My own alma mater: UC Berkeley. Going to Cal was an exhilarating experience for me.
OTOH, the fact that it’s my alma mater may be perhaps the very reason why my kids wouldn’t have applied!
@ClaremontMom, I also think it is funny that my two very different kids think Scripps and Mudd are their ideal colleges!
UW, of course! So I could be as close as possible. 
Just kidding.
The ones D’s went to were perfect, Caltech and U Chicago. I think having a housing system as they both had was the best part and could not be matched.
I think Rice for my oldest and Dartmouth for my younger guy.
I found ds1’s ideal school here on cc – Carleton. He absolutely loved his time there so I can’t imagine a better place for him. However, part of me wishes he’d gone ED at Rice. He went RD there and was WL’d. It always had been his top choice. I just wonder how his life would be different. Life is pretty good now for him so I don’t know that it would be any better, but I am sure it would be different.
Ds2 – I don’t know. He is at his “dream” school, but he hasn’t liked it as much as he thought he would, though he does like many aspects. The only college where he got a flat-out no was Yale, so I think it would be fun to know how things would have gone for him there. He got into Pomona and Claremont McKenna, preferring CMC. I think that would be the next best fit for him.
Stanford. Daughter is interested in healthcare so any good med school in an area with nice weather year round.
Oxford
DS16 MIT
I thought Carnegie Mellon might be the perfect school for my S12. He wanted Hopkins, and biomedical engineering, so that would have been great. He didn’t apply to either. My S14 always wanted UMD, and it’s perfect for him. I thought he might want IU/Kelly bus. school, where he was accepted and got scholarship, but he picked UMD. I would have picked UMD scholars or honors for him, but he got into the business school, so it’s all good.
I never wanted them to go to Stanford, bc its on the wrong coast, but I lived there when I was young, and would have happy to attend there. However, at some point I found out that I was poor, and it wasn’t going to happen.
Somewhere I want an excuse to visit, like Hawaii.
And if reality also weren’t a factor, the fictional college depicted in the movie “Drumline”; Nick Cannon and Zoe Saldana as classmates good but optional.
Most recent kid: Columbia. I loved it; he hated it.
WashU or UofMich
Well, if we’re leaving reality out of it, then Huxley College - whatever it is, I’m against it!! :))
Olin.
In the cohort of what we would consider best colleges, I’m thinking Harvard, Princeton, MIT, CMU, University of Chicago, or Stanford. If I have to pick one, I’m gonna say University of Chicago I guess.
Columbia. It’s the best school in the best city. Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Yale, Stanford, Caltech, etc.; all amazing schools but not in NYC. NY is the ultimate American urban experience.
Oh, I forgot about CMU. That would have been good for my CS/theater guy. But maybe both programs are so intense there that he wouldn’t have been able to double-up; maybe a theater minor wouldn’t be happening there, or he wouldn’t get much experience with all the BFA students. Or maybe the CS would be too demanding.
In all, in hindsight, I think the admissions process worked pretty well for him.
The place where D. chose to attend. After getting more familiar with others by talking to her friends and thru her personal experiences, she mentioned many times that it was a perfect place for her. She attended at Miami of OH. D’s constraint was acceptance to a very selective program (10 - 15 spots). Actually she was rejected from such a program at her original #1 UG. But looking back and knowing both schools very closely, D. believes that this rejection led her to the college that actually was a better fit for her. So, constraints may be a good thing after all.
BTW, both schools offered her a great Merit award, so there were no financial restriction that influenced D’s decision.