In my experience, relatives also don’t understand how competitive schools have become. Thus, you get your child excited about one of their options, and some aunt/uncle/grandparent etc. says, “Oh, I thought you’d wind up at a better school.” Meanwhile, that public flagship has a 32 ACT average for admits or that private “second tier” school now admits 20% of really qualified applicants.
Of course, one of our relatives sneered in this way at D17’s choices and then counseled her son to apply to 10-12 schools that we told her he would not qualify for, but she was going on 30 year old information and also a bubble that made her think he was high stats. As I wrote on another thread, this very nice good student ended senior year in his high SES school milieu having to admit he got into NO college. It was horrible. And avoidable. (He’s fine now) His mother was an example of someone out of the loop but also condescending toward non-Top 20 sorts of colleges and also deluded about what it means to be a top competitive student. A trifecta of out of touch. Frankly, we felt it served her right, but for her son we wanted better. 
Edit: I should clarify we felt it served her right because she would NOT listen to any advice and was rude about it and claimed we had botched it with D17. (We had not. She graduated from a highly regarded public debt free and going to a completely funded graduate program.)
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