An argument could be made that no 17 yr old is capable of making college application decisions realistically, anyway. If you have top 1-2% stats, applying to lots of top schools has become the norm. My DS thought he wanted a top 20 school and applied to several. Ended up at a top LAC and loves it. Realizes now, as we did then, that he is much happier at a small LAC than he ever could’ve been at a top 20 U. But he had to find that out himself.