Visiting the parents’ alma mater (Harvard) made both my kids convinced they didn’t want to go there. We used to joke for the oldest that he’d probably enjoy that school down the river more. As a computer nerd we ran into stuff coming out of Media Lab while he was still in elementary school - I think it was on his radar starting in middle school He didn’t get in. Carnegie Mellon, where he ended up, wasn’t on his radar until he was a senior.