http://www.wsj.com/articles/college-applications-parental-exasperations-1444257715
Blocked by the paywall 
Not working even after signing into my account…sorry but it is a very good opinion piece.
I saw it by searching the headline on Bing and one of the links brought up the entire article.
I found it by googling the article as well.
Yes, “the-mainboard” dot com link. I searched “college applications parental exasperations wsj article”.
If our youngest applies to any east coast colleges, it will be without visiting them. He’s adaptable enough to survive. To our kids, the idea of fit just means no places with 100 degree weather. His test prep was the one PSAT sample test they gave out when he signed up.
Ah, a new variant on the everything-was-better-in-the-old-days genre! Always makes for an enjoyable read, it does.
I mean, really—I’m presumably in more or less the same demographic as the writer (a bit younger, but not by much, and also a college professor with a child going through the college search and application process), and his recollection of the past, while it may be accurate for him, is certainly not generalizable to even me, let along the wider population. (And most of what follows isn’t just from deep memory, but because my parents for some reason made copies of all of my college applications back in the 80s, and so I actually saw them recently-ish, when they were prepping their house for sale a couple years ago.)
So, point by point:
First of all, he may not have gone on any college tours, but I went on several.
Second, the college essay isn’t new. When I applied to colleges (in the 80s, recall), every application (even to my safety, a since-much-improved state school) had at least one essay required, and at least one of them required three.
Third, SAT/ACT coaching isn’t new. I didn’t take any (but then again, neither did my daughter, who did better on them herself a couple years ago than I did on mine), but kids in the private school down the road? Yep, lots of them—and a handful of kids from my generally-low-performing public school had their parents pay a decent-sized fee to take SAT prep classes there back in the 80s.
Fourth, he brings up financial aid forms. I kind of agree, but it’s still better than back in the day, when absolutely. every. single. school had different forms, many of them way more complicated than anything required these days.
And his fifth item is an offhand criticism of the USNWR rankings. Well, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.
@dfbdfb - I had a process in the mid 80’s that is very similar to what is the norm now (on CC anyway). Essays, recs, reach-match-safety list, visits (to most of my schools), interviews, all of it.
The main difference was the hand writing of everything, that was a huge pain and I had to watch my writing too so it was readable. Even on copy #6 of the same essay.
I didn’t really study for the SAT beyond maybe using a book. My D didn’t take any classes either, though and she graduated this year.