LOL! My D graduated from RIT and everyone thought it is was U of Rochester!!
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All the time. Coworker asked where S23 is going and when I said he’s following in his sibling’s footsteps and going to Penn, the response was “Oh! Penn State is getting all of your money!” Smile and nod.
Hehe. I graduated from a fully accredited engineering/management school that was owned by and named for an automotive company. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to smile and nod when people assume I went to a trade school.
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I went to the University of Pennsylvania in the 90s and there was a store on campus selling very popular “Not Penn State” shirts.
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Now known as Kettering, aka the West Point of automotive engineering?
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I nod and smile whenever fellow parents talk about the colleges they are visiting/applying to. Our high school only reports weighted GPA’s, and those are on a 5.5 scale, with a full extra point given for many classes (not just separate honors and AP). This leads to parents thinking their kid is going to be admitted everywhere because their GPA is 4.7 when in reality, 25% of students have higher than 4.5. They do work very hard—I don’t mean to downplay that. But it’s hard to grasp the sheer size of our country, vs the reality of low acceptance rates. I think they should report rejection rates instead.
I’m glad I found CC before we started the college journey with our kids. I found great advice about “Average excellent” students, “love your safety,” and don’t visit your dream schools first.
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Bingo!
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We had a friend who felt the same way about Wisconsin Madison.
The confusion about admittance rates is one I see a lot, e.g. if a school has a 15-20% admittance rate, they think that because their kid is in the top 15-20% of their class, they’ll get in.
Or the classic error: if I apply to five schools that have a 20% admittance rate, then I’ll get into one of them because 5x20=100%
Or they’ll apply to 7-8 schools with a 20% admittance rate because then it’s guaranteed you’ll get into one (or more!), because 8x20=160% 
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Ouch.
Some of this logic applies for top kids applying to top schools. Because correlations amongst outcomes are less than 100%.
My standard recc for a Val at a strong school is to apply to 20 schools.
I don’t think the logic applies when applying to LACs though – they need to be shown individual love, and often an ED is required.
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How about those who say (and I’ve seen a few people post this here on CC as well)… that you have a 50% chance - either you get in or you don’t. 
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Is that why people buy lottery tickets, they think they have a 50% chance of winning? I smile and nod a lot when people tell me they play the lottery because if you don’t play you can’t win.
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LOL 
May be.
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After my sister earned her masters from the University of Chicago she went to interview for jobs in Silicon Valley. One manager asked her if UofC was part of the Illinois public system like Urbana-Champaign. He knew all about Cal Chico, but he did not know about one of the premier research universities in the country.
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I might add that it is a school where many of the senior leaders at GM, starting with the CEO, earned their undergraduate engineering degrees.
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We live in MI, so last year my son - like any good Michigander - applied to UofM, among others. How can you not apply to a top 10 engineering program when it is your state flagship? My Spartan wife and I, however, were secretly relieved that he did not like it after visiting the campus.
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It is just an ocean :-). If you have a choice …
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This is not directly college related, but now that D19 is a college senior, I get questions about what she will do next. She has been interested in nursing since two in-patient stays in the hospital in 8th grade. We have good family friends who are nurses, who she has spoken with at length. She loved getting her wilderness first responder and EMT, and she did a medical trip abroad and a study abroad in public health.
She has other reasons, such as her chronic migraines, wanting to marry and have children before 35, and wanting to stay home with babies. She likes the flexibility and variety available in nursing, and thinks she may want to work in clinical trials or become an NP.
Anyway, her dad is an MD/PhD, and D19 is an average excellent student. So, when people ask what she is doing next, and I say nursing school, they almost invariably ask:
“Why not medical school?”
If I’m talking to a good friend, or my dad (yes, my dad has asked this more than once), I will try to explain. But for most people, I look a bit confused and patiently say:
“Because she doesn’t want to be a doctor.”
This usually ends the conversation. If I try to explain, people tend to argue with me, which requires smiling and nodding😉.
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Ugh, that brings back memories. I always wanted to be a nurse. Unfortunately, everyone outside my family thought I should be a doctor, instead. I did not want to be a doctor, but I got so much pressure. I didn’t do either. It’s hard to smile and nod when you are a teenager who lacks self confidence.