![]() ![]() “College Confidential should not always be trusted as a lot of the time it is not representative of your own circumstances.,” Wu said. Similar to Venkatasubramaniam, junior Ericka Wu is wary of the accuracy of what people post. “I think those people are not randomly selected whatsoever as I think there is a certain characteristic mindset that is shared by people who post on College Confidential that is not common to college applicants in general.”Įven though College Confidential aims to demystify the college application process, its superficial text format limits the amount of reliable information. “The number of people who post on those threads is statistically insignificant compared to the number of people who actually apply to ,” Meng said. “But the user base of College Confidential is not really representative of the population of applicants for most things, so the information is definitely skewed.”īoth senior William Meng and Venkatasubramaniam agree that the sort of demographic found on College Confidential does not reflect that of all college applicants. “For the purposes that I use it, College Confidential is somewhat useful,” Venkatasubramaniam said. Although Venkatasubramaniam recommends the website because of its plethora of information, he recognizes that some of it is too specified. Junior Samarth Venkatasubramaniam was introduced to the website by his older brother as early as freshman year, and has since used it to compare his own achievements to the achievements of others who have gotten into research programs he is applying to. “Yet I find it pretty useful because I can see what activities other students are doing and where those activities have gotten them in terms of college admissions.”Įven though the college application process does not begin until senior year, high school students of all ages use College Confidential. “Because of the amount of overachieving students posting on the website, sometimes discourages me,” Allison Wu said. ![]() While sophomore Allison Wu agrees that College Confidential has the ability to put students down, she believes it is still a valuable resource students should tap into. Urban Dictionary, a satirical website that defines slang, lists College Confidential “among the worst websites on the internet” and labels it as “a place where you can read about snotty geniuses who feel the need to brag in the ultimate attempt to make the ‘average high school student’ feel pity on the themselves.” However, there are mixed feelings surrounding this seemingly helpful resource. The combination of all previous applicants’ attributes and outcomes are intended to help future applicants gauge their achievements relative to the achievements of others and build a more realistic list of safeties, fits and reaches. On the site, registered members are allowed to comment on threads anonymously and participate in college-related discussion while anyone without an account can view the information.īy comparing their own statistics with the statistics of other applicants, readers are meant to be able to “chance” themselves, as well as others. The replies go on to detail an applicant’s GPA, ACT and SAT scores, AP scores, ethnicity, location, extracurriculars, leadership roles, honors, awards and self-reflection on essays and teacher recommendations. This thread has over 2,000 replies where previous applicants list their college decisions along with the college they will be attending. Over 6,250 “Chance Me” threads have been created since November, a testament to the growing anxiety surrounding college admissions.Īnother type of thread, which asks for the college decisions of graduated seniors, is one of College Confidential’s most popular threads, with over 1.5 million views. In these threads, members outline their achievements inside and outside of the classroom in hopes of having other users tell them they are worthy of admission. The infamous “What Are My Chances?” forum mostly contains threads of users asking others to evaluate their chances of getting into certain schools. Since its inception in 2001, College Confidential has continued to grow in popularity due to a larger influx of distressed and unsure applicants. With more and more college applicants each year and college admissions becoming increasingly tough, students and parents alike are anxious to know what it takes to get into top-tier colleges. Topics discussed on the website include, but are not limited to, college admissions, summer programs, internship opportunities, essays and financial aid. ![]() Dubbed the “world’s largest college forum,” College Confidential boasts 300,000 visitors a month. Students, parents, Internet trolls and college experts all convene on one website: College Confidential. ![]()
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