Very cool! Am I wrong for thinking NYU is a little out of place on those lists?
It is funny that it is the parents put UMich on the list, not the students. Are they willing to pay $60k/year. 
I read with amusement that UCLA made both lists but no UCB. I wonder what our UCB alum think about this.
I think Berkeley has a stigma of an uber-competitive, meat grinder environment that UCLA doesn’t share. The better sports helps UCLA, too. Being a Cal Bears fan is depressing…rugby and swimming being the non-visible exceptions.
It is sad the Southern Branch campus is more appealing than the flagship to uneducated masses.
I don’t think this is indicative of the parents I know here in the Middle East. Over here, Harvard, MIT and Stanford would be the top 3, closely followed by Columbia, Penn (Wharton specifically), Princeton and Yale. After those 7, you would have a bunch of schools, including Cal, Chicago, JHU, Michigan the remaining Ivies.
BU, NYU and UCLA are very popular among students, but not among parents.