Parents' Top Ten Dream Schools: Princeton Review List

Although students dream of Stanford, parents still consider Harvard University to be the No. 1 dream school for their progeny, according to the Princeton Review.

The results come from the Princeton Review's annual College Hopes and Worries survey. In addition to a rating personal expectations and experiences related to the college application process, 8,219 applicants and 3,966 parents were asked to fill in a "dream school" in response to the question, "What 'dream college' do you wish you or your child could attend if acceptance or cost weren't issues?"

Below, see the top ten dream schools of college applicants' parents, and check out the Princeton Review for more info.

Is the school your parents would pick for you -- or that you would choose for your child -- on the list? Let us know in the comments section.

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Harvard University

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Pinch me... So dreamy

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Comments

[Chelsea Mei Bates]

08:50 AM on 04/07/2011

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

[Upside]

04:08 PM on 04/13/2011

Go Maroons!

And Tamer Barsbay is not THAT short.

[Annie Yao]

08:34 PM on 05/14/2011

If you have met him in person... yes he is.

[Leto II]

03:20 AM on 04/07/2011

In the real working world, where you went to school doesn't matter much. Should I really care that the guy in the next office went to Harvard or some other Ivy league school? Should he really care
that I graduated from a state school? Don't both of us have better things to worry about? Bragging to people what Ivy league school you went to is like a freshman in college bragging that he was the Prom King and was really popular at his high school. Nobody cares.

It all comes down to what kind of job you can land. The idiots down in HR screening resumes are looking at work history and if you qualify for the job, not where you attended school. This is why on resumes, your education goes at the end.

[Megandale]

07:39 AM on 04/07/2011

Depends on the industry - some industries definitely look at the schools.

[OneFish]

02:06 AM on 04/15/2011

Your school isn't everything but a top school can open doors.

[Citygirllost]

01:01 PM on 04/05/2011

Go Cats!
Northwestern Class of 1998.

[BurtonDesque]

10:25 PM on 04/04/2011

Duke, Notre Dame & NYU? Feh.

How about CalTech, Berkeley & Columbia instead?

[Megandale]

07:45 PM on 04/05/2011

The first three, by far.

[Antona Smith]

08:05 AM on 04/04/2011

This is not the best list that all parents want their children to attend. None of these schools are even on the radar for what we (and our son) wants for his future.

[tploomis]

12:03 AM on 04/02/2011

As a parent, I like colleges that are both hard to get in to and also hard to get out of. Those colleges include Berkeley, MIT, Cornell, and Columbia. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford are hard to get into, but once you are in, it's pretty much smooth sailing. I want my kids in schools with other kids that are exceptional and I want them to work hard at the same time.

[BurtonDesque]

10:23 PM on 04/04/2011

Oh, yeah. Once I got into MIT it was all "smooth sailing". **rolls eyes**

Then once I got into Harvard for grad school that was a cake walk too.

There's a reason they say getting an MIT education is like trying to get a drink from a firehose, but I have a feeling any explanation would be lost on you.

[tploomis]

12:16 AM on 04/05/2011

You apparently still need to learn to read. I said I think an MIT education is a good education because the school is hard to get into and hard to get out of. You are basically agreeing with me. The saying about getting an education from MIT is like trying to get a drink from a firehose is so well known it is basically a cliche -- also true! I seriously doubt you worked as hard in graduate school at Harvard as you did as an undergraduate at MIT. What's the failure rate at Harvard? 2 percent?

[collegeguy1120]

12:35 AM on 04/13/2011

She put a period after Columbia. That makes two separate sentences. Apparently reading comprehension was not taught at MIT. Also, the fact that Harvard has massive grade inflation is a pretty well known fact. To sum up, tploomis is right on both accounts, and BurtonDesque needs to learn to read.

[juliet 310]

03:02 PM on 04/16/2011

tploomis, you obviously do not know what you're talking about. Princeton has grade quotas, ie only 35% of the grades any department gives out can be an A, and so on down the grading spectrum. It is BY NO MEANS smooth sailing.

[pleasantlyvague]

08:21 PM on 04/23/2011

Only 35% can achieve an A is "by no means smooth sailing" to you? Juliet, are you at all familiar with the concept of normal distribution and the standard bell curve?

[tploomis]

11:53 PM on 04/01/2011

NYU over Columbia? I don't think so!

[David Eisenbach]

05:51 PM on 03/29/2011

NYU? Really??

[BoxOfficeWeekend]

08:23 AM on 03/29/2011

You can get a quality education in a community college. Then, transfer to a state or university college.

It really depends on your financial status. If you can afford to pay higher tuition, then take the dive. Earning a free ride to attend a top college is the best option.

High school students should be motivated to strive for excellence. It will save them a ton of money in the future. We all know that student loans are like mortage payments without the home.

http://PublicAdministrationProgram.com

[themanchild27]

09:55 PM on 03/27/2011

i dont want to go to an ivy league school never have never will

[BurtonDesque]

10:26 PM on 04/04/2011

So?

[themanchild27]

09:45 PM on 03/27/2011

my parents want me to go to lasalle u villanova temple drexel or arcadia while i want to go to alabama vandy usc or somewhere on the west coast

[Megandale]

06:46 PM on 03/31/2011

All great schools...good luck to you.

[rjmtx]

07:35 PM on 03/27/2011

Blah blah blah. Predictable and boring. Tell me something new.

[ljmck]

04:32 PM on 03/27/2011

Keep in mind that survey respondents in this study are all readers of the Princeton Review; you'd hardly expect them to list schools that ordinary college aspirants realistically dream of attending.

The dream school list of ordinary kids would be more revealing and would tell us more about education needs in this country.

We get an awful lot of coverage of the desires of the wealthy and the super-achievers, including almost weekly coverage of the Ivies. You might expect that a democratic Democratic site would spend at least equal time identifying those colleges deemed best in academics AND value, considering the realistic expectations of the vast majority of college hopefuls in this country.

[PallinAround]

10:30 AM on 03/27/2011

My daughter will be heading off to college in the fall. She is an exceptional student -- 99th percentile SAT scores, 3.95 GPA in Honors/AP curriculum, musically talented, etc. (no she's NOT perfect, I'm just illustrating that she has the right "profile" for the top universities). We considered all of them from coast to coast - Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Northwestern, etc) and I feel quite sure that she would have been accepted anywhere she chose to apply. At the end of the day, even with lots of tuition assistance from the big privates, we decided, together, that that type of environment (smallish, stodgy, self-important, too many kids of privilege, etc) was not for her. What too many kids and parents do not realize is that beyond tuition (which puts the Ivies totally out of reach for anyone earning a typical American income), the costs are still very high -- annual room/meals easily $10-$12K, books, fees for everything, and all the other ordinary living expenses (transportation, entertainment, etc). She will be attending a public Big 10 school with about 3/4 of the cost covered by merit scholarships. This EXCELLENT school is the best overall fit for her in terms of her personality, interests and academic intentions and the cost fits what we can afford. Our "Dream List" is focused on reality not fantasy.

[ljmck]

04:34 PM on 03/27/2011

Sounds as if your daughter is well-educated about what is important in life. I hope all her dreams come true.

[3423427]

08:44 PM on 03/26/2011

My parents pushed me to a fancy private liberal arts college and I bet I am not the only person who had a poor outcome because of it. I got mediocre grades, wasn't interested in any of the typical careers graduates went on to and therefore did not network, and basically wasted 4 years of my life plus my own and (some of) my parents' money getting a useless degree. I was dying to transfer to a state university but my parents wouldn't let me. A decade later I went to community college with my own money for a completely different type of career, one that the courses for were not offered at the liberal arts college. I'm much happier now and finally feel like I found where I belong. I know it's hard to make an informed decision when you're 17, but you should go to the college YOU want to go to, not where your parents want you go to.

[birdinanest]

04:30 PM on 03/31/2011

amen. wise words. And i am a parent.