The Fallacies on CC that Won't Stop Being Posted

Parents Forum
21
  1. There was a seat held for my kid that some other kid "stole."
  2. Adcoms care passionately about ensuring my high school is represented and they make a point to be actively "rewarding" or "punishing" it with more or fewer acceptances compared to last year.
22
  1. The world of business consists solely of finance. There's absolutely no other job function needed to run a business. No operations, marketing, R&D, social media presence, consumer promotions, legal / regulatory affairs, human resources.
  2. Everyone around the country thinks about the schools in my neck of the woods the same way I do.
23

More questionable assumptions:

  1. The college admissions benefit of being a URM is huge everywhere.
  2. LACs are better than other schools for all undergraduate students.
24
  1. If your college student isn't eligible for the best internships and isn't chosen for on-campus interviews due to a college GPA around 2.0 to 2.30, going to graduate school will make your student more employable.
25
  1. Most colleges care how many times you take the SAT/ACT. The truth is-most don't really care.
26

More questionable assumptions:

  1. If a student gets shut out, taking a gap year is always the best option.
  2. Student does not need safeties, because s/he will surely get into one of the reaches, and can just take a gap year otherwise.
  3. Starting at community college is only for the weakest students or is only a last resort. (However, this varies by the quality of community colleges in each state. Some are inexpensive and provide good transfer preparation, while others are expensive and have limited transfer preparation courses.)
27

This thread is turning out to be a fantastic ** * Disclaimer * ** that should be read by anyone about to enter CC.

28
  1. Student athletes who care about their studies but want to continue their sport in college should chose Div. III schools. Those who don't are unwisely overvaluing sports relative to intellectual pursuits, or else must be delusional about their chances of becoming a well-paid professional athlete.
29

Agree 100%. This one causes a lot of grief both here in in the real world.

30

More questionable assumptions:

  1. Lots of AP/IB credit can help a student graduate two years early. (Often more difficult than it looks from the amount of credit units, since the *subject credit* for AP/IB scores is generally only for frosh-level courses, AP/IB scores may not always be accepted for subject credit, and a high school student's AP/IB course selection is typically not optimized to meet college degree requirements.)

50a. Student should always retake the college course for which s/he can skip with AP/IB credit.
50b. Student should always use AP/IB credit to take advanced placement.
(Better would be to try the college’s old final exams for the course that can be skipped to check one’s knowledge of the subject by the college’s expectation, in order to make a proper placement decision. It is a waste of time and tuition to repeat what one knows well, but taking advanced placement when one’s knowledge of the prerequisite course is weak is a bad idea.)

31
  1. Taking part in more ECs gives you a better chance of being admitted.
32
  1. As an international student, I can expect to get plenty of financial aid by applying to whichever schools interest me without doing my research on which schools actually give aid to internationals.
  2. As a domestic student, "None" is a perfectly acceptable answer to "How many Net Price Calculators have you run?"
  3. Honors colleges at large universities are absolutely inferior to "real" liberal arts colleges.
  4. As an out-of-state student, I can expect to establish residency and get reduced tuition in the state where I choose to attend a public university.
  5. I can't possibly get far enough from home in my own state, so I have to go out-of-state to feel like I am "really" at college.
33
  1. NPCs are accurate all the time.
  2. It's better to be a regular fish in a big pond.
  3. It's better to be a big fish in a small pond.
34
  1. The very existence of Cornell taints the Ivy League. It's an inferior school, and if you end up there, you will be ashamed for the rest of your life.

(Everywhere except on CC, a Cornell degree is highly respected, and practically all of Cornell’s 250,000 living alumni are proud of their alma mater.)

35

49a. Graduating early is a good idea in the first place. Occasionally it is, often you just end up rushing school and compromising your actual learning.

36
  1. If your major is in the medical field you will always have job security and make a lot of money.
  2. Other HS students can accurately predict your chances of admissions to any college or university .
  3. Other HS students know better than adults about financial considerations when choosing a college to attend.
  4. Tons of ECs will compensate for a low GPA.
37
  1. If you get a bad grade, you should explain why in your common app essay.
38

More questionable ideas:

  1. Students who feel that they have to apply ED somewhere.
  2. Students who feel that they have to double major.
  3. Students who feel that pre-med or pre-law requires a particular type of major (biology for pre-med, political science for pre-law), or that pre-med or pre-law are actual majors (though they may be at a few colleges, not at most).
39

Corollary: students who think that more holistic admissions will get them admitted to more selective colleges than is realistic for their low GPAs.

40
  1. First semester first year, you should talk to a professor about research. If you don't start working on your own study, the work is beneath you. 69b. Only research universities have sufficient research opportunities for undergrads; those with top 10 med schools will be significantly preferable.