I’ve been fascinated for a few years now by the popular exercise on College Confidential when a person says “Chance Me?” They give their test scores, GPA, classes they’ve taken, and extra-curricular activities, and then ask the other users to estimate their chances of getting into a particular school or list of schools.
What are your chances of getting into your top college?
I’m tempted to explain that it doesn’t work that way. Nobody can quantify your “chances” of getting accepted to any particular university, least of all strangers on the internet who are mostly high school students like yourself. But I assume almost all the people asking for their chances understand that. Playing the “chance me” game isn’t rational, and it isn’t meant to be an accurate gauge of the probability of an acceptance. Instead, I believe most people do it to get validation, or to calm their fears, or to have an outsider bring them to more realistic expectations for themselves. It’s emotional, not rational. It’s a way to deal with your anxiety over college admissions.