The University held relatively steady in the Princeton Review's annual "College Hopes and Worries Survey," in which Brown was ranked as the No. 8 "dream school" by students and No. 4 by parents. Last year, the University was ranked sixth by students and eighth by parents.
Princeton Review surveyed 5,854 people - 4,594 high school students applying to college and 1,260 parents. The Princeton Review, best known for its standardized test preparation classes, has conducted the survey since 2002, according to a press release announcing the results.
The "dream school" question, which is the focus of the survey and the only write-in response, asks respondents, "What 'dream college' do you wish you could attend (or see your child attend) if acceptance or cost weren't issues?"
For the third consecutive year, students ranked New York University first, followed by Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, University of California, Los Angeles and Brown. Among parents, Stanford was first, followed by last year's winner Princeton, Harvard and Brown.
53 percent of students and parents indicated that their highest criteria for a "dream school" was "college that will be the best overall fit," while 30 percent said "college with best program for me (my child's) career interests."
Parents visiting Brown agreed. "Our biggest concern is whether life in college will be comfortable," said Jean Anderson, whose daughter Elizabeth is deciding among Brown, Columbia and Georgetown. "There's no sense paying $40,000 a year to be miserable. We want a good academic program but also a friendly atmosphere."
Officials in the Office of Admission were unavailable for comment.
Other data from the Princeton Review survey suggests that, as college admission rates drop to all-time lows, applicants are hedging their bets by applying to a wide array of schools. 52 percent of students will apply to five to eight colleges, 21 percent will apply to nine or more, and 26 percent of students and parents indicated that selecting which college to attend was the most difficult part of the application process.
The single greatest concern for applicants applying to or attending college was whether they "will get into (their) first-choice college, but won't have sufficient funds/financial aid to attend." 65 percent of students and parents indicated that their stress level about the college application process was either "very high" or "high."
Students who have already navigated the college admission process said that while money is important, it shouldn't be the top consideration. "I think it is very important for upcoming seniors to find a school that is a good fit or the ones that give (students) the most money," said Anish Mitra '10. "Although money is certainly an issue, whether or not the school is a better fit for the students should take precedence over financial concerns, because the cost of discomfort is greater than (the cost of) being in debt."
"All other concerns are secondary to the overall goal of maximizing the child's future income when all costs are taken into account, including tuition. The tuition will pay for itself," said Jason Carr '09. "That's why I chose to attend Brown over Berkeley, which would have been free for me."
