scared6378

isnt there an admissions officer that monitors/answers questions on the johns hopkins thread?

Tahoe

Yes... there are a number of universities that have representatives on this site... that doesn't mean you have to disclose personal information. They will only give general advice anyway.

Tahoe

On a quick search of College Confidential, I found registered "college reps" from Colby, Carnegie Mellon, Wharton, Webster University, Fordham, SUNY Stonybrook, University of California-Davis and the USNA. I'm sure there are more.

catfishin

No....I dont think admissions officers lurk here to chase after people who post their facts and chances questions. However, there are several admissions officers who post here and many more who subscribe and "lurk" to see if someone is posting negative information about a school and its admissions team. I have seen admissions officers "correcting" misinformation several times. And that is a good thing.

But yes, if you are easily identifiable and you are posting very bad things, you may want to go back and delete the posts or edit out your own bad comments.

This website is supposed to be a positive place for people to learn about schools and discuss various issues pertaining to the college search process. From time to time, ugly comments are posted by people negative agendas, some of which are direct attacks upon schools (something I strongly reject) and sometimes through innuendo and not so hidden agendas using statistics. I think pitting one college against another is very un-collegial, un-professional and sophomoric. I think its fine to be proud of your school and promote its many qualities and recommend it to people who are qualified and would be good fits there. But I dont get into school bashing. Or people bashing.

Chancing stats is an imprecise and often inexact and erroneous "process." Its a general guess at best. In every college admissions cycle, people get in who you think are well below the median scores and people get denied or deferred who are well above the median scores. Its just a very quirky process. Helping people through that process, if only with their attitude and wellbeing, is what we should all be doing here. Encouraging the discouraged. Giving direction to the floundering. Clarifying for the curious. Enlightening to the uninformed. And asking humility and compassion of those people who are accepted to the elite schools. And maybe suggesting ways to make the process more humane for all.

catfishin

I have seen UVa people here before as well. Just a heads up.

McskittlZ10

I know for a fact that there is a department director from one of the elite schools who looks at this. He/She can pull a file and know who you are if applying there.

tokenadult

I hardly ever read the chances forum (because I don't find it interesting, and other moderators look after it), but I'm glad it's set up, so that chances threads don't fill up all the other forums.

liv&learn

Kids should just be more careful --

posterX

Great post

sbergman

I work for a school and I visit the site. I occasionally recommend my school to a student looking for places to apply. Most of the time I am just generally trying to encourage people to broaden their search beyond the best known schools. I have never used the site to troll for information about a particular applicant. That said, I do routinely Google applicants. Usually this results in good things - sports scores, awards, etc. Occasionally, though, I have found information on My Space or Facebook that have raised a red flag or caused me to question an applicant's judgment. On one occasion, I recommended not hiring a job applicant because of a Facebook entry. I know many college deans who use those sites to monitor what's going on on their campuses.

I don't think the warning not to post personal information here is an issue so much of your application as it is an issue of your safety. And, please, when posting to social networking sites, remember that you're posting to the world and to your future.