College hopefuls have a new ultimate dream school — and it's not Harvard, Princeton or Yale

With an acceptance complaint of conscionable nether 4%, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is considered the eventual imagination school, according to a new survey of college-bound students and their families.

However, it's not lone 1 of the hardest schools to get into but besides among the nation's priciest institutions — tuition and fees, country and committee and different pupil expenses came to much than $79,000 this year.

At the aforesaid time, astir college-bound students and their parents present accidental affordability and dealing with the debt burden that often goes hand-in-hand with a assemblage diploma is their apical concern, adjacent implicit getting into their first-choice school, according to The Princeton Review's 2023 College Hopes & Worries survey.

Most of the colleges astatine the precise apical of students' privation lists are "perennial favorites," according to Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's editor-in-chief. They are besides among the astir competitive: Stanford's acceptance complaint is besides conscionable beneath 4%; astatine Harvard, it's about 3%.

Coming retired of the pandemic, a tiny radical of universities, including galore successful the Ivy League, person experienced a record-breaking increase successful applications this season, according to a study by the Common Application.

The study recovered exertion volume jumped 30% since the 2019-20 schoolhouse year, adjacent arsenic enrollment has slumped nationwide.

"There's a subconscious statement that it's lone worthy going to assemblage if you tin spell to a life-changing college," said Hafeez Lakhani, laminitis and president of Lakhani Coaching successful New York. 

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As acceptance letters trickle in, students person conscionable a fewer weeks to fig retired their adjacent determination up of National College Decision Day connected May 1, the deadline for precocious schoolhouse seniors to take which assemblage they volition attend. 

At that point, they indispensable wage a non-refundable deposit to unafraid their spot astatine the schoolhouse of their choice. 

But the biggest occupation remains however they volition wage for their degree. A whopping 98% of families said financial aid would beryllium indispensable to wage for assemblage and 82% said it was "extremely" oregon "very" necessary, The Princeton Review found.

"Financial assistance is much a necessity present than ever," Franek said.  

Still, "never transverse an costly schoolhouse disconnected of your database of information based connected sticker terms alone," Franek said. Consider the magnitude of aid available, since backstage schools typically person much wealth to spend.

"Many of those schools are giving retired important scholarships — this is escaped money."

For example, MIT offers generous assistance packages for those that qualify. Last year, the mean yearly terms paid by a pupil who received fiscal assistance was less than $20,000, according to the school. 

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