– 9,446 College Applicants and Parents Polled about Their “Dream Colleges,” Application Stress, Hopes for Financial Aid, Opinions of AI, Admission Tests, and What Will Matter Most in Their College Choice –

#1 “Dream College” Among Students: Harvard
#1 “Dream College” Among Parents: MIT
73% Report High Stress About Applications
93% Need Financial Aid
93% Took the SAT, ACT, or Both
98% Consider College “Worth It”

NEW YORK, March 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Now through April is an exciting but nerve-racking time for high school seniors and their parents receiving decisions from colleges about admission and financial aid applications.

According to a February 1 report from Common App—an organization that has 1,000+ colleges among its members—1.4 million high school seniors have submitted more than 9.2 million applications to schools for admission in the 2026–2027 academic year. This is a 5% increase over the number of applications that were submitted by this time in February 2025. Applications to public colleges are up 6%. Applications to private colleges are up 5%.

What is also up this year—according to The Princeton Review^‘s 24th annual College Hopes & Worries Survey of college applicants and their parents—is stress about applications, concerns about college costs, and hopes for financial aid.

The survey which the education services company has conducted online from January through late February since 2003 has 20 questions, most of which have been asked annually. A few questions on trending topics are added to the survey each year.

The 2026 survey polled 9,446 people: 7,179 (76%) were applicants to colleges; 2,267 (24%) were parents of applicants. They hailed from all 50 U.S. states as well as Canada and several countries abroad.

Highlights of survey findings follow. A complete report on the survey showing all questions, answer choices, and findings broken out by respondents overall, by student respondents, and by parent respondents posted today on the company’s College Hopes & Worries Survey website hub. The report also notes differences in current and past survey findings among respondents overall as well as among student and parent respondents.

“Dream Colleges“

The first question on the survey, “What would be your ‘dream college’—the school you would most like to attend (or see your child attend)—if acceptance was a certainty and cost not an issue?” invites a fill-in-the-blank answer. Respondents entered in the names of more than 150 institutions as their “dream colleges.” Among them were highly selective schools (including most of the Ivies and many well-known private colleges), flagship state universities, technology schools, nursing schools, and community colleges. Some schools were named by hundreds of respondents as their “dream college.”

The 10 schools most named by student respondents as their “dream college” were:

Harvard College (MA)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University (CA)
Princeton University (NJ)
New York University
Yale University (CT)
Columbia University (NY)
University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas–Austin
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

The 10 schools most named by parent respondents as their “dream college” for their children were:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University (NJ)
Stanford University (CA)
Harvard College (MA)
Yale University (CT)
Columbia University (NY)
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Duke University (NC)
New York University
Brown University (RI)

Findings based on survey questions with multiple-choice answers indicate:

Distance from home of “ideal” college? Parents and students differ.
Asked how far from home their (their child’s) “ideal” college would be, the plurality (39%) of respondents overall selected the answer “Fewer than 250 miles.” However, a higher percentage of parents (47%) than students (33%) chose this answer. As to the remaining three answer choices (which presented distance ranges greater than 250 miles, the farthest being “More than 1,000 miles”), a higher percentage of students (67%) than parents (53%) chose them. Since 2007, students surveyed have selected answer choices with distances farther from home while parents surveyed have selected answer choices nearer to home.
Application stress is significant.
Asked their level of stress about the college application process and given five answer choices ranging from “Very low” to “Very high,” 28% of respondents selected the answer “Very high,” and 45% selected “High.” In all, 73% of respondents chose answers indicating high stress. (In 2003, the first year of the survey, 56% of respondents reported such stress.)
Sticker shock is the major stressor.
Asked which of four issues contributed most to their application stress, the plurality of respondents (37%) selected the answer “Sticker shock” while 29% chose “Admission expectations” (with slightly more students than parents choosing this answer); 19% selected “Deadlines and decisions,” and 15% said “Information overload.”
Biggest worry: debt.
Asked their biggest concern about their applications, the plurality (35%) chose the answer “Level of debt to pay for the degree.” (In 2003, only 6% of respondents chose that answer.) Significantly fewer (28%) chose “Won’t get into first-choice college.” (In 2003, 52% chose that answer.) Just over a quarter (27%) chose “Will get into first-choice college but won’t be able to afford to attend,” and 10% chose “Will attend a college I (my child) will regret.”
Financial aid need is high.
Nine out of ten respondents (93%) said they are applying for financial aid. Of that cohort, 52% said aid would be “Extremely necessary” (4% more than the 48% so indicating in 2025); 29% said it was “Very necessary”; 15% said it was “Somewhat necessary” and 4% said “Minimally necessary.” On a related question that asked their estimate of the cost for their (their child’s) college education, the plurality (38%) selected the top answer choice, “More than $150,000. Notably, a higher percentage of parents (50%) than students (34%) selected this answer.
93% of respondents said they (their child) had taken the SAT^® and/or the ACT^®.
Asked their reason for taking the tests, nearly half (45%) chose the answer “Scores can distinguish applications and improve chances of acceptance”; about a third (36%) chose “Scores are considered in scholarship and financial aid award decisions”; and 19% chose “Scores may be required by a college I (my child) decide(s) to apply to.” Only 7% said they were (their child was) not taking either test.
The SAT is more popular than the ACT.
Asked which test(s) they (or their child) had taken or planned to take, 48% selected the answer “SAT,” more than three times the 13% that selected the answer “ACT.”
Key value of a college degree? Better job and higher income.
Asked what they consider the major benefit of earning a college degree, 43% chose the answer “Potentially better job and higher income,” while 31% chose “Exposure to new ideas, places and people,” and 26% chose “The education.”
Key factor determining which college applicants will choose? Fit.
Asked what best describes the college they are (their child is) likely to choose, 48% selected the answer “College that will be the best overall fit”; 32% selected “College with the best program for my (my child’s) career interests”; 12% chose “College that will be most affordable” and 8% chose “College with the best academic reputation.”
College is worth it—98% agree.
Asked if they believe college will be “worth it,” 98% said “Yes.” However, 2026 marks the first year since 2014 (when this question was added to the survey) in which 98% of respondents said “Yes.” In previous years, 99% said “Yes.”

Other questions on the survey, and answer choices selected by the plurality or majority of respondents were:

Number of colleges they were (their child was) applying to?
“Five to eight”: 35% (on par with 2025)
Toughest part of their application experiences?
“Completing admission and aid applications”: 42% (up from 35% in 2025)
Opinion of AI and how it is being (and can be) used?
“Both concerned and excited”: 56% (up from 49% in 2025)
(Note: 29% chose “Concerned,” 8% chose “Excited” and 7% chose “Neither”.)

The survey is promoted via social media channels and by emails to college admissions advisors/counselors and users of The Princeton Review’s college-related resources. A survey sweepstakes prize of $5,000 is awarded to one entrant selected at random.

Advice from Respondents

An optional fill-in-the-blank survey question asks respondents their advice for next year’s applicants and parents. The advice most proffered by students and parents participating in the 2026 survey (as well as by those over the 23 past years of the survey) was “Start early.”

Students offered these gems: “Worry about finding a college you’re really excited to go to rather than the name.” “Don’t apply to 30 colleges. That never seems to go well.” “Listen to your mom.” “I would tell parents support your children in all their endeavors. I would tell students it’s gonna be alright.”

Parents provided these wise words: “This is hard. Start the process as early in high school as possible.” “College is a match to be made, not a prize to be won.” “Let your child dictate what you’re worrying about.” “You need only one college that will be ‘best fit’—in both directions.” “Breathe. It will all work out.”

Samplers of advice from surveyed students and parents as well as an infographic illustrating survey findings are on the company’s College Hopes & Worries Survey website hub.

“More than 244,000+ students and parents have participated in our College Hopes & Worries survey since we launched it in 2003,” said Rob Franek, Editor-in-Chief of The Princeton Review. “We greatly appreciate their feedback about their application experiences. They provided important insights not only for our company but for all who are dedicated to helping students apply to and gain admission from their ‘best fit’ colleges. To all who completed our 2026 survey, we say ‘Thanks,’ and to the students among them who will be entering college this fall, we say ‘Congrats. Application job well done. The colleges are lucky to have you!'”

About The Princeton Review

The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep, and college admissions services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school–bound students as well as working professionals achieve their education and career goals through its many education services and products. These include online and in-person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors; online resources; a line of more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House; and dozens of categories of school rankings. The company’s Tutor.com brand, now in its 24th year, is one of the largest online tutoring services in the U.S. It comprises a community of thousands of tutors who have delivered more than 29 million tutoring sessions. The Princeton Review, headquartered in New York, NY, is not affiliated with Princeton University. For more information, visit PrincetonReview.com and the company’s Media Center. Follow the company on X (formerly Twitter) (@ThePrincetonRev) and Instagram (@theprincetonreview).

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