"Go somewhere else," I tell her. "It's cheaper. Go to a local college. Or go to the one your brother is at -- it gives a sibling discount. Do you realise that I could buy a small South Pacific island for the cost of sending the two of you to college for a few years? With a submarine? And an octopus pit for dropping spies in?" But she is immune to reason, and wants to go to Vassar, because she likes the look of it, and the history, and wants to go and experience upstate New York and learn how to pronounce Poughkeepsie.
"What if it's awful?" I said.
"Ask on your journal," said Holly. "Put something up. Then Vassar students and professors and people can tell you what they think on the FAQ line."
So I'm posting it, warily, as for the next decade people will come up to me and say "did Holly go to Vassar then?"
I suspect she'll win on this one, and I won't get any kind of a small South Pacific Island, not even the cheap kind with a swimming pool that slides out of the way to let the underground spaceships take off.