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Still, when the five student editors-in-chief of The Campanile opted to nix the big map showing where their classmates at Palo Alto High School were headed off to college, they had more than an inkling people would pay attention.

They knew other members of their wealthy, traditionally high-achieving community in the heart of Silicon Valley were anticipating the school newspaper’s annual map issue, as The Mercury News reported. They had seen the widespread coverage of the vast college admissions scandal, which had touched both “Paly,” as the school is known, and nearby Stanford University.

“This was the right time to take a stand,” said Leyton Ho, one of the student editors.

The map, the editors said, celebrates a specific kind of post-high-school path: A super competitive four-year college.

But as the admissions scandal laid bare, it’s a myth that with enough hard work, that path is accessible to everyone. And even if it were, it’s a myth that it’s always the best route.

Nevertheless, Waverly Long, another editor, said the map loomed over the college application process like a kind of biblical text. And although the competition wasn’t always explicit, she said, it was there.

“My friends were even pulling up past versions of the map, looking at where people went to school and talking about where they got in,” she said, recalling one coffee shop session. “Seeing the sort of conversations that the map encourages firsthand definitely had a role in me wanting to get rid of it.”

Other Campanile staff members told me that while they understood the reasoning, they were disappointed to hear that they’d miss out on what felt like a rite of passage.