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May I have everyone's attention again for more college admissions advice?

This one is titled, the internet tips and college admissions. As I have said previously, I will be making a blog for this. During the college admissions process I was often looking around on collegeboard and other sites for ideas on what schools I should apply to. I asked on this site as well as on other sites, mainly college confidential (which I regret). Now as a student if I had listened to people on those sites I would not have bothered to apply to MIT (accepted), Harvard (accepted), Yale (rejected), Cornell (accepted) or Columbia (accepted). I would have just stuck to applying to local universities and state universities. Now what did that process show me? 1. People on this site as well as other sites (especially college confidential) are heavily pessimistic. 2. Pick wisely. 3. Value advice of your guidance counselor and teachers over that of internet "experts". 4. The only accurate source you have are the college sites themselves and collegeboard (if you meet the SAT range and the class rank/gpa range, apply!). Now in searching on the internet a small minority actually gave me some pretty good advice for college admissions. They told me about the subject tests I should take when applying for MIT and how I should prepare myself the first semester of my senior year. A large majority told me, "you have no chance", "a 3.8 is too low for Harvard", "a 2340 is just an average SAT score" and etc. I was faced with one decision, apply to my dream schools and listen to the advice of the people who know me or listen to these so called "experts" and just stick to schools "in my league". I listened to the people who knew me in real life and here I am, a student enrolled in Cornell University (was the most affordable for my family and I). I went on college confidential and the advice given there was a lot more pessimistic (if you can, then please avoid that site). I gave the answerers on here some weight because the ones who told me I couldn't make it in were top contributors on this section (back when I thought the badge was hard to get). You don't have to listen to me (please ignore my advice if you want to) but listen to the people who know you better than some "experts" on the internet. Listen to yourself, do you want to go to Harvard? Do you want to go to Princeton? Do you want to go to Stanford? Because if you do then I will tell you this, there is only one difference between people who are at Stanford and people who are not, the ones who are at Stanford actually applied (although a lot were rejected but at least they applied). The type of college tips you should listen to are those that tell you what you should do to improve your resume (of course finding a cure for aids is not necessary). This piece of advice is for those who are debating whether or not they should apply to a top college. My tip for them? If your reason for not applying is because people on the internet think you won't make it in, then good luck in life because you won't be getting far. Ask yourself why you want to go to a top university (a good reason to go to MIT would be because they have a well respected engineering program and offer opportunities for the top students, opportunities not available in a lot of universities. A bad reason would be so you can brag to your friends about it.). If you want to go to a top university, even if you are not in the top 5 percent of your class and even if you do not have a 2300+ SAT score, apply, what do you have to lose except for the application fee? STAR IF YOU LIKED. You are free to debate this with me, and please do. first answerer, thats not what what I exactly said

Public Comments

1. Of course you shouldn't listen to people on the Internet. If you're applying to college, you should be intelligent enough to realize that the majority of people on the Internet don't definitively know anything.
2. Well here's my situation: I'm actually a senior in high school right now who's still finishing up college apps (I didn't apply ED to anywhere, btw). I already applied to all of my target schools and safeties, so now I have 3 reach schools to take care of : Cornell, Brown, and Northwestern. With less than stellar grades (a couple of Bs, a C+ and a C) and only a 2130 on the SAT, I'm pretty damn sure that I won't get in to any of these schools. I have decent extracurriculars and 100 hours of volunteering. Please correct me if you think I'm wrong *Plus, I don't want to waste my winter break applying to colleges that I'll get rejected from anyways...