College Confidential: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

So I was doing a Google search just now and found a blog post titled "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of College Confidential."  (You can read it here.)

After reading the post, it occurred to me that I too haven't posted in a while on College Confidential.  Which is kind of funny, really; I was addicted to it senior year.  After I got rejected from Wellesley EE, I stopped posting almost entirely.

Anyway, reading Admissions_Daniel's post about College Confidential inspired me to write my own good, bad, and ugly post about CC.  So here it is!

The Good
I will admit it, College Confidential is a great place to meet like minded people.  If you want to connect with people who might be your future classmates, or share your interest in a certain college, or stress together about the ACT (which can actually make it less stressful) then this is your place to go.  It can also be great if you want student's opinions on a college (just remember to take everything with a shovelful of salt, lol).

College Confidential is like the Facebook for stressed out, prospective high school valedictorians who are too busy studying to use Facebook, lol.


The Bad
Let's face it: everyone on College Confidential is a super genius valedictorian.  Those who aren't are lying about it and pretending they are (unless, of course, they wanted to experience the grief I did on a regular basis...please see "The Ugly.")

Everyone takes at least 6 APs throughout high school.  Everyone has at least a 3.6 GPA.  People say things like "OMG I only got a 34 on the ACT and now my life is over."  They also have 500+ hours of volunteer experience, are AP scholars, typically have at least three leadership positions, and are also part of around five different clubs.  Oh yeah, and let's not forget about all that work experience, internships, and ground breaking research they all did.  And the numerous awards.  Did I mention those?

In fact, I'm currently looking at a post right now titled "What's currently your lowest grade?"  People on here are putting things between the B+ and A- range.  Someone is fretting about the 90% he/she is currently making in a class.  Another person is "really worried" about the 94% he/she is currently receiving in history.

Yeah..am I the only one seeing a problem with this?  Seriously, dude, I would kill someone, sell all my possessions, and move to the middle of the desert if it got me 94% in all my classes.

Point is, College Confidential can be a real self-esteem crusher, especially when you realize that you are competing with these people at admission into a top college.  This leads me to...


The Ugly
Did I say College Confidential can crush your self-esteem?  Well, that's definitely the understatement of the year.  Because you see, if you have anything less than a 3.6 UW GPA on College Confidential, YOU ARE AN IDIOT.  You probably have a learning disability.  It will be a complete miracle if you get accepted at any college.  And yes, people will actually tell you these things.

I am serious, on College Confidential people can be stuck up to just plain insulting.  And these people are definitely the majority.  Sometimes you honestly wonder if some of these people are just trying to crush their competition.

My God, you would be shocked to know the kind of comments I got on things.  People would call me an idiot for even trying for some of my colleges.  One person said that due to the lack of my AP classes I lacked motivation and was afraid of hard work (which I found incredibly insulting; I may not have taken 5 APs each semester, but I typically spent at least 10-12 hours studying and doing homework every freaking day.)

Are you aware that there was once an entire thread on how stupid "college prep" kids were?  I believe the OP said something like, "I know this sounds mean, but don't you think the kids at your school who take only college prep courses are kind of stupid?"  Seriously, there was an entire thread about this.  I think one or two people may have disagreed with the OP, but the overwhelming majority agreed with him.  I'm unaware if this thread still exists, but even if it doesn't I can almost guarantee that you could find something incredibly similar.

In conclusion, there is an overwhelming amount of stuck-up snobs who would like nothing more than to insult you nonstop if you give them the chance.

In all due fairness, I sometimes wonder if the people on CC are really as smart as they say.  Trust me, if I had known the grief people would give me for my test scores and GPA, I never would have admitted to them.  This leads me to wonder if people are actually "in the closet" when it comes to academics, resorting to lying about their GPA and test scores to avoid being picked on.