Day and night the locals chatter. They counsel and console, bicker and rant. Their questions are endless. Though often hopeful, they never stop pounding the drums of worry. This is College Confidential, a vast virtual realm where visitors can find the best and worst of human nature. Here, in moderated discussion forums, people help strangers. They also belittle strangers, question their intelligence, and mock their chosen colleges or alma maters. What began as a college-admissions Web site has become a culture with its own ethos, language, and rituals. Many here share a common faith: Where you go to college shapes, even defines, your very existence. An acceptance from the "right" college is your ticket to a rich and happy life. Woe to the rejected. College Confidential didn't invent the anxiety many Americans associate with applying to college, but, like a mile-high megaphone, it amplifies that anxiety 24 hours a day. Even some of the site's longtime members believe it stokes as many fears as it soothes. And so College Confidential, with its many facets, is also a metaphor for the admissions process, in which families have many choices. To freak out or stay calm. To sweat prestige or not. To crank up the big amplifiers or don the noise-canceling headphones.