Students' last years in high school which otherwise might be ones in which they enjoy the privileges of their seniority can become a nightmare of waiting, fear of rejection, despair, and desperation for many college-bound students. The whole structure of college admissions is hopelessly archaic, exorbitantly wasteful and one which systematically demoralizes the successive classes of students who must scuttle through its awesome gauntlet on their way to their adult destinies. Reform is long overdue. The motive of charging what the market will bear guides university and college administrators just as much as it does their corportate counterparts. Other countries have central admissions procedures in which students and colleges are matched by interest and ability. College admissions procedures in the United States have very low cost-effectiveness due to the fact that only a fraction of the pool is qualified and only a fraction of the qualified are interested in enrolling. Freedom from control more than any other factor insures the supposed superiority of private education over other kinds. The College Board and its test development subcontractor, Educational Testing Service, are powerful, prestigious, and wealthy organizations that support policies that tighten their dominance and reinforce their job security. Private, elite colleges, the federal government, and parents are unlikely to take the lead in organizing centralized admissions. School counselors are beginning to complain about the evils of the current admissions procedures. They are organizing to see that students' needs for more practical application arrangements are better served. (ABL)