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The college admissions process continues to produce threads that are among the most active. Yesterday's most active thread, for instance, was titled, "Anyone else thinks the whole college admission process is a total farse?" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster, who presumably meant "farce", assures us that she is not bitter but rather feeling helpless about the college application process which apparently has not gone well for her child. She is most bothered by claims that colleges review applications "holistically" which she does not believe is possible given the huge number of applications that they receive. In her view, colleges are lying to kids. Just about anyone whose child didn't get admitted to their first choice college seems to dislike the current application process. However, there is little agreement about what to do about it. Some posters want to adopt a system like that in Europe in which admissions are primarily based on the results of a single exam. Others propose limiting the number of colleges that can be included on the common application. Many posters are convinced that colleges are intentionally marketing themselves to students who will never be accepted simply to collect the application fees. Other posters attempted to explain how they think the process actually works. If they are correct, which I have no way of knowing, the original poster is essentially correct that the vast majority of applications don't undergo holistic reviews. Some posters argue that if students correctly set their expectations, they will get into one of their targeted colleges. Similarly, posters suggest that college admissions are too often tied to parents desires and egos rather than what is realistic for their children. This causes undo pressure and leads to disappointment.