I think posting scores...especially scores closer to 400 are beneficial to the entire community. It raises our standards and shows others that a 380, 390, 400 is possible. Just for comparison the DAT is very similar to the OAT. OAT has physics instead of the Perceptual Ability in the DAT. Otherwise they are identical. The difference is how its scored. For example an OAT score of 380 is equivalent to a DAT score of 20-21. A DAT score of 26-30 are indistinguishable in the OAT score system. This shows that the standards in the DAT are much higher than the OAT...
But yes its annoying when people post a 3.5+ gpa with a 350+ OAT and ask "will I get in??", "what are my chances?", etc. This is just dumb.
I completely agree with the bold statement. Whether we choose to admit it or not, we ARE competing with each other for the same spots. Seeing people post scores that are higher than what you were "planning" on shooting for raises the bar (or at least it should, to some extent).
When people post scores asking about their chances, none of us REALLY have any idea whether they'll be accepted somewhere or not, we assess it based on our ideas of what we think is acceptable to the admissions committees. For me, these ideas are based on the average scores provided by the schools, AND loosely off of the other scores I see posted here. Obviously, it's not a fair representation because not everyone posts scores, but seeing a lot of really high scores pushed me to study hard and make sure I wasn't going to fall behind.
When people post scores that are above whatever score YOU ("you" being whoever is reading, not someone in particular) got, asking what their chances are it is annoying because it makes you second guess your own scores. The whole application process is a continual self evaluation/re-evaluation process, and that's just something that we all have to deal with.
Until we see those acceptance letters, I think the majority of the people here are going to be nervous about where they stand, even those people who most of us think won't have problems. And for those people who
aren't nervous at all, but still post their amazing scores asking "what are my chances?"... well clearly they've got their own set of issues they need to work out for themselves.
