<p>Okay, so that other thread about parents not wanting their kids to go to certain schools needs to be counterbalanced. What are the schools your parents are pushing you towards and why?</p>
<p>I'll start:
My mom wants me to go to Princeton, because she's convinced I'm the second coming of Da Vinci (in terms of intelligence) and because it's close to home, even closer to her work, and it really is beautiful.</p>
<p>She also supports Washington U. because she knows someone whose kid has gone there and done well. She's like that: one person represents the entire school. This is why she hates Brown: JFK Jr. went to college there and she knew and disliked him.</p>
<p>If not those schools or maybe Northwestern, Tufts, Cornell or Yale, it's bust. She doesn't get the whole safety school thing.</p>
<p>They pretty much let me decide. However, Mom was partial to Princeton and Yale, Dad liked Williams, Vassar and Carleton. Me, I liked Dartmouth and I am thrilled that I'll be going there in the fall.</p>
<p>I'm lucky, my parents are supportive and they mean well. But on the other hand, I don't think they have a good idea of what college admissions are like today. My SAT/ACT scores don't make me a good candidate for ANY of the schools where they would like me to apply. They don't agree with my reasoning and are constantly trying to persuade me, but in a good way.</p>
<p>Yeah, my parents want me to ultimately be happy, but they are largely influenced by the prestige factor. This really isn't their fault; as immigrants, the only things they know about the college system so far, because I'm their first child, is the name of ~5 highly ranked schools.</p>
<p>They want Princeton above all else. There is no way I am going to Princeton, even if I somehow got in, because I don't like too many things about it. They think that college is all about academics and don't understand that you're not only studying there, you're LIVING there as well.</p>
<p>My dad wants me to go to community college and live at home. :| my mom says she doesn't care, as long as I'm happy but I know she wants me to stay in state. I want to either go faaaaaar away to the east coast or west coast.</p>
<p>last year i wanted to apply to california (from nj).. mom said no to applying to usc or ucla, only stanford which i knew i had no shot at. so i stuck to the northeast which is where i wanted to stay (at that point) anyway.</p>
<p>my choices were down to villanova, bc, and lehigh. mom wanted villanova because its closest to home and i got some money there. i wasnt sure but i think i knew in my heart i wanted to go to bc all along.. i went back an forth from december when i was accepted to both of them until the last week of april. mom didnt like lehigh as much cause she didnt see "the big deal" and cause it wasnt near a major city like nova and bc.</p>
<p>dad just said go where youll be happy cause theyll all make him broke anyway. and he liked bc cause of the big time sports, and he likes boston better than philly</p>
<p>Mom: University of Alaska Anchorage. She says, "you can stay home, get free rent, and eat good food, drive your car, and not be broke." But I say, SDFasfadsf NO!!! Dad: Ignore mom. Do whatever. But we're not letting you go to any school that costs more than $15,000 a year including tuition, room, board, fees, and personal expenses. Which pretty much takes out any school that isn't University of Alaska Anchorage (unless I get a lot of scholarships, which is my hope). He he.. I'm 18. I don't give-a-crapoley what my parents say. I'm getting out of here, broke or not.</p>
<p>My mom was crazy for MIT for a while because my grandma said once I got in there, I'd be set for life. But I was always a Caltech guy. When I first told my mom I wanted to attend Caltech she scoffed and said "What? I haven't even heard of that school!" I ended up going to UChicago, and she finally came to realize what a great school it is (after talking to my grandma, whose colleagues in the mathematical field think highly of it <em>sigh</em>). I thought that this was good for her, knowing that there are many great colleges out there that are rather unknown. However, a few weeks ago, I was talking to her about a friend of mine at Harvey Mudd, and she scoffed again, and said "Harvey what? Haven't heard of it." <em>Sigh</em></p>
<p>My dad really has no idea about college, and that actually made him the bigger problem, since I had to convince him that paying $20k/year for UChicago was better than a free ride + $3k/year for Purdue.</p>