Here’s a fallacy:
170. There’s some “obsession” with California colleges in the rest of the country.
OK @marvin100 , just know that some folks take those like others take “Your mother is so fat…” jokes.
Rather than post a response again:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19658946#Comment_19658946
- Two grades of B during your high school career will definitely scotch your chances at any top college. With any C grades, don't even waste the money applying.
Having provided that fallacy, it is ok to comment on fallacy #167, and also ucbalumnus’s post #158?
Whether a math course below Calc 1 is remedial also depends on your definition of “remedial” (and may be on your definition of “is” )) ).
A few years ago, departments at my university were asked to show that it is possible (without special accommodations) for a student to graduate with a major in that department in a four-year period, without summers. This had to take into account all of the pre-requisite sequencing, and the actual availability of spots in the required courses.
STEM departments had to provide a four-year graduation track that started with Calc 1. Students who started below Calc 1 would probably need more than four years if they wanted to major in mathematics, statistics, physical sciences, or engineering. In the biological sciences, it is still generally possible to graduate in four years starting with a pre-Calc 1 course. In the other areas, the pre-requisite sequences (which are based on knowledge that was to be acquired in the pre-req course, and are not artificial) preclude a four-year degree.
So in that sense, any starting point below Calc 1 would be semi-remedial for a student in the affected majors.
On the other hand, we offer about 1.5 years’ worth of courses below Calc 1 that still carry college credit and count toward graduation, so they are not remedial in that sense. We offer an additional course at an even lower level, which carries college credit, but the credits do not count toward the number of credits required for graduation. This course used to carry 0 credit, but that arrangement was changed to make it easier for students in that course to qualify for financial aid as full-time students. So the credit-but-it-doesn’t-count course might be remedial or not, depending on your definition. When it was a 0 credit course, most people definitely considered it to be remedial.
Most of these are neither repeated on here nor believed by most people.
- Thinking that a highly selective Div I school is a match for your student based on the Naviance data from your school. Even though your student could be in the top 80% you don't know how much of the data is from recruited athletes. Acceptance is not a numbers game.
- It's all about your purported "passion."
Btw, love a good argument about NJ. It’s OT, but I’d comment that it’s a fallacy NJ is all about the worst looking areas or the least interesting folks. There’s much to be found there— if you’re the sort who looks. (Maternal family mostly never left, the sorts who wouldn’t think to. DH grew up there.)
- Anyone can get an A in any class, as long as they do all their homework.
And you don’t even have to look that hard.
Okay, @Postmodern - my apologies.
- You should go to the highest ranked college possible, even if you can't competently write an essay, perform research, or do higher level math or science.
Nice call to stop teasing/mocking/insulting New Jersey. Lets do the same (no more mocking/teasing/insulting) teachers, doctors or attorneys.
Now, #176: If you read it here it must be 100% accurate. No need to double check it on the college website.
Yeah. After all, the web sites are just marketing blather to push up the number of applications and raise the US News standing.
Another common fallacy (sometimes an unstated assumption):
177: "Liberal arts includes only humanities, social studies, and arts [not science and math]."
- If you have a very specific-to-you question about a particular issue at a particular college, you'll get a better answer by posting the question on CC and hoping that others have faced similar issues than you would if you actually picked up the phone and attempted to speak to a human who is in charge of that department at that particular college and who has the authority to answer said question.
- The quality and value of an undergraduate education is directly proportional to the salaries earned by its graduates in the immediate years after they graduate.
@marvin100, @Postmodern, @jym626 - Let just say that only people from Jersey are allowed to tell Jersey jokes, much as the only people that can tell Jewish jokes without them being offensive are Jews. Lawyers, on the other hand, are fair game (just kidding!)
Statement by law school professor on first day of classes first year: if you have a heartfelt need to be loved, you are in the wrong place.
- That your SAT or ACT test results say something about your ability to go to medical school. I was an average test taker when I was a teenager. Rocked the MCAT in my early 20s. Pursue your dreams. People develop at their own pace.
People who do well at one test of knowledge and reasoning tend to do better at other tests of knowledge and reasoning. I don’t see the fallacy in 180.
There have been studies going back 20 years showing statistically significant correlations between SAT and MCAT.
My experience is that those kinds of tests tend to be 70% aptitude/knowledge/education, and 30% test-taking tricks. You can go far if you know the tricks but it’s far, far easier to do well with some degree of aptitude for general topics that are tested on those exams.