elephant in the room ...

Somnambulant
Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:29:56 +0000

And just as I do not have a rigorous analysis, neither does the OP. A scan of a results thread on CC is so limited and not necessarily representative of the 23000 (or w/e it is) apps.



I never said that he has done a “rigorous analysis,” because he hasn’t. None of us can using CC; we have little knowledge about the general applicant pool other than a relative small number of anonymous posters on a self-selecting website.



The “invalid anecdotes” were completely valid responses to the original post, which took a few dozen cases and jumped to a pretty absolute conclusion.



Firstly, his conclusion wasn’t absolute: the OP himself wrote that the trend he observed was “statistically significant,” not a steadfast rule.

More importantly though, the OP used anecdotal evidence to come to a generalization about the admissions process, and in pointing out his error, other users committed the same logical fallacy. These users are just as wrong as the OP.