Raising a child means having lots of tough conversations. What no one ever tells you is that the most enraging exchange of all will be: "So, have you picked a college yet?"

• If, like me, you have a high school senior at home, May 1 — the commitment deadline — looms like a slow-motion train wreck, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes.

📚 The big picture: It seems simple: Here's the list. We know the locations, we know the costs, now pick one.

Our college commitment norms assume your child has a rational and orderly worldview at 18.

• In reality, you could have a kid whose primary criteria are:

1. 🛜 Is the Wi-Fi strong enough?
2. 🧱 Are the dorms too brick-y?
3. 🥣 How is the soup in the cafeteria?

Friction point: The soup. The soup is the friction point.

• Our bundle of joy, our firstborn, the heir to our hopes and dreams, wanted us to spend $40,000 a year on the basis of whose chicken noodle is best.

Between the lines: To be fair to the kids, picking a college is a big deal, especially if you're the kind of person whose natural strength is not big choices.

• About 76% of college applicants consider selection a "decisive moment" in their lives, according to a 2023 study from the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
• About 3 in 5 reported feeling overwhelmed.

😩 Yes, but: The colleges carry some blame when it comes to the stress of the process.

• One university that shall remain nameless emailed our son more than 60 times over the course of two months, sometimes as many as four times a day. (He never wanted to go, and didn't get in anyway.)

⏱️ Then there's the wait-list scenario — kiddo wants to go somewhere, but can't quite get in, but hasn't quite been rejected either. Academic limbo.

The bottom line: It's enough to make you weep, and that's before the first bill even comes.

• If you're in the same boat, I feel your pain. Here, have some soup.

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Finish Liner David Moehring graced us with a family vacation photo from Maui earlier this month. David snapped this shot on an iPhone 12 Pro from his family's Airbnb.