My S only applied to one school, he liked it, it had a great program for his major, he was above average in stats for admission and had a good chance to get into the music department.
It is in our state and not far from home.
We didn’t push him to apply to other schools.
Are you saying that your son would have been happy to go to the regional school but you made him apply to the more selective school that he now also likes but you don’t want to pay for it?