<p>That’s not entirely clear. The Title of the thread says " Is it fair that my parents want me to apply only to top 20 colleges?" </p>
<p>However, OP specifically says “my parents have said if I don’t attend a top 20 school after getting into one, they’re going to spend that tuition money on a house in China”</p>
<p>OP also says that OP wanted to apply to Illinois and OP’s parents said OP must apply to Harvard, Yale, etc. Not that parents are barring OP from applying. As it stands, that simply means OP must apply there, in addition to. </p>
<p>To be specific, OP never said parents were in fact prohibiting OP from applying to anywhere not in T20. If OP’s parents did, in fact, say that, I must have missed it in my skimming. Please point it out to me if that is the case.</p>
<p>Yet, my position still stands - If OP doesn’t want to go to Duke because OP is UNC fan and OP does, in fact, get into Duke and say a non-T20 school, the parents have every right to have OP go to Duke. Why? Because it is in fact that parents money. And let’s face it, college costs an astronomical amount. Some $200,000 for 4 years at some school. Yes, with FA it’s oftentimes less than that, but it is still a large amount of money. Might it not be “fair” that OP’s parents are telling OP to go to a T20? Maybe. But that’s not for people on CC to decide. OP has OP’s family, with OP’s parents and OP’s parents have their respective opinions. To OP’s parents it may very well seem to be “Fair” for them to pay a fortune for a college education IFF OP goes to a T20. </p>
<p>Emory may not be a good school for CS, so don’t apply to Emory. Apply to a number of other T20s. And, as OP said “my parents have said if I don’t attend a top 20 school after getting into one, they’re going to spend that tuition money on a house in China”. If that’s true and OP doesn’t get accepted to a T20, I <em>HIGHLY</em> doubt they would force OP to pay for all college expenses. These are parents, not horrible monsters. I do however find that the OP’s parents do, in fact, have a right to say that if OP gets into a T20, OP should go there.</p>