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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Reagan’s maxim: “Trust but verify” applies to any online college forum, including this one.  [/quote]

This is my MO when using any message boards. This thread has also provided a good example of the, imo, nonsense that goes on in any given thread in this forum - but that doesn’t mean there isn’t good intel to be gleaned, you just have to pick for it.

- The Common Data Set (CDS) fo any particular school can be found by googling the school’s name and the words “common data set”. For example, University of Michigan common data set.its a boring looking document full of info on application numbers, in vs out of state, male vs female, testing and GPA data, retention numbers, what parts of an application matter most to a school, ED data (sometimes), etc. I learned abut that here.

- I learned hear to have your DC apply to a rolling school early to get a hopeful acceptance under their belt - it can help reduce the stress going forward

- I learned that there are general rules for applying, but always exceptions.The kicker is that no one can truly tell you if your kid will be the exception so it’s a gamble (and imo this leads to a lot of topic arguments - one poster calling another a liar/spreading misinformation because their kid got into UVA with 2 years of foreign language, when the general recommendation is 4 years with the AP.)

- As someone mentioned College Confidential (CC) is great with dates and historical info on when decisions were released in previous years, etc.

- The application landscape can change from year to year and message boards can help you keep an eye on larger trends. Which might not ultimately matter your your kid, but for example, in our family my next kid wants the SEC big school experience, and I’ve learned schools that we might have considered safeties are deferring and WL kids they would have accepted a couple of years ago, so my DC needs to apply more broadly.

- I learned that the kids in your child’s class are their first comparison point when an application is reviewed. This helps explain why the stats for admission to a school like UVA or Tech are higher for kids from NoVa than in a more rural part of VA. This is one place where the CDS might not give you the full picture.

I’m sure there’s more but this is of the top of my head. [/quote]

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