<p>I don’t disagree, GMT…but people dream differently, eh? Settling can simply mean settling down: a kid doesn’t achieve the dream but ends up satisfied (and, as you point out) happier where he or she has landed. It can also mean feeling forever unsatisfied that he or she didn’t quite make the ultimate goal–in which case, as DAndrew points out, the local school may actually be better than attending a school that will forever feel “second-rate” to that kid (not saying it IS second rate, but talking teens out of their feelings is a battle I no longer fight…).</p>