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<li>Other students who haven’t even been admitted to college yet, much less ever sat on an admissions committee, can accurately assess your “chances” of being admitted anywhere.</li>
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<li>Not to mention parents who likewise have never sat on an admissions committee and yet think that they can assess someone’s chances at a highly selective college.</li>
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<p>My kid and I had been there, done that in term of undergraduate, graduate, and medical school admission and college tuitions; so anything you and your kid do that is different from what my kid and I did must be wrong.</p>
<p>Most of the misconceptions I’ve seen on CC are the opposite of misconceptions that the general public has. But they’re misconceptions nevertheless.</p>
<p>e.g. some CC misconceptions: </p>
<p>“No unhooked kids get into the top schools.”</p>
<p>“Paying more for a better school is never worth it.”</p>
<p>“Prestige’ doesn’t matter.” (I’m sorry but it does. It shouldn’t, but it does.)</p>
<p>My personal favorite that pops up every year from students: Colleges and universities prefer the SAT.</p>
<p>*So-and-so was so smart s/he got a full ride to an Ivy.</p>
<p>*Colleges will only take x number of kids from the same hs, and so-and-so is going to take my kid’s spot!</p>
<p>*Colleges are always going to admit only the most qualified applicants - those with the highest GPAs and SATs - except for URMS and hooks. (You cannot know what a college is looking for in their freshman class. They may be trying to strengthen a department that is under-enrolled, or get a better/different gender balance, or build up a particular EC program.)</p>
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<p>At the other end of the college spectrum, people comment about how important extracurricular activities and stuff like that are to students who are interested in applying to moderately or less selective in-state universities that admit entirely or mostly by grades and/or rank and test scores, often as stated on their web sites.</p>