GroshLink

One of the grad students involved w/GCF forwarded College Admission Angst Finds a Forum on Web. I have to agree w/her thoughts Found this one to be entertaining, if a bit overdramatic. Teenage life is all about the angst and drama - college applications is just one outlet. And if it's overemphasized, well that's on the shoulders of the parents more than the kids themselves, in my opinion. Here's a selection,

On Web sites like lunch-money.com, gradschoolforum.com and studentdoctor.net, among many others, participants are Web-casting love songs to admissions committees, describing lucky meals to eat before the mail arrives, comparing SAT scores, typing through tears of rejection and rating the best and worst notification letters. Stanford was nominated for cruelest rejection. Rutgers got a mention for "best acceptance" because its letter came in a "really expensive-looking black folder."

Certainly, there is inherent drama in the story of admissions. The narrative arc can stretch for months like a good soap opera in some cases, from the time in early fall when students decide where to apply, through SAT's, Medical School Admissions Test, transcripts lost and found, class rank ascending and descending -- to the nail-biting, double tick-tock countdowns of application deadlines and the notification period, which is in the spring. And the public can listen in on the kind of conversations that used to be shared only between friends, with college counselors -- or with the colleges themselves.

Some writers make entirely unveiled cries for help, like this message posted on Tuesday on collegeconfidential: "I totally feel like I am a failure and I have failed my parents as a son ... o be honest, I feel like committing suicide."

P.S. Beware of what you learn on a blog :-)