What bothers me is that we never discuss the affirmative action that is very clearly happening for men in college admissions.
What grinds my gears is how expensive everything is!! I have to pay for an application fee, then pay for tests that are required, then pay to SEND those same test scores, then pay for art supplements, and then pay to send FINANCIAL AID information (God forbid the schools ask for CSS or IDOC). The worst part is that it’s not even guaranteed that you’ll be accepted!! Thank goodness I had fee waivers for most of these things, but it’s astonishing how much money the college admissions process drains from your pockets before you even step on campus!
The amount of junk mail is frustrating too. Some of the schools are not even schools that would accept me. Harvard sent me mail AT LEAST once a month. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t for my not-so-impressive SAT score either (I had a 1870).
The whole “holistic process” BS bothers me the most. I’ll admit that I’m a bit bitter being rejected from a certain school that believed in this process, but can you blame me? They say to not take rejections personally or resent your high school experience, but it’s a bit hard coming from a school that looks for “unique kids” or “something different”. They’re pretty much saying that they “holistically” decided that I wasn’t good enough for their school.
end of rant.
Whining about specific admissions criteria used by certain institutions by the applicants (and their parents) who are so desperate to attend those schools.
Don’t play the game if you don’t like the rules.
I really hate the top 7% or top 10% rule. You cannot compare a high school that has an easy curriculum to a high school that has a rigorous standard in a large area. As a result, none of my sons will get into our two large universities (most likely) even though they all have a 3.5 or better unweighted and pretty good scores.
@woodlandsmom You can still get into A&M if you’re top quarter and have a pretty low sat.
good to know. they told my older son he had to go to A&M corpus and transfer and he got an academic scholarship from OSU. He is happy at OSU so it worked out. But, it still bugs me. 
I’m just about to go into my Junior year, and its really terrible. I think what I hate the most is this idea of “passion” like others said. How am I supposed to know what I’m passionate about without trying a million other things first? And then theres the SAT/ACT, which is even added pressure to maintaining that 4.0 junior year. Then subject tests and AP’s, all happening during junior year.
Also, on the topic of race. Its really frustrating to me that people do not understand how my race (black) has held me back up until now. People assume I’m dumber, think that I am incapable of doing xyz, and then claim that the hair that grows out of our head is unprofessional. While I get a slight advantage in admissions, that is it. The rest of my life, I will make less money (statistically), more likely to get arrested (statistically), and more likely to be victims of police brutality while my muderers go away unscathed (statistically).
The fact that it can cost upwards of several hundred dollars to apply to a few schools. Also why should people pay to send an application for financial aid (CSS)? The college process is expensive, and there is no guarantee you get into the schools you dumped all this money on.
I try not to get “ridiculously angry” about anything, however, I am annoyed that the cost of books is so high that I really want to consider it a separate category when comparing costs: tuition, room & board, AND books. Some kids scrape together the money for tuition and housing & the minimum meal plan, but end up dropping out because they can’t afford the books.
And whose bright idea was it to market Calculus 1, 8th edition, by author x for (insert specific university here) instead of Calculus 1, 8th edition, by author x? The cost of used books printed for a specific university isn’t that much different than the cost of the new ones. 
People who think “hard work” is the same thing as “merit.”
@austinmshauri you can find pdf versinos of books on online…sometimes for free.
Thank you, @paul2752. I’ll look into that.
You’re welcome.
In fact, I paid zero for books on last semester.
I hate how schools use the Common App, which is designed to save us time and effort by streamlining the process and minimizing the amount of essay writing we have to do, and then they all assign supplemental prompts so we end up doing as many essays as we would have without the Common App.
I hate that colleges say they use holistic review on the applications, but it does not feel that way at all
I HATE everything associated with college and you know what I might just retire after high school
Then why are you here?
Where is your sense of humor
I also really hate that all the “Chance Me” threads clog up my search results when I’m looking for real info about Yale or Stanford or any other Elite school…
I’m angry and sad at how much the whole process has changed since the 1980’s. It is so incredibly competitive and there is so much pressure on kids now. I never once thought about my college application until senior year. I had done my work, got decent grades, took the ACT once. I decided where I wanted to go, applied and got in to UW Madison. Done.
I can’t even tell you how many times I have said the words to my son, “but this will look good on your college application”.