How to improve the chances of chances threads?

[galoisien]

Only note clubs if you're an officer.

You don't have to be an officer to make your membership notable, especially if the club has no officers.

[vicariousparent]

Only note clubs if you can explain what impact your participation had- on yourself and those around you.

[trjohnson1]

Ah, this thread helped me so much in rewriting my "What are my chances?" post. Thank you so much! I only wish I had read it before I had exceeded the amount of edits on my original post.

How long should I wait before reposting my newly-rewritten post?

[socalsoccerdude]

i like this thread. good idea. idk if anyone has already wrote this (i didnt read the entire thread) but if u have ecs, like a lot, dont write it. alright, say if u have like 5 ecs and ur applying then yeah write it down. but if u have like 10+ ECs dont go through the time writing it down. i doubt a lot of people will read it

[mihan]

Hahah, as one of those "2390, 4.0 etc" applicant who just recently posted a chance thread, I do have to disagree with the inherent uselessness and mere braggingness of them..or at least I don't think that is the OP's intent when they write them. : )

Everyone KNOWS that the Ivies are hard. Why? Because they DON'T just look at the numbers. They look at the intangible person behind the stats and awards. I think that's why it's useful for the “snotty picture perfect" applicants to have other people who may have more knowledge and experience in this fierce competition comment and suggest improvements in the application or even in the selection of colleges. Of course, there ARE those who know nothing but still choose to reply from the best of their knowledge. But even THESE replies can be helpful. By having peers assess you from what they personally have done and from what they have seen their own peers done, it gives you a wider picture than what you may see from just your own high school and town (at least for me, since I come from Iowa heheh).

PLUS people should know that these high up supposed boasters are human too. Everyone is nervous. And of course we try to apply to places that we think we could spend a good four years. Unfortunately for the overachievers, these places turn out to be the more competitive schools that some people think they are applying to just for the name. And why do the “down to earth and unpretentious” student who apply to the schools of their own caliber with their own set of reaches get chanced with sympathy, and high scorers applying to competitive places with equal uncertainty of acceptance is sometimes viewed as mere braggarts? AH, I know, this comes off as snobby too. But I’m just saying…it’s not really fair, is it? Everyone is in the same boat (and PLEASE I DO NOT want this to come off as elitist, but I fear I am..oii) – there are just different compartments and everyone needs to struggle to survive.

I almost feel as if the students applying to some of the relatively easier schools (although, here on CC, that seems to be quite rare…”easy” here is still in the ranks of difficult in the real world) are the ones wasting people’s time. Those schools have more predictable admissions that are possibly more focused on numbers. Yes, I know, I just mentioned that we were all in the same boat and etc, but still, I feel that when the admittance rate is 70% and you can find the average scores and etc online, you can more often than not judge for yourself if you can get in or not. (spiteful hypocrisy much? Sorry guys..)

I’m sure there ARE people who are just looking for the “accept w/ $, no prob, lol” response, but that certainly doesn’t apply to everyone. Ending this rather over-my-own-head and self-acknowleged hypocritical post, I just wanted to say that it’s unfair that high scorers are too often dismissed as bragging when they too are truly concerned….just like everyone else.

PS I’m not saying EVERYONE dismisses the “ivy chance” threads as ego boosters, and I TRULY do thank the sincere replies…it’s more from reading this thread that I perceive the hostility(?) against number-perfect applicants to be somewhat unwarranted for : )

[Student615]

Everyone KNOWS that the Ivies are hard. Why? Because they DON'T just look at the numbers. They look at the intangible person behind the stats and awards.

Indeed. And that is something that comes out in essays, recommendations, contact with the school, etc., at least as strongly as it does in lists of EC involvement. Of course, in Chances threads, we don't have access to the former.

I feel that when the admittance rate is 70% and you can find the average scores and etc online, you can more often than not judge for yourself if you can get in or not.

And when the admittance rate is 7% and you know that the tipping factors are non-stats related, you can more often than not realize for yourself that a Chances thread is going to be largely useless to you.

I do agree with a lot of what your saying...neither comment is intended to suggest otherwise, or to criticize. Just showing you the way around your self-proclaimed hypocrisy

I understand why students put up these threads. I really do. But frankly, high stats aside, if yours had an actual purpose to it--a concern about a weak area, a question about odd circumstances, a request for other schools to look at--and you received replies that you felt were helpful to you, than it's probably not the type of thread that previous posters are complaining about.

Even if a thread does seem useless, I'm a strong proponent of the "If you can't say something nice..." approach.

[NY_Democrat]

No one ever replies to chances threads anyway, they have about a 5% rate of Replies to Views; and most of those replies are just bumps.

[guitarman89]

I get tired of reading the "36 ACT 2350 SAT I, 16 AP courses - 5's in 13 of them, top 5 in one of the most competitive high schools in the nation and great ECs, do I have a shot at school ______?"

If these people are actually as smart as their stats indicate, I think they would be able to figure out they have a good shot at any college in the country. Sometimes they just post chance threads to brag about test scores and such.

[musicalamanda]

I have a thought about the chances...
Say there was a specific application sort of thing, where people looking for chancing fill out the specific areas after copy/pasting the form. Limit the ecs, ask for the specific GPAs or SAT/ACT scores, and have a section for college choices. Anything extra someone needs to say that doesn't fit the mold add at the bottom, but the rest of the info would be organized and uniform, therefore less overwhelming.
This thread could put one together. The only problem would be getting people started using it.
Thoughts?

[heresyxgpaholic]

In all honesty it would be great if there were subcategories under what are my chances meaning:
What are my chances?
- high school class of 09
- high school class of 10
- college transfer class 09
- blah blah blah...