I’m a rising senior who’s looking at selective colleges including Ivies. I have a list of reach, match, and safety schools. When people ask, “Where do you want to go to college?”, I get nervous because my dream school is Harvard, but so few get in, so I try to dodge the question by saying somewhere in the northeast. My peers know exactly where they will attend college because acceptance is basically guaranteed, but I have to worry about acceptance. What do you reply with?
“I am applying to a number of colleges in the northeast and I think I will be happy to attend any of them. I will decide where once I know where I am accepted.” In your own words of course.
" I’m applying to a few because I don’t have a favorite yet and financial aid will factor into my decision "
" I’m applying to “State flagship” and a few others, what about you?"
I used the “I’m not quite sure. Still waffling around” up until May 1st. It made me look indecisive so most people didn’t pry further
We did a round of visits after the acceptances came in (around about 6 months ago). Thus until she decided on one I don’t think my daughter could have answered this any way other than “applying to multiple universities and still deciding”.
I used to just say “I don’t know yet”
Or if the question was where did you apply, I said “a bunch of places”
People usually took the hint and either went silent or laughed it off… I’m not much of a small talker though.
Or you can describe the type of school…“A medium size engineering school” “Looking at some state schools that are strong in Math… I love that big school spirit”…“Open to ideas, but right now am looking at LACs in the North East”
Also you can tailor it to who you are talking to…to your peers it may be better to be vague so they don’t get “mad” at you for applying to the same place… but to others who you may feel have good input you could say “Harvard is my reach school, but I am also looking at BC and Colgate…do you have any othe r thoughts?”
Let me start with my perspective as a high school teacher.
When I ask that question, I really am not looking for a definitive answer. The typical answer is “I’m looking at Marist and Stony Brook.” or something of that sort.
The answer they don’t always say, but that I know is in there is “But it depends on the numbers.”
The follow up is typically “Do you have any idea of a major?” And the answers range from “Nope, not a clue.” to “Yes, I want to major in ___”
OP, in your shoes I would answer “Well I would love to get into Harvard, but I would be thrilled with Columbia or NYU.”
And here’s a little secret: No one will remember your response. We ask seniors because it’s interesting to hear how wide a variety of aspirations our kids have, not because we remember who is applying where.