<p>People respond like that because you have already demonstrated that you are a very capable student and they believe you can do about anything. This is a compliment. I also believe many have fallen into the trap that an Ivy League education is so much more than anything else and last as others have said, they are uneducated about the real costs of an Ivy League education in this day and age.</p>
<p>I had a number of people who openly stated about how my daughter should go to Harvard. My first response was that neither she nor I wanted to be responsible for a $50,000 plus annual bill. Of course their response always was, “She is so smart that she will get plenty of scholarships, they will be begging for her to come to their school.” Obviously they didn’t have a clue as to Ivy merit aid (is there such a term) nor did they have a clue at what the competition at the top was like. </p>
<p>Now I just smile and tell them Boston is too cold for her.</p>