Why Is Every Applicant On This Site So Qualified?

College Confidential Community
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<p>Am I the only student who feels totally inadequate after reading a lot of the "Chance Me" posts on this site?</p>

<p>[20 APs, 1000 hours of community service, president of every club in the school, captain of every team in the school, involved in this and that and all, not to mention saving the children in India, saving the world even, author of a best selling novel, noble prize winner, perfect SAT and ACT scores, out-of this world GPA, on and on and on......] </p>

<p>With all these over-qualified people applying to even the least competitive schools, where is the space for the average high school, the plebeian, like me? I feel like I slept through my three years of high school and woke up to an Einstein nation. Competition is invigorating, always. I think I hold my place as far as academic excellence goes but somehow I can't help but get the feeling that College Confidential is a place where the geniuses of each year's academic pool are overrepresented. </p>

<p>Can Someone Please Point Me In The Direction Of The Websites Where Average American Students Seek College Advice And Counseling.</p>

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<p>Your exaggeration made me laugh. Here is the site you requested:
<a href="http://www.talk.collegeconfidential.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.talk.collegeconfidential.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Seriously though, I had a high school GPA of 2.9, due to a tough course load. I can relate to you in that I do see these chance threads too often of students overqualified by their GPA alone. </p>

<p>While they are out there, I found it difficult to help find chance threads of students with similar stats as me. Maybe this can be fixed by restructuring the forum? Nonetheless, I still find CC a great resource:</p>

<p>[ul]Most of my questions are answered[/ul]
[ul]Student life at at specific college[/ul]
[ul]Tips on the SAT, essays.[/ul]
[ul]How people got into X college
[/ul]
The list goes on..</p>

<p>I've picked up a wealth of information from this site. I don't believe I would've been as prepared as I am now had I not discovered this site. A local guidance counselor or even a student forum couldn't compare to speaking to students, parents, and even real admissions officers across the nation, right here at collegeconfidential.com.</p>

<p>Going back to your question, as a 'Average' student myself, the only thing that couldn't be researched or answered here was something only the X Univeristy's admissions officer could answer.</p>

<p>All-in-all, I have not even started the admission part. So I'm sure I will have a lot of questions in the near future to existing students at my future University, as well as questions about financial aid.</p>

<p>So if you want, just ignore those overqualified 'chance me' threads. But know this; the people who make them are people just like you and I, they want to make sure they get into the x college. I've done it all the time, and I am sure you have too; asking questions you already know the answer too. You don't do it because you want to show off, you do it because you need the assurance of another person, it's a psychological thing, idk.</p>

<p>Hope I helped :)</p>

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<p>Well when you put in that perspective...I guess I can say that I've learned a lot from this site based on just reading alone. Thanks for the website forwarding [lol]. Totally agree with the psychological need for assurance.</p>

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<p>Scarlett, come on over to the Parent forum and check out the B+ Students Parent Thread. You don't have to be a parent. We welcome normal students as well. </p>

<p>A lot of what you read on CC may be wishful thinking or outright exaggeration. Remember when you read GPA's that some schools use a 4.0 basis, some will give a 5.0 for an A and some even go to 6.0. So that kid with the 4.0 doesn't necessarily have straight A's.</p>

<p>There is a college for everyone. Many people on this site are obsessed with the top 50 colleges in the country. There are hundreds - maybe thousands - of colleges. Most colleges admit more than half of the kids who apply.</p>

<p>Don't despair. Join the regular people in the B+ thread!</p>

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<p>If it makes you feel any better, I attend a "Top 10" school (though it wasn't "Top 10" when I applied! hunh!) and I've rarely see chance/results threads for students who have lower SAT scores or grades than I did. That's not to say these students a) don't exist, or b) don't get admitted to wonderful schools, because evidence points otherwise. </p>

<p>My thinking is that the vast majority of students (myself included here) would never feel comfortable sharing this kind of personal information and the ones who do share it feel they need to share it for chances to tippy-top schools. Which is pure speculation from the outset anyways.</p>

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<p>Because only geeks would spend their Saturday night on a university forum. ;)</p>

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<p>Scarlett,</p>

<p>I've been scouring these boards for help with my own daughter, who barely made it out of her freshman year (1 B, 1 C, 1 F and 4 D's). She's now a sophomore...Her EC's include Marching Band (in her 2 yr), Wind Ensemble (5th year). She just got into Key Club this year, as well as being a TA for the youth program at her church. She refuses to take the PSAT....doesn't care if she get's A's this year...and has high ambitions for college. Trust me, not every parent/child looking for advice here is of the geniuos range.</p>

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<p>Its not just this site. When I attend those college presentations that say most of their students were in the top 10% of their graduating class, I always want to ask - Where do the other 90% go since every college only seems to have the top 10%?</p>

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<p>I just wanted to throw myself in the pile here; I too was an average student! 3.4 WEIGHTED GPA, lol (2.8 freshman year, btw)... slightly above-average SATs... not very involved in ECs.</p>

<p>I graduated High School in 2007 and spent 14 months running a franchise. I was solely responsible for Human Resources decisions and I can tell you that in looking at an application, I didn't care about the school name listed therein. In fact the only reason I looked at school information at all was to ensure the applicant had actually successfully completed (or, as the case may be, en route to successful completion of) their program of study.</p>

<p>I was more interested in seeing that the applicant was able to balance work and school, and had a steady employment history. So, don't stress out about where you're going to school. Go to the best school FOR YOU. =) Everything else will follow.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Because only geeks would spend their Saturday night on a university forum.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>There you go.</p>

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<p>Self-selection.</p>

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<p>It's an inherent bias of the website...Why waste time discussing admissions to top colleges if you aren't already very qualified?</p>

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<p>That's why I started the B+ Student Parents' Thread (now 404 posts and counting!).</p>

<p>Just keep in mind there are 5,000 colleges, and 99% of the kids here are only interested in Harvard/Yale, or just showing off (if I had a nickel for every thread that went: "chance me for UC, I have a 3.98 and 2350 SATs...")</p>

<p>Keep in mind a few things:
1. People lie about grades
2. People lie about test scores
3. Each star student can only take up one space per year</p>

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<p>The ones posting their grades, scores, and so forth are the ones who have no control over their lives. Someone has told them to do this and that, and they can't figure our for the life of them WHY?!</p>

<p>Hence, why you got a bunch of "smart" kids asking silly questions while the more down to earth folks sit here and soak it all in. :)</p>

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<p>Maybe if you looked at threads in the less selective universities or the general chatter threads. You'll definitely feel very inadequate in the selective university chance me threads. Then again, a number of them do not get into those colleges they want to be chanced for AND a number of them already know the responses they will get.</p>

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<p>CC is not a representative sample of the wider cohort of seniors applying. In fact the ppl who come on here are like: "OMG I got a 2390 on the SAT I wanna kill myself". Don't be put off by such things.</p>

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<p>Don't believe everything that you read, especially on an anonymous website such as CC.</p>

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<p>I definitely feel inadequate here; not so much because of my GPA, ECs, and course load, but because of my rank and my test scores (which are horrible. And not the CC horrible (which is 2100) but like, legitimately horrible). I mostly feel inadequate though because I'm applying to some of the same schools that just about everyone here is applying to and it makes me really nervous because everyone here DOES basically have 2250+ (and are unhappy about that <em>rolls eyes</em>) and I'm hundreds of points away from getting that. Oh well.</p>

<p>At least this site lets me know what I'm going up against.</p>

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<p>No, this site does not let know what you are up against.</p>

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<p>How does it not if we're applying to some of the same schools? I'm competing against them for spots at those schools.</p>