Turning down the Ivy Leagues for....

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Well, that’s not terribly accurate, simply because it’s highly doubtful there’s 10,514 additional Ivy admits to begin with. There is, of course, a significant difference between the number of acceptances at the Ivies and the number of accepted students. </p>

<p>For example, let’s hypothesize that one of every two Ivy admits was admitted to at least two Ivies. That drops the number down to 16,298 students. Subtracting the 13,933 matriculating students leaves only 2365 Ivy admits to be squabbled over by Stanford, MIT, and other top schools. </p>

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My thoughts exactly. Architecture is, like music, an extremely time-intensive major. The OP might want to consider majoring in another field (art history? visual arts?) and then getting his/her MArch.</p>

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Are you completely sure? Have you run a calculator? Harvard, for example, gives financial aid even to families making more than $150K a year.</p>

<p>[Princeton</a> University | Princeton Financial Aid Estimator](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/estimator/]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/estimator/)
[Net</a> Price Calculator](<a href=“http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k51861&pageid=icb.page244010]Net”>http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k51861&pageid=icb.page244010)</p>

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The UCs are having severe financial difficulties, yes. The UC I attend is not nearly as wealthy as the Ivies or comparable schools, and in many ways it shows. I would imagine Berkeley would be similar, though I have no firsthand experience. </p>

<p>On the other hand, you can avoid the major hassle – athletes typically get first shot at course registration.</p>

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I think this is very sensible advice.</p>

<p>The OP has wanted to get out of the Bay area, and it’s good for someone to stretch themselves a bit in college. (A VA resident might well choose Berkeley for the same reason.)</p>