<p>To me, the takeaway from this for a parent is that you must encourage your child to apply to a range of schools, and to seriously identify reach, match, and safety schools that he or she will be happy to attend. Then, you as a parent must talk up ALL of those schools. You cannot link your future happiness to any particular school, or to the top tier of schools. You also have to tune out people with out-of-date ideas about what it takes to get into selective schools: please, please ignore anybody who tells you that you will get in anywhere, no matter how perfect your grades and scores are. If you approach the process realistically, with your eyes open, you can reduce (although not eliminate) the disappointment if you don’t get into some schools.</p>