Should College Confidential be renamed Exclusive College?

College Confidential Community
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Hi! I’m a student reading these posts (HS class of 2025, senior year) and it’s literally because I have no control and I read as much as I can. I’m a somewhat still new poster as I’ve been on CC for 5 months (and while in the process, have read a lot of posts) but this question sticks out to me and I would like to give a perspective, if that’s okay.

Anyways, I got into CC from the “Learning disability on college essay thread” (from 2018!), back in July, as I was beginning to write my Common App college essay. But then really thought about it and registered officially in August to gather insight on my senior year schedule. From there, despite the fact that I don’t take advice well, for one…it’s just been a general struggle, I take things literally a lot. Plus, some other posters have noticed me overstating my intrusive thoughts (I have anxiety & depression as well) and have sent me ‘hugs’, but in order for me not to take some posts the wrong way, I would have to make a list of my triggers, which is definitely not worth it for me to add once I post.

Now, should you rename CC? No. I’m an ‘average’ student, my GPA is equivalent to a 3.3 (except my school doesn’t scale out of 4, we go out of 100), learning disabled, and have some mental health issues of my own. I agree with this:

As, after all, I am a part of some of these categories, and I’ve found CC a very helpful place in which posters can send insight on building my college list, ideal accommodations in college/self-advocacy, how the HS IEP is different from college, or self-studying an AP, or just general advice, I am pleased to be a part of such a community. I also like reading threads about absolutely anything…sometimes I go through the Parents Forum because I, as mentioned before: have no self control, and I also like to learn more about this process to help my friends who are in my grade, or my friends who are in eleventh or tenth grade. I’m an ‘average’ student, and you all have helped me navigate this stressful process!

I don’t also consider myself a part of the ‘Reddit’ CCers, as some people have noted in the past - Reddit is somewhere I’d steer far away from, personally, because it’s just a wacky world out there.

CC is more “to the point”, and has two perspectives: from students, who share what they know and what they would like to know; and parents: who have different roles, but want to help students navigate the process.

I’ve tried to take 15mn of my day to read CC but it’s so addicting that it’s like having morning coffee (I don’t drink coffee much because it heightens my ~anxiety~) and reading a newspaper (except I only read Apple News).

So, in finality, no, PLEASE do not change CC to Exclusive College. Thank you guys for making such an interesting thread to read, though!

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I want to thank some of the newer CC members for sharing their experiences on CC. It is very much appreciated, and I hope you continue to find the forum a helpful place! @national_delivery @livsgoing2college @seekinginfo4us

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I’ve been active here for over three years and started numerous threads, but today was the first time I’ve had to ask one to be closed. Why?

I had even linked over to this thread four days ago so that posters could see how I viewed their comments, and yet they continued. Regardless of posters’ intent in that thread, the sense that I came away with was that not only was there disinterest in CC on discussing more accessible schools, but that there was an active desire to squash any such conversation. Whether that was the intent or not, it was certainly the effect.

This thread is not about reactions to my particular threads, but on whether CC is a comfortable place for all seekers of information on higher education, or if it is a de facto Exclusive Colleges forum. If I was a student or parent lurking on that thread (now or in the future in its closed state), I would not feel very welcome unless I was targeting a college with a single digit acceptance rate. I am glad that’s not the case for some of the newer members who posted on this thread, but I suspect there are others who have come and gone that have felt that way.

All of this to say, please be cognizant of how your words and arguments effect others, both those who post and those who will end up reading your words, even if they never post.

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I overall agree with everything you’re saying, but I might quibble with this statement. I think at least one issue with posting on CC is that many people are looking for actionable, practical advice and fewer are looking for conversations on interesting topics related to college admissions. The law school thread seemed more theoretical in that it was about testing an idea. I’d argue that there’s less openness, broadly, to this type of conversation here.

ETA, I don’t think this community should be called EC since I do find plenty of threads that discuss the actionable elements of searching for less selective colleges.

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I enjoyed reading your data analysis on that thread, mostly because I’m finding myself rooting more and more for the schools that don’t have the immediate fancy pants recognition.

That said, I think @beefeater has a solid point - you were providing data and information that might be interesting to someone, someday, but it wasn’t a direct answer to a specific person or person’s question. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the thread quickly got subsumed by people who had specific interests that they were advocating for - they want to know about the low acceptance rate schools, so they wanted to see how they would compare, or how they fit. Their real interest took over the theoretical discussion you were trying to prime for a future audience. The other thing that I think happened there is that there wasn’t much of anywhere else for the conversation to go. You provided the data and information on the more accessible schools and that was that. Because there was no specific audience at that moment who wanted information on those schools, there was no follow up. You did the analytics, so there was no more work to be done there. So the only avenue left to discuss was what’s not here and why and is it valid to not include it. That was completely contrary to your point in starting the post, but I see how it happened.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have those theoretical discussions - it’s interesting and useful. But I don’t want you to feel badly, or like it was a waste of your time. Parents who are here tend to be those that WILL parse through lots of posts to find the nuggets they want. That’s how they got here in the first place. So while it may not be as “clean” a thread as you hoped, I still think it’s useful.

And on that note, while I do think that this community has a large focus on exclusive colleges, I don’t see many people objecting when well-meaning commenters suggest some similar less-exclusive schools. Personally, I LOVE when you (or others) put together those lists with school chunked into categories of likelihood of admittance. We’re done with the application process - my youngest child is a HS senior now and all his applications are in. But what I get from those lists is ideas that I can share with friends. I happen to have the oldest kids amongst my real-life friends, so seeing out of the box ideas, and thinking about why those schools are interesting or good fits for different types of students, is really helpful for me. I’d guess I’m not alone in that.

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I appreciate you sharing this perspective. I suppose I was hoping that the thread would turn into something more like the General Advice & College Recommendations for ADHD & Neurodiverse Students thread. It’s not always super active, but it’s a place for sharing of resources and advice for people interested in that topic. The thread currently has 88 posts, all of which I think are germane to the topic (and evidence that CC is not just about exclusive schools/experiences).

In the initial post I wrote the following and though I ended up requoting myself on it in the med school thread, I realize I didn’t end up doing it in the law school thread.

The med school thread ended up getting some resources added by @WayOutWestMom, @fiftyfifty1 was able to recommend some specific schools that weren’t on the list, and @NiceUnparticularMan was able to call out some other schools not mentioned in the original post. It still didn’t fully take off like I hoped it might and future readers will have to be diligent in sifting through thread to find the nuggets of usefulness, but that was the direction I was hoping it would go in.

But as I indicated above, I don’t necessarily want this to be about my thread. Perhaps if “average” people get the gumption to post their own Chance Me/Match Me, the community is satisfied with making sure that those individuals get appropriate and respectful advice and help for their situation.

I don’t anticipate that will ever happen. :slight_smile:

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I wonder if it would be possible to try again to create a running thread for sharing ideas for not-most-selective colleges to consider for kids possibly interested in law school. The first thread could be linked as one possible resource, but then people could stop reading at will. And otherwise, that structure might encourage more of what I think you wanted, namely people actually sharing ideas and discussing them constructively, rather than a lot of not-so-constructive criticism of other people’s ideas.

And actually, my understanding is if you more or less made that an explicit “rule of the thread” (that it was intended to encourage the sharing of ideas, and that any commentary on other people’s ideas should be constructive and not excessively critical), the Mods would probably help you make sure it stayed that way.

And then it might not immediately explode in terms of post count, but it would be there when needed and something individual Chance Me/Match Me posters could be directed to as relevant.

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I liked your law firm thread. I graduated from a state college that was essentially open-admissions (after dropping out from an LAC) but went on to a T3 law school. In my case, and I hope to this day, the very top law schools really do take a holistic approach and want to create a diverse student population. What could be more boring, or less intellectually stimulating, than going to a law school where everyone had gone to HYP (whatever the acronym is) undergrad? In any event, I really dislike the law firm threads where people assume there is some magic way to the top law schools, via the appropriate undergrad schools. If you have the necessary analytical chops and can demonstrate that, you have a shot.

P.S. I don’t think you were posting when I was more active on CC, when my S19 was looking for schools, but your contribution is amazing and obviously requires a lot of time and effort.

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I think what is very helpful are posters educating non-lawyer families about alternative legal careers, what does it take to get INTO a solid law school and what does it take to get out-- with bar admission and a career track job.

The law school’s themselves- and many of the legal blog sites- do a good job answering the question “which college should I go to if I want to go to law school” since the answer is “get good grades and a great LSAT score and you’ll be fine”. Not sure why the question needs to be answered again and again.

I grit my teeth when a kid posts “If I can’t get a BigLaw job I’ll just become a federal prosecutor” which shows that the real gap in knowledge is about legal career paths- not law school admissions. I’ve pointed out several times that the Federal Prosecutor path is even MORE prestige obsessed than many other legal careers-- usually to people who don’t understand that “clerk” can be a civil service job which pays $80K per year running the calendar and jury pools at your local courthouse, or a highly prestigious job working for a Supreme Court justice-- which regardless of pay, commands a huge salary (and frequently a step- up sign on bonus to compensate for the time in public service). I am usually rebuffed as being a “prestige whatever”. Or you’ve got kids on here contemplating 180K in debt for a third tier law school because they want to work in Immigration law. Which is so necessary and a wonderful thing for society. But at an Immigration lawyers salary, it will take a lifetime to pay off that debt, especially if there’s undergrad debt as well (which is frequently the case).

So again- there seems to be a tight correlation between scoring high on the SAT and then scoring high enough on the LSAT so that a top law school is even on the horizon. For kids looking for that “not-most-selective college” where they’ll be competitive for a top law school- figure out how to take a 600/610 SAT scorer and turn them into a 174 LSAT scorer four years later- and you’ll be doing a public service.

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For example, there is a typical assumption on the forums that UW never means University of Wyoming, and that CMU never means Central Michigan University.

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So nice to hear this from your perspective.

Wishing you the very best as this process unfolds for you!

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Obviously if you do not perceive a need for this sort of discussion, it would not make sense to participate in such a discussion yourself.

I think others of us do think it could be useful, however. And that does reflect a difference of opinion about some underlying issues, including whether there is actually more to discuss about college choice for people with a law school interest than what you expressed.

But I think what we have been discussing here in this thread is the principle that in cases like that, we should recognize that others should feel welcome to discuss things here THEY think could be useful, even if WE believe they are in some way mistaken to think that.

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Wonderful post! Be careful, you might still be here in 10 years :wink: There are at least a few students active here on CC who are long out of college.

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One of whom is a moderator

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Sounds like you understand law school and law careers very well, and don’t have any questions. Other posters may feel differently.

Yes, SAT scores below a school’s typical acceptance range, is one reason that a student might need to attend a “not most selective college.” But there are actually many others: a single semester of low grades after a concussion leading to a non-competitive GPA, lack of the type of ECs that make a student “interesting” to AOs, a lack of hooks, parent donut hole income in the face of having to fund the care for a grandma with dementia, having donut hole parents who have all their savings in a business they can’t sell, needing a $10,000/mo mAB for a rare autoimmune illness and an insurance policy that won’t cross state borders, coming from a region or a demographic where your accomplishments and your desired major are “stereotypical” and thus uninteresting to AOs of elite schools, being an unsophisticated first gen student who failed to apply for Posse etc.

In other words, not every kid who failed to get into an elite school should be predicted to have trouble with the LSAT…and a list of more accessible schools that are known to provide a rigorous education that would prepare a student well for law school, up to and including the most highly selective law schools should a student want to aim for these, could be useful to some people.

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Please move on from the law discussion or start a new thread.

Thank you!

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Thank you! I kinda just scripted this post in my thoughts then posted it and didn’t expect all the reactions to it, to be honest!

Honestly…if I am here post-college, then it means this forum did a good job educating me about the college process that now I want to do the same in return. :slight_smile:
I like the idea of that! I know some users who were once students are now adults + giving advice!

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BTW as a neurodiverse student, this thread has been incredibly helpful! :smiley:
I recommend this thread to any ND students in general or parents of ND students looking for suggestions to build the list around well-known schools for accommodations and services! :slight_smile:

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I have to admit that it’s sometimes a kind of garbage-in/garbage-out situation. For example, there’s currently a Chance Me thread, a couple of days old, where the OP has literally listed 50 different colleges, all sizes and shapes, public and private. All but a couple of the two dozen or so replies so far have revolved around one school. It’s crying out for someone with the patience of @AustenNut to help sort things out…

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thank you! :grin:

I have no idea how your nice words got lost in me reading replies, I appreciate this! :slight_smile:

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