<p>So, I have to say. I started looking at "college confidential" a week or so ago because of some comments by my students and I was shocked at how much people worry about getting into college. </p>
<p>I have been a student at UCLA for 4 years and now am an orientation counselor. I have been a campus tour guide and a housing tour guide and am pretty well involved with the campus to know that people from ALL backgrounds and ALL GPAs get into college (even the best ones) </p>
<p>It is common to see on this website "I have a 4.2 GPA and 5s on all 15 of my AP tests... will I get into (fill in the blank) college?"</p>
<p>DO NOT WORRY! you'll get into A college. SOME college. And NOTHING that anyone says on "college confidential" is going to change that fact. When I entered UCLA, some of my friends entering UCLA or Cal or USC had (weighted) GPAs of 3.7 or less and SATs of less than 1800. But they are there because they were themselves through the whole application process; they were not trying to be someone they thought the application review committee was looking for.</p>
<p>SO! be yourself and you will be surprised at some of the schools that accept you.</p>
<p>GOOD LUCK! (You can private message me if you have a question)</p>
<p>Pointless thread is pointless. OP doesn’t realize CCers are predominantly very intelligent students who worry. ABOUT EVERYTHING. As such, most of us want to get into very prestigious universities. I can almost guarantee that over half of the people here will have an ivy, stanford, MIT, caltech, etc as their first pick.</p>
<p>I can almost guarantee that most CCers don’t worry about getting into A college, but worry about THE college of their choice.</p>
<p>^The OP meant more like ‘great students will have a good time wherever they go’ than the obvious ‘heads up, you guys won’t go to community college’, but agreed nevertheless.</p>
<p>By the way, welcome to CC. Some forums are more relaxed and less-Ivy obsessed than the others. I recommend you stay off the ‘what are my chances’ forum in particular due to the perpetual panic on there (unless you plan on giving advice to UCLA prospies). Also, watch out for the ■■■■■■.</p>
<p>Adding:
I never hear about people here applying to lower-tier schools (having one as a safety doesn’t count) for the possibly-amazing merit aid they could get.
Competitive universities and the universities of the Ivy League are all different from each other; it’s fairly common around here to see people applying to HYPSM+next five most prestigious universities+one safety, and in that case I usually judge them as not having done enough research.
<p>I don’t think it’s fair to simply tell a student that they will get accepted ‘somewhere’. With so much hubbub about ‘fit’ and finding a school that you love, it doesn’t surprise me that student’s are stressed out trying to get admissions to their first choice school. The experience at one school might be significantly different than the experience at another, even if they are similar schools. </p>
<p>I don’t condone chance threads and the like, but I absolutely understand the hysteria behind college admissions by some of these students. To tell kids not to worry in a game where every small detail matters is almost more bad advice than good.</p>
<p>Well. I agree with apyyyy in the sense that some schools are better for others for certain students. In my experience, as I was applying to schools I was accepted to and decided to attend Stanford University. BUT, I was going about college in a “I want to go to the highest ranked college that I get into because that is my DREAM COLLEGE” </p>
<p>Once I got accepted I thought “THIS IS IT! IM HERE! IN MY DREAM SCHOOL” only because I was going about looking for a college in the fashion (may I quote mright8294) “that over half of the people here with an ivy, stanford, MIT, caltech, etc as their first pick” look for a college. </p>
<p>SO, who is to say that COLUMBIA or HARVARD is “THE college of choice”? Nobody, most of these students have never been to the DREAM colleges they choose and still are only consumed in the fact that its an “IVY” or its a well known university.</p>
<p>Two weeks into my time at Stanford I dropped out and had a long talk with UCLA admissions about being reaccepted into the university in time for the school year.</p>
<p>SO no… not every college is for everyone. BUT the reason I wrote this thread is to say that 1.) you’ll get into a great college that fits your level and it will have great things to offer… and 2.) Your DREAM COLLEGE is not always going to be the college you’ll have the most fun in or be the most successful in so keep your options open.</p>
<p>@mwright8294: I seriously doubt that half of CCers will go their first picks if their first picks are all Ivies and similar schools. It seems that a lot of CC is just ■■■■■■ and people who lie about their stats to get attention. </p>
<p>The college search does not need to be like that. I think that is what the OP is trying to get across.</p>
<p>I agree that the prestige-whoring culture on CC can get a bit overwhelming sometimes. This is why I don’t spend as much time on here anymore. Not that you guys aren’t awesome, because you are, but the average CCer tends to lose perspective and sink into a slimier and slimier cesspool of self-doubt and undue emotional strain the more time he or she wastes here (and browsing endless chance threads to make yourself feel better/worse about your own chances <em>is</em> a waste of time. Your stats won’t magically change)…</p>
<p>To be quite honest, while my first choice is a school I don’t really see myself getting into, I’m not all that heartbroken about it. I’ll do my absolute best to get accepted, but if I don’t, my matches and safeties are all schools I’d love to attend; Clark, Whitman, Reed, Bard, etc. are all schools I feel I’d fall in love with on the first day.</p>
<p>I think this is the secret to getting through the application process unscathed: choose realistic schools whose ethos and mission (vibe, if you will) appeal to you. Don’t fixate on one single college.</p>
<p>^ Well, Determined Jay, that depends. If you only apply to Ivy-League schools, then there is a very good chance that you may end y at, as you put it, a ****ty school - or no school at all, if you’re not smart about picking safeties and matches.</p>
<p>That being said, I support the OP’s post. There are so many people on here who all say “Chance me for every single Ivy League plus Stanford plus MIT plus Caltech! My life is over if I don’t get in!” and don’t realize the value of actually looking at the fit of a college. I think a better way to phrase the title would probably be “you WILL get in, if you’re smart about admissions.”</p>
<p>Perhaps some people here lie about admissions, but if you think about it, there are thousands of high schools around the country. Most of those high schools have at least a few high-achieving students, and some have many. So theoretically, it’s possible that many people are being honest about their stats. Good stats don’t always lead to admission, for various reasons.</p>