Many here openly share advice.
Some of it misguided.
What is the worst advice you have seen on CC?
Only one???
If you apply to every Ivy, you increase your chances of getting into one.
Go to some super expensive out-of-state college for its prestige when the in-state is about the same (or even better). It kills me that there is more perceived value in the potential far away degree than in the certain $100,000.
“Don’t worry about finances. If you get in you’ll find a way to go.”
College admissions is a “random” process. So you might as well try even if you’re under-qualified, because “you never know.”
Common incorrect assumptions or omissions:
- Admission rate determines admission selectivity. (Fails to consider the strength of the applicant pool.)
- The college's four year graduation rate is the chance that the specific student will graduate in four years. (A college's four year graduation rate is mostly based on the strength of its students, and a specific student's chance of graduating in four years is mostly based on his/her own academic characteristics.)
- Admission selectivity is uniform across the college. (At many colleges, it varies by division or major.)
- Colleges that claim to "meet full need" will have the best financial aid. (Not necessarily, since their definitions of "need", and their expected student contributions vary considerably.)
- Colleges that claim to "meet full need" will offer grants = list price - EFC. (Forgetting the expected student contribution. Also note that the college's EFC is usually its own, which may differ from the FAFSA EFC.)
- With divorced parents, financial aid will be based on just the custodial parent. (Only for schools that use just the FAFSA, or which specifically exclude the non-custodial parent. Most schools that use CSS Profile require non-custodial parent information and cooperation.)
- Average class size is the typical class size a student will see. (The arithmetic mean of class sizes used here does not account for the fact that a per-student sampling of classes will oversample large classes in comparison, because they are larger. Many colleges have on-line class schedules that show class sizes.)
Of course applying to more of them gives you a higher chance of getting into at least one.
I disagree with this one to some extent. If the “culture” of the school is that you plow through and finish in four years, you’ll be expected to do more or less the same. If the culture is that you take fewer courses than a full load, or you take a semester or two off, your chances of finishing in four years are diminished.
Any “one size fits all” advice is, generally speaking, not good advice. Ditto projecting one’s own values and situation onto others.
^ not if you aren’t qualified, sorghum. And most kids have no idea what makes them “qualified.” They think that, if their one hs likes them, the colleges will automatically agree. Or worse, they aren’t special in their hs, but people keep telling them, you won’t know unless you apply.
What drives me nuts is the talk about “passions.” It’s more about savvy.
Prospective students responding to “chance me” threads, when they themselves have asked to be chanced.
People who unfairly badmouth a school because they didn’t get accepted.
School A is much better than School B.
Or School A is in a much better location than School B.
Or all the sample size of one anecdotal evidence
Wait a minute…the things mentioned above are NOT the advice I’ve seen given on CC.
They ARE questions posed by new posters who think they have it right.
Honestly…most folks here tell you:
- DO consider finances...and run the net price calculators before you apply.
- Apply to all,the elite schools does NOT increase your chance of acceptance to any one of them.
- Folks DO tell students that there is a student contribution at even the most selective and generous schools...that the school expects the student to pay.
- Folks routinely encourage kids to look at their OWN instate public universities...especially when cost is a huge factor.
- People don't say to apply if you are under qualified...but at the same time, sometimes an applicant might have something the school,is looking for. However, cast a broad net...don't JUST apply to,schools where you are under qualified.
I thought the thread asked for bad advice that was given on this forum…the posts above are often from posters who wish these things were true…and the posters here regularly give them straight talk answers.
@thumper1 I have. Granted I do not see that advice given by experienced users like you, @ucbalumnus , and others. But there have been plenty of instances of bad advice as mentioned upthread.
There are lots of hopeful parents and students who hope,that the advice I posted is accurate…but really…they get very good advice from folks here.
I will say…the chances threads are the exception…often kids chancing other kids. And even for financial aid.
Every now and then I will spot objectively bad advice - things that are just factually incorrect.
Most of the time, though, the advice is subjective in nature and thus open to interpretation and further thought.
I think CC is a great forum to “tease” out different ideas and ways of doing things.
You know what they say about free advice . . . it’s worth what you pay for it. 
This is bad advice for sure. But there’s just as much omission happening in the advice “net price calculator results will not be accurate if your parents are divorced” that gets doled out dozens if not hundreds of times a week in this place, by parents who should know better. They leave out the fact that this statement applies only to schools that use the CSS or otherwise account for the non-custodial parent. For FASFA-only schools – which, it should be remembered, are the vast majority of colleges and universities – the calculator works just fine with divorced parents.
Most posters are rational and provide sound advice, but there are always a few who think no price is too great for prestige. Definitely students, but even some parents, will say that if the kid gets into the dream school, they should take a second mortgage, drain the retirement accounts, do whatever it takes. For those that take this approach, I hope it works for them, but generally speaking I see this as bad advice for most families.
And those who preach not to take even a dollar additional loan beyond Stafford for the best school in the country for their major
These two.