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It continues to be college admission season which means that threads about college admissions continue to dominate the "most active threads" list. Yesterday's most active thread was one example. Titled, "UVA EA Stats" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum, the original post consists almost entirely of a link to a blog post by a University of Virginia Associate Dean which provides University of Virginia Early Action admission statistics. The one consistent characteristic of college application threads is the conviction by posters that the procedures are unfair and biased against them. In this case, posters are convinced that northern Virginia is not sufficiently represented in UVA admissions which, they believe, favor applicants from other parts of Virginia. This highlights one of the great contradictions I've come across from reading DCUM. Starting at an early age, many DCUM posters begin plotting their child's course to a prestigious college. If they plan on using public schools, they choose a neighborhood that feeds to top schools, follow school developments like a bloodhound on a raccoon's trail, make sure their kids check all the right boxes for extracurricular activities and take all the correct high school classes. But, then, come college application time they suddenly become convinced that this is all working against them. They come to believe that every other kid in their high-achieving high school, indeed every kid in every high school in the neighboring area, has the same qualifications as their kid. Moreover, just as in the case of Lake Wobegon, all of them are above average. Far above average to hear them tell it. The idea that some of these students, particularly if that student is the poster's child, might be turned down for admission while an applicant from rural southwestern Virginia is accepted simply cannot be countenanced. As such, this thread mostly consists of posters arguing that northern Virginia is being mistreated, other posters trying to convince those posters this is not the case, and a third group of posters who can't pop popcorn fast enough while they intentionally stir the pot or simply stand back and enjoy the show. This basically continues for 15 pages so far.