Some parents are intent on turning the college admissions process into a stressful status competition, the success or failure of which will be measured by the relative prestige of the schools that say yes. For them, this isn’t an exciting time to be enjoyed. It’s an anxious academic arms race to be survived. I don’t like that approach, but if it worked, I’d tell people to do it. If those parents’ kids had more college options, got more financial aid, ended up happier, more successful, richer, better looking or with healthier kids of their own one day, I’d tell them to suck it up and inject some anxiety into the process. But they don’t. They just enjoy this time a lot less.
Seems to me you might as well keep the fun in.