<p>D1 had two friends whose parents immigrated here, in one case before one friend was born and in the second case when the friend was four years old. ALL the parents cared about was HYPSM. These girls spent a lot of time at my house, so I felt like I got to know them well. They would have been perfectly happy with different colleges, but the parents wouldn’t hear of it. I remember D1 mentioning that she was applying to Northwestern, and one girl responded that her parents would never let her go there.</p>
<p>The two friends are now attending HYPSM schools. Are they happy? Their parents don’t know or seem to care, but it was clear from the get-go that they would never accept anything less. I shudder to think of what would have happened if the girls hadn’t been accepted to at least one HYPSM school.</p>
<p>Of course, one of the girls had a physically abusive father, but that is a story for a different thread.</p>