<p>Sorry, if I appear offputting. My intension was to caution the students to make sure that they have safe and sound admission strategy so that in case Chicago does not work out, they have good options that they have researched well and know that would work out in the end.</p>
<p>My son could have easily missed the boat. We were very reckless. If we did miss the boat with no other options left because of the wildly optimistic assessment, I would have wished that somebody kicked me hard to see a more realistic picture. </p>
<p>If any one of the kids who are applying this year got a little worried and started to research a few more options, then I believe I did my good deed of the month. Regarding my seemingly righteous air and attitudes toward the admission officers in elite universities, I don’t believe I need to do any defending - this has been analyzed and discussed over and over again and there are even books on this subject matter written by people who have years of experience in this field - some of whom actually worked as adcoms. I believe there was another poster on this thread who was referring to one such book that totally debunked all the public statements made by the elite universities.</p>
<p>No more post on my side on this thread.</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you.</p>