<p>I’m a kid, not a parent. I never applied to most name-brand schools, largely because I knew I wouldn’t get the merit money I needed to attend, but I’ll be turning down Grinnell (and a few slightly better ranked schools) for Hendrix, which is right around the Tier 1 U.S. News cutoff IIRC. It’s partially because of finances, but it’s also the location, the environment, the people… And to me, getting blank looks from others when mentioning the school name is actually better than the alternative. That way people don’t have preconceptions about “Oh they’re going to XYZ, they must be able to afford ABC and want to go into field DEF”.
(Saying that “it’s a small liberal arts school in Arkansas” tends to restart the conversation. 
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