I applaud your S. My D. stood up for herself, refused to listen to her advisor and DID NOT apply to any of the Ivy /Elite. We supported her decision. Instead, she said that she would do absolutely fine at EVERY place and she did. Looking back, she attended the place that fits her perfectly, her experiences there went well beyond our expectaions. As of her stand and where she attended: she graduated #1 in her class from the most rigorous private HS in our area, she went to in-state public college where she attended on full tuition Merit award. She graduated #1 pre-med in her college class (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Betta Kappa, several other awards) and was accepted to 4 Med. Schools (again, against the wishes of her pre-med advisor, did not apply to any very top, but was accepted to 2 top 20 while applying only to 8 schools). She is graduating from Med. School this May and was absolutely EQUAL to others in her medical school class that was filled with students primarily from Ivy’s /Elites. She had NO disadvantages in comparison to them. However, she has a huge advantage. As a psrt of small group of Medical Students, she will graduate without debt, NO DEBT, zero. We did not pay for her UG, so we paid for Med. School instead. She earned it not only by her hard work but also by her very wise decision choosing free UG. By all advisors, she shuld have gone to Harvard as all other #1’s from her HS. She was much smarter, more mature and self-sufficient and it paid off for her in a very big way, about $300K worth way.