The Princeton Review 2026 College Hopes & Worries Survey Findings

- 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 -

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:

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

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

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

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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SOURCE The Princeton Review