This blog is overrated.

Now that I can finally get to all the non-A2-related blogging I’ve been meaning to do for a while, it’s about time to tackle this New York Times piece about the stress of college admissions. I’ve written before about the idea that the college admissions process is exceptionally competitive, discouraging and unfair, and this story is pretty much the same as the ones they were running six years ago. One concerned education lecturer frets, “some of these kids have had college on the brain since sixth or seventh grade or even earlier. When you have that kind of stress over that kind of time, that’s where it starts to worry us.” Sure, if “stress” = “profoundly comforting knowledge that there is something beyond high school.”

Don’t forget — students trying to get into college are overworked and unnecessarily traumatized by an unforgiving system. Students already in college are entitled, pampered brats.

The best part is the breathless lede, though:

As the frenzied admissions season winds to a close, many students finally know where they will be attending college in the fall.

But there remains a troubling question: how much damage was done along the way?

You might be forgiven for thinking that the only sources of stress in high school are academic in nature. But I would probably start a story about high school trauma more like this:

As the frenzied school year winds to a close, many students finally know who made the football team, which girls are total sluts and how to fit a nerd easily in a standard locker.

BUT HOW MUCH DAMAGE WAS DONE ALONG THE WAY?