Getting the most out of reading college forums

[Anonymous]

New to this.

I’ve seen college confidential and reddits applying to College forum.

What do you read each for, and what else do you read that’s informative? And informative about what?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I stopped reading the Reddit one, it seemed like it was overwhelmingly international students. I never used college confidential. I read this one, ignoring all the “T10 or bust” stuff, and rely on my kids school counselors.

[Anonymous]

This is for entertainment, not expert information. Most people here have zero experience in admissions or counseling. Reddit is a little better because they vet people who get the counselor/admissions tag.

You have access to experts. They aren't anonymous people on message boards.

[Anonymous]

For the most part CC has lost both credibility and relevance. It is struggling to say the least due to excessive pettiness of its handful of loyal posters.

However, CC is a source of good administrative type information regarding the University of California system due to the expertise of one infrequent poster.

Reddit is interesting and entertaining.

DCUM is less censored--which is good so that posters may express their thoughts freely without fear of online retribution.

[Anonymous]

The college forum here is really toxic and full of misinformation. I'd tread very carefully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is for entertainment, not expert information. Most people here have zero experience in admissions or counseling. Reddit is a little better because they vet people who get the counselor/admissions tag.

You have access to experts. They aren't anonymous people on message boards.

Disagree.

Lots of expert information is shared on college websites, but readers have to learn to sort through the agendas of some posters.

How does one define "expert information" ?

Expert information is not the same as a set of rules and regulations and absolutes; expert information should guide one how to ask the right questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The college forum here is really toxic and full of misinformation. I'd tread very carefully.

There’s some good information and advice here but also toxicity and outright false statements. Anything important or actionable (such as a deadline) you should verify independently.

And try to stay in touch with real people. This place can warp your brain.

[Anonymous]

CC is great in that they know what dates each college has released ED, EA, RD for decades, so they are accurate for that.

When we were new to the process, I had a kid looking for a D1 sports school, and/but this kid was also a rock star as far as academics, and I didn't think those things could go together. People here recommended Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Michigan, so that's where we started. Also visiting colleges that are small, large, rural, and urban to see whoch each kid prefers wouldn't have occurred to me, but is also a good place to start. That idea came from here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The college forum here is really toxic and full of misinformation. I'd tread very carefully.

LOL ! Most ironic post of the day.

The above poster fears the open sharing of information and opinions. That poster wants to control the information available to others by making false assertions and stirring up fear.

To the drama queen who wrote the above post, what are you afraid of ? That thoughts & ideas that differ from your opinions might be read by others ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The college forum here is really toxic and full of misinformation. I'd tread very carefully.

Agree with this. I’ve seen so many objectively false things here it is kind of shocking.

Your best bet is to ask very specific questions aiming to get one particular piece of information. But it will still probably go off the rails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college forum here is really toxic and full of misinformation. I'd tread very carefully.

LOL ! Most ironic post of the day.

The above poster fears the open sharing of information and opinions. That poster wants to control the information available to others by making false assertions and stirring up fear.

To the drama queen who wrote the above post, what are you afraid of ? That thoughts & ideas that differ from your opinions might be read by others ?

These are the kind of weird, flying-off-the-handle responses to a normal comment that you regularly get around here. Makes the whole place less useful.

[Anonymous]

OP, kind of an aside to your question, do you know about The Common Data Set for colleges? Of all resources, I found that the most essential.

[Anonymous]

Reagan’s maxim: “Trust but verify” applies to any online college forum, including this one.

Even if all posters have good intentions, which is not obvious to me, then some people will make mistakes and many will generalize too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college forum here is really toxic and full of misinformation. I'd tread very carefully.

LOL ! Most ironic post of the day.

The above poster fears the open sharing of information and opinions. That poster wants to control the information available to others by making false assertions and stirring up fear.

To the drama queen who wrote the above post, what are you afraid of ? That thoughts & ideas that differ from your opinions might be read by others ?

These are the kind of weird, flying-off-the-handle responses to a normal comment that you regularly get around here. Makes the whole place less useful.

You mean to make the "whole place less useful" to advance your biased, narrow-minded agenda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, kind of an aside to your question, do you know about The Common Data Set for colleges? Of all resources, I found that the most essential.

+10000. By far the best place for info.