College Confidential is the High School Student’s Bible
The New York Times reports that College Confidential, a web forum designed for stressed out high schoolers and worried parents, is a “wealth of information.” From SAT/ACT prep boards to college discussion forums, College Confidential is the only thing a high school student and their parents need to survive high school and get into the college of their dreams. College Confidential, or CC as many of its users fondly call it, receives around a hundred thousand hits in each US state per day.
“After school, I come home and hop onto College Confidential – it’s one of my top used bookmarks, along with collegeboard.com, actstudent.org, and usnews.com/collegerankings,” says user college4lyfe. “I can’t imagine life without CC – how else would I know what my chances are for college, and what college is really like?” The best tools that College Confidential provides are the “chance me” boards.
On CC, students post their stats on specific university forums and have other users “chance” them and rate whether or not they will get in. CC users give stat posters a true assessment of their resume and provide helpful feedback. “The senior members on College Confidential helped me out so much when I posted my stats,” comments MIThopeful314. “I wasn’t really sure if my 2360 SAT score, fives on eight AP tests, or four time USAMO qualifications were enough to get me into MIT, but senior members truly put it into perspective when they told me that only a score of 2400 on the SAT would give me even a shot at making it into MIT. I’m now taking 2 tutoring classes each day to raise both my Critical Reading and Writing scores by 20 points.
” Senior members on College Confidential have been confirmed to have as much information on admissions as college admissions officers do. Princeton admissions officer Frank Price admits, “It’s astounding how beneficial College Confidential user comments are for high school students. Senior members have all the inside information on our college admission process, and frankly, it’s been making my job a whole lot easier.” Harvard’s admissions officer Nancy King concurs and adds that “I have always advocated for our admissions website to post a notice telling students who don’t have a 36 on their ACT to stop even thinking about applying – but now with CC’s senior members ‘chancing’ students, they’ve practiced good judgment and stopped the hopeless students from taking up our inboxes.” College Confidential provides prospective students a real assessment of their chances to their dream schools and gives the OK for students to apply.
MIThopeful314, who should now be MITstudent314, says, “After three months of tutoring each day, I took the SAT one last time during the December of my senior year and scored a 2400! I applied Regular Decision to MIT and after months of waiting, I finally received my acceptance letter. I thank all my friends on College Confidential who gave me the OK to apply and I wouldn’t be where I am now without their advice.” On College Confidential, emphasis is put onto the statistics and extracurricular activities that a student achieves, making high school a time for students to be as successful as they can be. “I joined Quizbowl, Math team, Speech team, and Student Council my freshman year after I saw CC users have each of these four activities on their resume. I don’t particularly enjoy Speech or Student Council, but I believe it is worth it when I see all the other students on these teams get into the Ivies,” says college4lyfe. CC helps students plan their high school career path and provide useful tips such as which classes to take, which extracurricular activities to have, and what questions to ask in class in order for teachers to be willing to write recommendation letters for senior year.
With all the wealth of information that exists on College Confidential, it makes sense that it is the number one college forum on the internet. The CC community, along with The New York Times, highly recommends for any high school student or parent who actually cares for future success to utilize this web community.
