<p>There’s a big difference among “turning down Ivies”, which thousands of people do every year, turning down Harvard, which no more than 300 students did this year, and turning down all of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, which maybe a dozen or two people do, mostly to go to MIT or Stanford.</p>
<p>Sure, lots of people “turn down” those schools by not applying in the first place. But the notion that lots of people are turning down actual acceptances to go to Calvin College, BYU, Vanderbilt, or anywhere else besides a handful of schools, is pure folklore, The numbers don’t work. I’m sure it happens sometimes, but not in any kind of steady stream.</p>
<p>I’ve known kids who turned down Harvard for Indiana, Northwestern, and Deep Springs (and of course Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Penn). Each of them had really good reasons, much stronger than liking Division I sports. For instance, the kid who chose Indiana went into their dance conservatory, which he left after one year to turn pro with a top company. I’m sure there are some kids who choose religious colleges over Harvard, although I suspect most of the people who make that choice don’t apply to Harvard in the first place. But we can’t be talking about as many as dozens of kids each year, because the numbers aren’t there.</p>