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[quote=Anonymous]My SIL has asked me for input on colleges for my nephew, who's currently a junior. The only school he's expressed an interest in is the public flagship, but SIL and BIL want him to aim a bit higher. The school's college counselor brought up Ivies and other elite schools, and that's all they can focus on.

He scored 1500 on the PSAT as a sophomore (just took it again a few weeks ago) and currently has a 4.0 (unweighted but he knows he is tied for #1 in his class), lots of APs, strong extracurriculars. 
His high school is a pressure-cooker academic magnet, and he's expressed to me more than once how much he hates the competitiveness and cutthroat environment. Partly, I think his nonchalance about college is a direct response to the school environment and pressure from his parents.

He's always excelled in STEM but is probably more passionate about politics/international relations and is also very artistic and musical -- he has won some awards in that area. He's very into languages -- he's fluent in French and Spanish and is currently taking Mandarin. He's also really into community service and has expressed an interest in taking a gap year to volunteer internationally and travel (hopefully that's possible by 22-23), which I think would be great for him, but his parents/the school seem to be really discouraging that.

I've reassured him that college has a lot less of the BS of high school regardless of where you end up. He is definitely on the mature side for his age and very over it. I think he could really thrive at a SLAC, but also think he'd be adept at making a big state school feel small. Pretty sure SIL/BIL could make either work financially.

Any ideas? I was going to suggest the CTCLs, Colorado College, the Claremont consortium. Deep Springs and then transfer to an Ivy? Elite schools where kids tend to report they're very happy? Tell SIL and BIL to chill?[/quote]

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