<p>%99 of you exaggerate the chances of getting into the good schools. </p>
<p>First of all, being valedictorian with a perfect SAT score DOES NOT mean you don't stand out as an applicant to Harvard, even at the top level those are still very impressive stats.</p>
<p>Second of all, you DO NOT have to be in the top 3 of your graduating class to be admitted to an ivy league school. Out of my school, 9 students were admitted to Ivy League schools, do the math.</p>
<p>Third of all, extracurricular activities ARE WAY more important than the dumbass posters on this forum would lead you to believe. </p>
<p>To any one discouraged from applying to colleges because the nerds on here who suck at life and only brag about college decisions tell you you don't have a chance---- just go for it. </p>
<p>-Poster who was discouraged from applying to Drexel, Hofstra, SUNY Buffalo, Tampa and NYU and was admitted to all of them while being ranked in the bottom half of his class and having a mediocre SAT score(and no, I'm not a URM).</p>
<ol>
<li>According to you, we shouldn’t trust advice from people posting on this forum because they don’t know what they are talking about.</li>
<li>You are posting on this forum.</li>
<li>We don’t know who you are.</li>
</ol>
<p>I figured your post would be something like “Nearly all of them know just as much about college admissions as you. People like to guess and seem like they’re helping and therefore important.” I like this site, a lot is useful on it, I just don’t participate in “chancing”.</p>
<p>“Nearly all of them know just as much about college admissions as you. People like to guess and seem like they’re helping and therefore important.” </p>
<p>That seems very true.
I don’t reply to chance threads because I have yet to go through the college process and personally, I would not take advice from someone who hasn’t yet</p>
<p>I’d agree with the sentiments, even though they could be stated more tactfully.</p>
<p>I just find that the issue with these forums is that it’s mainly people who are still undergoing the process sharing their (often misconceived) thoughts and causing a lot of unnecessary panic.</p>
<p>For example, I applied to six colleges and got into three, but when I posted a couple chance threads, my “safety” was my “match” and the rest were all “high reaches” / “rejects”. Well, I got into three of them, and the one I’m currently attending was said to be a “reject”. Here’s what I have to say: there are several people with lower stats than mines who are also here, and they all fit in well on campus. It’s just that most of those people have better things to do than to post here.</p>
<p>Basically, the idea is: the admissions committee are human, and they try their best to find the students that fit in best on campus. Good students contribute to a more intellectual academic committee, hence why they’re preferred over bad students. Your scores, GPA, classes, ECs, and essays are all indicators that the adcoms use to get the best idea of who you are as much as they possibly can. They then use those factors to determine who to admit. No, an over-stressed person with no life who just crams for exams and games the system is not a good student! Meanwhile, the kid who only bothers to put in enough effort to get a 3.5 / 2000 is not necessarily a bad student either – you have some of those admitted to HYPSM; they just need evidence to show that they’re worth their weight (eg. several hooks, published research, etc.).</p>
<p>The thing is you need to take it with a grain of salt. <em>Yawn</em> People on here told me the same thing. I think you are missing the point…it is a terrific resource, but you just have to <em>use</em> it correctly.</p>
<p>But yes, there are some hyper-competitive people on here that need to get a life.</p>
<h1>1 stay away from the “chance me” threads unless you are doing it just for fun.</h1>
<h1>2 think about responses on this website as opinions NOT advice</h1>
<h1>3 Do your own research/homework by looking at the college websites, the multiple sites with college data and make an appointment with your schools Guidance Counselor.</h1>
<h1>4 Be thankful for all the wonderful support/opinions/ideas you have received</h1>
<p>^Kajon gave great advice about using this website haha.</p>
<p>Honestly, in my (so far) short time here at CC, I’ve seen a very broad range of posters. There are a few (I’m not going to name anyone, obviously), who I’ve noticed try to make myself or others feel like we don’t have a good shot at a school, or if we do, it’s because we have a hook or some other advantage. While they may be true to a certain extent, it’s important to remember that most of these posters (excluding the moms and dads) are going through the same process as you. Very, very, very few people on here are paid college experts - but if you, as an earlier poster said, take everything said <em>with a grain of salt</em>, CC can be a truly invaluable resource that will give you a great idea about where you can/should go to college.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Some “Chance” posters are completely clueless and for them any input is worth more than their delusions.</p></li>
<li><p>Responders to chance threads, myself included, have their favorite hot buttons and pet peeves. (For me, it’s ECs and the obsession with test scores. To me, most ECs are interchangeable and the laundry lists posted by many would require a rip in the Time Continuum in order to have enough hours in a week to complete.).</p></li>
<li><p>Caveat Emptor - Free advice is worth twice what you pay for it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>First of all, being valedictorian with a perfect SAT score DOES NOT mean you don’t stand out as an applicant to Harvard, even at the top level those are still very impressive stats.</p>
<p>-As much as I agree with that, I think that generally a lot of people don’t show who they really are on an application, especially if they want to come across as a certain kind of person. A lot of those people apply to really tough schools and don’t always get in. I understand what they’re saying.
I appreciate this thread. People here need to calm down, but at the same time, when someone asks for an honest opinion people here give it. Thats nice too. I have mixed feelings.</p>
<p>I think that first sentence would have matched the meaning of the rest of your post more if you had written, “99 percent of you underestimate the chances of getting into the good schools.” I agree with that statement, by the way. I see more cases on CC of people being told “You’ll never get in” and proving that wrong than I see of the reverse.</p>
<p>People are nitwits who’d decide where to apply to college based on responses to their “chances” posts. For most colleges, one can get a good idea of where you stand by looking in the accepted/rejection sections of CC each spring, and by reading readily available college guides like the one on U.S. News’s college guide on-line site.</p>
<p>Actually, I think enough weight is placed on ec’s on this forum. It seems to me like people say you NEED to have published research, awards that only a few out of a million students get, etc. to even stand a chance of being considered for elite colleges.</p>
<p>I think College Confidential is not a good place to ask for advice on college admissions for the same reason wikipedia is not a good source for a term paper. College Confidential is good for a lot of things, but anyone can write anything.</p>
Us CCers routinely exaggerate people’s chances of admissions into top schools but at the same time we mercilessly inform people of their nonexistent chances of admissions to top schools. Do you know what a contradiction is?</p>