For decades, perhaps centuries, super-smart, super-ambitious kids dreamed of going to an eastern Ivy League school for college, particularly Harvard University, the United States’ oldest and most prestigious school.

These days, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and all the rest are taking a backseat to another school, located three time zones away.

California’s Stanford University is now the country’s collegiate destination of choice. It’s had America’s lowest undergraduate acceptance rate the past two years. High school seniors have chosen it (according to the Princeton Review) their number one dream college for five of the past six years.

“There’s no question that right now, Stanford is seen as the place to be,” says Robert Franek of the Princeton Review. (New York Times)

Paul Asay has written for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for PluggedIn and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He recently collaborated with Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, on his book The Good Dad. He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.