<p>I registered a long time ago, and have been reading the posts and really wanted to post but my Mom is convinced that it will ruin my chances for admission to my top choices of colleges. She read the “What are my Chances” thread and freaked out. She’s so sure that the admission officers are reading this site and will be able to figure out who I am by my stats alone. I promised her that I wouldn’t give out ANY personal information, like where I live or even what my sport is, but she said they could find out somehow, and then the adcom from school A would know that I applied to school B, and reject me. She would never let me have a Livejournal for the same reason even tho all my friends have one. I’m a junior and I really think I can learn a lot from this site. Can anyone give me some ideas on how I can convince her that posting here won’t ruin my life? Thank you.</p>
<p>Well, your mom’s concerns about posting your stats and your identity being discovered are not unreasonable. Adcoms may visit this site, and the amount of information some students give is sometimes so unique that I wouldn’t be surprised if some students are recognized. So that part, I agree with.
I don’t think she needs to worry about 1) adcoms knowing who you are merely by posting if you don’t give out personal info or 2) that school A would care that you were also applying to school B. I think people are more concerned about this in general than need be. Colleges know you’re applyine to several schools - this is no great secret. And the most selective schools like the Stanfords and Harvards really don’t care. But this is moot, really, because they won’t be identifying you if you’re very careful about what info you are giving out.
If it still is a concern, perhaps she’d feel more comfortable if you didn’t post on the public forum, but instead used the Private Message system to only speak to individual posters. I even do this when I want to give out a little more personal information in order to get a more accurate answer, but I don’t necessarily want anyone to have access to it-- particularly if it involves possible identification of my kids.
So, your mom just wants you to be careful. I’m a mom, and I really understand this. Be patient and understanding with her - she has put iin a lot of time and energy in “growing you up” , so she has a lot invested, and doesn’t want to do anything to harm the wonderful creature she produced! :)</p>
<p>There’s no realistic way adcoms could figure out who you are, even if you give out some of your stats (SAT I, ACT score). There are too many students applying to any given school to be able to narrow down identities on that basis alone. If you posted all of your scores, you might theoretically be identifiable, but not realistically. First, adcoms are busy people and don’t prowl around websites like these “looking” for people. It would be unprofessional and bordering on stalkerish, and they wouldn’t be able to take into account anything they found, because it wasn’t part of the application.</p>
<p>Second, even if adcoms thought they had found you, they couldn’t prove it. The only way to definitely prove your identity (besides an email match) would be your IP address, and I’m pretty sure College Confidential is only required to release that over legal matters, to parties with a sort of search warrant. </p>
<p>So unless you’ve got really distinctive extra curricular activities or sports, there’s not really anyway you could be even tentatively identified. Adcoms don’t ■■■■■ this site looking for students to “catch”, and if they did, they wouldn’t be able to use the information against you.</p>
<p>This is a good site. Sit down with your mom and have a reasoned talk with her about the anonymity offered by the Internet.</p>
<p>Please tell your mom that I have learned so much from this site and the very generous parents who post here. </p>
<p>I come from a 3500-student school with 5 (yes, 5) guidance counselors. My parents are supportive but semi-clueless about the college process. If not for CC, I wouldn’t have known about putting together a cohesive activity resume, preparing for an admissions interview or even how long my common app. essay should be.</p>
<p>Whatever my admissions outcome, this site has been a life-saver for me.</p>
<p>Don’t mention your name, your town, your HS, or that you were first place winner in last year’s Intel. :)</p>
<p>Anyway, adcoms know that students apply to multiple schools at all levels. Just share information like SATs, GPA, ECs but in a general way.</p>
<p>Sometimes people will ask you what school you go to, esp.students, and you certainly should not give that out. Even if people send you a private message, you do not have to respond.</p>
<p>Violet, I think it a good idea to be careful about what you post on the internet. You can “fuzzify” information, like posting scores that are 5 or 10 points away from actual and limiting geographic info to state only. Sometimes a series of seemingly generic stats can combine to paint a portrait of an individual that really jumps out and identifies the person. I have seen that happen several times on this forum, where a young person provided way too much personal information to the point where an adcom couldn’t help but recognize the individual if he or she saw an application from that person.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that it is very easy to use the search function and view all of your posts. Sometimes the combination of information revealed in several different posts provides far more personal information than the poster intended.</p>
<p>Judging by last year’s crop of CC seniors, people who post here do well on college admissions on the whole and get into some excellent colleges!</p>
<p>WEll…she is correct in saying that you can find out who people are on the site <em>cough</em> tupac…</p>
<p>To maintain privacy, don’t post distinctive items - like essays, details of suspensions, your location or high school. If violet is actually your name, you might want to get that changed (your cc handle, that is). As other have mentioned, you can change some scores a bit to make them less obvious. </p>
<p>The tremendous value of cc is that you can get a pretty good picture of admissions in real-time, and where you may stand with a particular college or class of colleges when you apply. The penalty for not getting this right can range from no acceptances next spring - to an acceptance at a school that is a poor fit for you.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your suggestions. I will show my parents this thread and assure them that I won’t post any identifying information. I really hope they understand how helpful this site can be. And I’ll see if I can find the acceptance threads and show them that a lot of posters got in to good colleges.<br>
And ohio_mom- my name was picked out of a box of crayola crayons! I could have ended up being “blue green” instead!
Thanks again to you all.</p>
<p>Here’s an acceptances link from parents forum - </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=982118#post982118[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=982118#post982118</a></p>
<p>How great it is to have a parent who cares. Cherish it, and try to reduce her stress. Being a parent is a difficult thing to do.</p>
<p>You can also reassure your Mom that, for the most parts, admissions officers are waaaaaaay too busy to spend time on sites like CC and the likelihood of one being from a) a college you are applying to and b) one who would be handling your file and c) manic enough to remember you or seek out your file unless you were a self-confessed axe murderer are virtually nil.</p>
<p>Also, fwiw, I think “What Are My Chances” is the most useless part of CC. But there’s a lot of good info to find here.</p>
<p>I agree with the advice you’ve already been given. Keep in mind that a lot of college app’s ask where else you’re applying anyway. And of course they know you’re applying to more than one school.</p>
<p>And then of course there are the parents , like me, who couldn’t have made their child more recognizable to the adcoms if they had dressed her in hot pink reflecto tape tutu , turned out the house lights, and hit her with a full rack of Kliegs. :eek:</p>
<p>Oh, well. Something else to tell the shrink. </p>
<p>“Gee, Doc. I dunno. I just get the feeling everybody here knows something about me.”</p>
<p>And the adcoms, it turns out, are pretty good people. So conceal yourself as well as you can to protect against random psychos but do not worry about the adcoms.</p>
<p>Personally I like burnt sienna.</p>
<p>Yeah, random psychos and unexpected turns of conversation at college like, “…wait…how does my sister know your Dad?”</p>
<p>
Ummmmmmmmm…yeah…or had her interviewed by the CSM ;)…
My poor son…<em>sigh</em> ~b.</p>
<p>Adcoms can easily figure out who you are, contrary to what the majority of individuals posting here have said. </p>
<p>On the other hand, they don’t care nearly enough to do so in 99.9% of all instances, the lone exceptions being the outstanding, international champion applicants. </p>
<p>If you want to write about having done something illegal (drugs, theft, etc.), it’s definitely best to refrain from posting. It’s also a good idea to not give away personal details.</p>
<p>Other than that though, posting is quite safe.</p>
<p>Then there are those of us who don’t do well at keeping our identity a secret. I don’t worry about random psychos finding me on the Internet. I have my phone number on a sign in front of my house, and pass out my business card to strangers (I’m self-employed).</p>
<p>On the other hand, there are many, many days that if the random psychos showed up, they could have my daughter!!! Then she would be their problem!</p>
<p>Peg</p>