I am not a fan of the concept of fit. Probably has to do with my upbringing. My parents didn’t go to college but did well for themselves. I applied to the one college my parents decided I could go to and was told to pay for room and board, books and fees. They covered tuition. I was a NMF. I arrived there without ever having seen the school and made the most of it. And I was grateful for their help and felt lucky to be there and this school is definitely 2nd or 3rd tier. Fast forward 30 years and we have the money for anywhere and made it clear to kids that if they got in we’d take care of all the rest of college expenses – then they’re on their own! As daughter went thru process she was convinced that she could be happy at any of about 50 schools. She still feels this way despite loving Harvard. Getting in wasn’t an honor and rejection isn’t a slap in the face. There’s a lot of opportunity if you just look around and if you don’t look hard for it at Harvard, some kid at Oklahoma St who was looking is going to beat you out. Son is the same way – he has his favorites and with his stats he’ll likely have some nice choices but he has absolutely no hand wringing about the process. Like a lot of things, we parents set the tone for our kids in ways large and small. If we’re worried, they’re worried. If we’re calm, they’re calm. I wouldn’t want to send my kid to a school they hate – why’d they even apply, love thy safety and all that – but IMHO and FWIW ( which is not much!) the college rankings do us all a disservice and keep us from focusing on the fact that there are many, many wonderful opportunities at a whole lot of colleges and universities in the US. College debt is certainly better than a lot of other kinds of debt, but I wouldn’t borrow 50K to make Stanford happen for my kid if they could go to any other decent school for free. Sometimes it’s what we do for our kids that’s most important and sometimes it’s what we don’t do for them. The more really successful people I meet, the more I’m convinced it’s about them and not their diploma. I believe Harvard kids do well because the school selects mostly for successful, driven kids not because Harvard provided them with loads of opportunities. Sorry if this all sounded kind of soapbox preachy and came off strong. If I believe in anything it’s that there are very few right answers in this world. These are tough issues and this was just one guy’s opinion. Good luck.