Nothing wrong with Santa Clara 
That is truly sad that your fa and inlaws get to have a vote about where your child chooses to attend school, especially with such inaccurate information/perceptions.
That statement will go over well in this forum.
And Berkeley is not in a bad neighborhood. It was charming to walk around there.
Re: #261: Agreed. The even more hilarious aspect is that âLACâ is really a marketing term. Richmond and Wesleyan call themselves LACs and Dartmouth isnât considered one any more. Yet Dartmouth is only slightly bigger. Dartmouth has a med school, b-school, and engineering school, but Richmond has a law and b-school (open to undergrads, even). Both Dartmouth and Wesleyan offer PhDs in a limited number of areas. All 3 are undergrad-focused. None of them are research powerhouses.
Yet the perceptions of some people who will likely have no impact on your childâs career get to dictate which of those she applies to.
Also agree on Berkeley. Donât know what the OP is talking about there.
Not to mention that if you think UCB is in a bad neighborhood, why is it on the list. You can send her there to college, but not visit? Donât answer.
As long as Top Dog is still there across from campus Berkeley is a âfitâ for me even though I might not stay fit.
Of course, if you ask some old time UChicago people, theyâd consider all the Ivies to be either a trade school or finishing school* 
- To be fair, they didn't restrict it to the Ivies; almost every other college besides the U of C was a trade school or finishing school to them.
My kids disagree. I did not mind it, but of all the schools they looked at, Berkeley was the one that stood out as the worst.
Why would a LAC be a battle YOU have to pick? Iâm seeing a lot of âI thisâ and âI thatâ, no âshe thisâ and âshe thatâ.
Will your D have a say in this or are you planing to choose the school for her, with the advice of your older family members?
@californiaaa So whatâs the current list, if you donât mind me asking? I went back and found your working list of top 20 choices from 2014. I cut and pasted, hopefully no errors. I would imagine that your thinking has changed somewhat over two years.
Yes: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia University, Stanford, U of Chicago, MIT, Cal Institute of Technology, Dartmouth, UC-B, UCLA, UCSD, UC-Davis, U TX, U Washington, and Brigham Young.
Maybe: Penn, Rice, Emory
No: Duke, Brown, JHU, Northwestern, WUSTL, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Georgetown
From what you said there and here, I gather that you donât care for places where political correctness is oppressive and you donât like sketchy urban neighborhoods. Have those factors been enough to eliminate any of these from the list? Have you added others? The opening post suggested twenty schools plus the UCs as the maximum. FWIW, that sounds like too much to me.
BTW, I would be very unhappy if my father or in-laws had that much influence on my kidâs college choices, especially if their preferences are based on inaccurate information. Your battle to fight, not mine. But I would find it frustrating.
What does your daughter say? Has she had time to do any research to narrow the field?
"The plan is:
- All 9 UC campuses (she is guaranteed by law to have a space in a UC campus, due to her grades/ACT). Luckily, one UC application covers all nine campuses.
- Up to 20 common application colleges (as much as she would be able to do).
- England: Cambridge (not likely) + London School of Econ + University of St Andrews
- Canada: McGill University + University of Toronto"
Better rethink Yale. Lots of folks donât like the neighborhood around it. Same may still apply for Penn.
Oakland is an acquired taste.
@californiaaa: why do your parents and inlaws have any say in where your daughter goes to school?
Are they paying for it?
In particular since their perceptions are so totally wrong (many of these were reserved to boys of the American elite, what would have been closest to an Aristocracy if the US had had one, cf. Comment on Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and the Mainline.) Thereâs a reason some are called " Little Ivies ": like Ivy, but smaller in size⊠And generally leading to Big Ivy grad school.
If your daughter wants to apply to Wellesley, Williams, or Amherst - all of which are in pleasant, non gritty areas, why wouldnât she?
Seriously, take your father along when you all go visit Harvey Mudd, Pomona, and McKenna as an example. Those should promptly disabuse him about the âfinishing schoolâ idea.
@MYOS1634, Berkeley isnât Oakland.
@zinhead,
What schools did your kids compare to Cal? I enjoyed waling around all the shops between the south side of campus and RockRidge, and running on the running trails up in the hills. It wasnât Rodeo Drive, but it wasnât some skeezy, unsafe area.
Parts of Oakland are beautiful.
My brother used to wear a Yale judo tshirt with his hands in a karate chop position when he walked around New Haven. He wasnât on the team- he just got someone to get him a shirt.
Not just Yale and Penn. Though Hyde Park is better now, UChicago isnât exactly in the best neighborhood either.
BYU, however, should be safe so long as your D doesnât get drunk.
I agree the areas around Yale are worse than around ucb and the town Trinity CT is in is scary. However, the campuses are safe.
Have they cleaned up Worcester, MA yet?