The Fallacies on CC that Won't Stop Being Posted

Parents Forum
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  1. All the public schools in [insert home state here] suck and aren't even worth looking at
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  1. My third cousin's best friend's uncle is an AO at Dartmouth and he said I should apply, so it's a match, not a reach for me.
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(Oh my gosh this is like all my irrational, self-hating thoughts in one thread. I seriously love it; it’s so cathartic.)

101 (?): Going off of 96, caring about your friends/significant other is a waste of time. Having friends lowers your chances of doing well in life. If someone asks you to hang out on a weeknight, they’re not really your friend.

64
  1. Obviously I should get all my info on colleges from vague anecdotes from family friends of family friends.
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  1. Kids need to be helicopter parented until they are 40 years old.
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  1. What my neighbor thinks of my college choice is really important. If he or she doesn't think it's prestigious, it's important for me to trot out as much info as possible to convince them otherwise.
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More questionable ideas:

  1. Students who think that 6 high school AP courses is like 6 college courses. (Typically not, since many high school AP courses cover material in a year that college courses cover in a semester, even when they do cover the same material with similar depth and rigor.)
  2. Students who avoid taking physics in high school, even though they take four total years' worth of biology, chemistry, and elective sciences.
  3. Students who take AP statistics instead of precalculus to get an extra AP course on their records, even though they may need calculus in college later (so they would have to take remedial precalculus in college).
  4. Students who stop foreign language early (instead of getting to level 4, or at least level 3) to take elective AP courses.
  5. Students (or parents) who value colleges based on selectivity / exclusivity, so that any college that could be a safety is undesirable.
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  1. Most questions are dumb, don't ask questions on CC
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Now here is where the problem is. A topic like math eventually gets so difficult that no one is going to “tap dance” through it regardless of talent level. If you’re naturally talented at math but choose to flee towards something easier because you pushed hard enough to get some push-back from advanced math, that’s likely a mistake.

70

I don’t disagree; I was arguing that you should take into account how easily something comes to you, and pointed out the fact that what’s easy can be pushed enough to become a challenge to respond to the argument that you wouldn’t be challenging yourself.

I suppose you could say that employing the “do what’s easy” mindset won’t prepare you well for when things become difficult; maybe the better advice is “do (or at least consider) what you’re good at”.

71

Right, there’s the rub. What I was getting at in the initial “fallacy” was the student who views the first sign of difficulty as a sign they have no talent for a particular field. Ease and talent are separate concepts, but many young applicants are overly dismayed by a B- in a subject where they have genuine talent.

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  1. If you apply a large number of super selective schools, then statistically you'll get into one.
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  1. If my stats hover anywhere near the 75th percentile of (insert elite school here), it's a match and I don't really need safeties.
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  1. There are "easier" months in which to take the SAT/ACT
  2. The SAT/ACT curve depends on who takes the test that day
  3. Taking the SAT more than three times is bad
  4. SAT combined scores (out of 2400 or 1600) matter rather than the subscores and [2300 or 1500] is the key number for top colleges
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Is 114 a myth?

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The implication of the thread title is that these are fallacies that are posted again…and again…and again on this forum. And that lots of folks agree.

I don’t happen to agree with the subject. Sure, there are some folks who make these blanket statements…but there is also a balance of others who refute them.

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Yep

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Huh. I guess it depends on how much you actually intend to improve your score.

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I can imagine a college might care if a student goes 2290-2310-2310-2380-2400 or something ridiculous like that.
(But marvin would know better than me if that’s true.)

80

Hm… there is no problem here the way I see it.

The kids who believe the above are not elite material, as elite students do not think like this. They get the scores etc, but they also know these are just the required basics, nothing special.

Therefore, the fallacy here is not about doing stuff to get into the school; in this case, the true fallacy is the kids thinking they are elite material when they are not. I do not blame an elite school for self-delusional on the part of the candidate. A candidate who is elite material can do something(s) to help himself standout, and he also knows tests scores/APs are not it.