<p>I have been meaning to thank the CC forum for some time. A key reason,
I believe I was admitted to both my EA choices has been the positive
impact of the CC forums. If you are a Junior or Sophomore in High school
here are things you should look for on CC that will be very helpful for you:</p>
<p>** [1] Activities **
Carefully read the stats of admitted applicants to your favorite school(s).
Note down what their summer activities or key ECs were that you could
also possibly engage in. For example, EPGY online courses/TASP/WTP/
Other Local University Research opportunities/Music competitions,Camps…</p>
<p>This assumes you are passionate about something other than school centric
academics. What CC helps with is identifying the state/national/international
opportunities that could be used to highlight your passion…</p>
<p>** [2] SAT/ACT/SATII/APs **
Visit the associated CC forums a year in advance of your need. You will find
the right books and non-cash itensive advice. I benefited from advice on
the CC forum on how to do SAT Writing (800, after following CC forum
discussion guidelines). I also benefited form CC forum discussions in
SAT II MAth IIC (800) (do Barrons and Meylani) and for the type of SAT IIs
not to do…(SATII Math I bad curves, French Sat II bad curves etc.)</p>
<p>** [3] Emotional Crutch **
Use CC as an emotional crutch,e specially when you feel like doing something
creatively stupid that you might regret a lot… CC helped me tremendously
when I got the “overqualified” letter from the WTP program.</p>
<p>** [4] Check out the competition **
Yes. CC is very helpful for this. If you are in CC in the first place in
your sophomore/junior year youa re quite serious about college. If you
are like me, you probably ar egoing to be contantly trying to improve
and sometimes need to know when to stop. CC helps you gauge the
competition.</p>
<p>** [5] Seek Advice **
CC has some incredibly helpful people, mollieb, ailey, jeshiel, bengolub,
pebbles, hriundeli, imsageek,sakky, to name a few. When you post your
question in the appropriate fashion you will get good sound advice. I
applied EA only after recieving advice and was seriously going to not
apply to either of the schools I got accepted into.</p>
<p>** [6] Application **
USe CC to identify Essay realted information and the correct books to
read. I discovered harry Bauld and Garalidne Woods from CC! These are
amongst the very few books I have bought.</p>
<p>** [7] Financial Aid **
Learn from CC forums which schools consistently give bad aid. I took out a few schools
from my list because of this. </p>
<p>** [8] Waitlist and Naviance etc **
I found CC helpful for the Naviance threads that give a weatlh of information.</p>
<p>Also, CC confirmed what I had found about certain schools that my Stats were “ABOVE” their normal admit range. Yes, Strange but true. There
are very good schools out there that actually practice witlisting “top”
applicants because they look like they are applying for safety (Unless you
are fine with a waitlisted safety do not apply, save $$s)</p>
<p>Overall, I cannot thank the CC administrators and forum posters enough
for the supportive (albeit harsh :rolleyes:) community! Thank you for helping
me with my admissions to CALTECH:D and MIT:D!</p>