might surprise some folks, Chance Me posts are among my least favorite (though Match Me posts, on the other hand…). If it’s the stereotypical type of, I’ve done 20,000 amazing things, budget’s not an issue (or not going to be discussed), and I’m applying to these Top X schools…it’s basically, you’ve got a shot, but so do lots of others, make sure you have a safety and run the NPCs, etc. Yawn.
But sometimes those yawn threads can turn pretty interesting. Perhaps a kid is is under/overselling themselves and might need to be gently redirected. Or maybe their family was inclined to say, “if you get in, we’ll pay for it” not realizing that many colleges now have a sticker price of about $80k/year. Or maybe they thought that meet needs schools would meet the need the family calculated and not the need as the schools calculated it. But all of those times of the thread turning interesting is because it then becomes more of a match me thread.
I will readily admit that I am one of those who brings up finances in the chance me/match me threads. Even if a poster chooses not to share with the forum what their budget is, posters bringing up the issue makes the kid realize how important it is to have that conversation with their family. Also, particularly for the premed crowd, the idea of saving money on undergrad in order to have extra money for med school is a totally novel concept. Alternatively, the idea of going to a less expensive school (whether that’s $10k less or $70k less) and then receiving money to help start a business, put a down payment on a home, etc, is something they’ve never thought about. Asking the family to think about those topics isn’t necessarily a value judgment. It might be an idea that they end up liking or it might end up being something they feel they can pass on.
There are times that I have pressed on the financial issues. If a poster comes on and says we can spend $20k/year and the NPCs are coming back as $40k/year, but these are the schools we’re applying to because they’re the ones that we want. Well, I’m going to push on that to have them figure out how they’re going to cover that extra $20k/year and what kind of longer-term impacts it may have on the family. Ditto for when a family is applying to schools and does not have a safety, or has a safety that the student deems undesirable.
But yes, “chance me” posts have little utility here on CC for the vast majority of the posters who have the stereotypical “amazing” profiles.
If kids ask for a chance me, which is their right - then others will reply.
How they reply - and what they bring up is their right and their opinion.
The near entirety of the website is opinion - certainly all of a chance me.
Too often people post to tear down a previous poster vs. answer the question and that’s wrong. One should state their opinion or if they don’t like the thread, then don’t respond at all.
If someone does a chance me, while some may see little or no value or even emotional impact - oh well. They asked - and they get answered.
btw - the financial thing - if we saved one person money or time - and it’s far more people than that - then it’s worth it. You don’t know what you don’t know.
This is my opinion.
I’ve had plenty of people rip me (which is wrong because I’m entitled to state my opinion) and I’ve gotten tons of praise both public and PMs. And I’m sure many others on here have as well - in fact I know because I can see all the public praise.
So the value may not be there for all but for some, seeing different perspectives becomes helpful.
For that and for occupying my downtime, the chance mes are of extreme value (in my opinion of course).
I appreciate your kind comments about my posts,particularly since your own posts are such great contributions to the forum. Although folks have different approaches, I think everyone who posts here regularly tries to be of assistance to posters who come here looking for advice.
I think that’s one of the valuable things about this community; people have different experiences and areas of expertise, and thread posters can glean advice from multiple vantage points, honing in on what they find of most value to their particular situation. I also find it a great learning opportunity when people have a respectful disagreement on a thread so I can learn about the strengths and weaknesses of different positions. I suspect that community members, particularly those who are newer to this forum and these issues, appreciate the opportunity to learn about the spectrum of perspectives as well.
I find the disparity of context of GPA quite interesting between students. It’s easy to get a chance me wrong when a high school school doesn’t rank and we are not knowledgeable of the rigor opportunity. I can better appreciate how difficult it is for an AO to assess an application and many have more intimidate knowledge of the school particulars. I agree that Naviance is the best chance me but even that certainly has flaws, even more with test optional.
I honestly think while waiting for a decision, (some) parents and students are obsessing about stats and why not try to get external anonymous validation ( or not) instead of playing it over again in your head.
The international chance me threads make me sad though - most are just so clueless about the financial hurdles.
College Confidential “Chance me” threads have been reported on in the press as an artifact of the absurdity that American university admissions has become. So they play that role, at the very least…
I agree. I really think that GPA thing needs context and thoughtful examination, though Im not sure it is what ppl want to hear. On the surface, it is assumed all 4.0’s are the same and application are evaluated on the same rubric, which just isn’t true. Any school with a less than 15% admission rate are “unlikely” for everyone.
I am not sure of this. The correct response to a student asking for a chance me for a <15% admission rate school is a) go look at your naviance, and b) ask your counsellor.
As an extreme example, if you are a val from one of TJ, Stuy, or Exeter, you will walk into a <15% admissions school.
I personally know of 2 valedictorians from two different boarding schools last year who were rejected from every Ivy they applied to (at least 4 for both). But yes, your words probably are kinder than mine - ‘ask your counselor’ is appropriate. I do think though, in my circle of friends, and the majority have college bound high achieving teens, that the parents do not understand all the factors that go in to admissions decisions and that because you check all the boxes on paper, so does most everyone else applying.
That is probably true. The val at our local HS always goes to an Ivy or MIT - that has been true every year that I’ve lived here (17). In fact every year 6-10 kids will attend an Ivy and I’d guess around 20/25 attend a top 20 of some kind. At the same time, every year there are kids who are shut out - despite having similar (or the same) stats as kids who are accepted. You never really know.
This disparity of results and experiences amongst students of similar academic recognition speaks to the complete lack of predictive value of chance me threads. Particularly when you consider that respondents have no real visibility as to LORs, geographic context, applicant pool or historic outcomes.
Going and looking at stats of an accepted applicant class and juxtaposing a specific applicants info based on CC boiler plate ignores both the realities of a holistic approach, the uniqueness of each applicant and the reality that at elite schools the vast majority of kids are academically viable.
I do think a lot of the advice besides you will or won’t get in can and is often useful. Incremental schools, first hand experience, FA insights, etc can certainly provide a poster with perspectives they might not find other wise.