Caitlin Bessel followed the college entry rules to a tee.

She scored almost perfectly on her SATs, filled her schedule with AP classes at Frisco's Wakeland High School and contemplated the College of William & Mary, a Virginia university that is the nation's second-oldest.

Instead, she'll attend the community college down the street.

College-bound seniors are fast learning the lessons of a withered economy that has thwarted Ivy League ambitions, devalued diligent preparation and even weakened legacy ties.

Across the country, slim financial aid packages and family monetary concerns are preventing students from attending their choice university. But it's been particularly disappointing in places such as Collin County, where some parents move for high-performing schools that help ensure their children placement in a top-tier college.

"With upper-middle-class and middle-class parents who have gone to college, it's an automatic that their kids will go to college," said Catherine Marrs, a private college counselor with clients across the region. "Now they have to adjust their thinking that a four-year college education can be gained at more than one school. They have to be open to more than one option."

Caitlin's mother, Karen Bessel, has discovered that.

"I thought I was giving her a head start with such a superlative school system," said Bessel, a single mother and software programmer who moved to Frisco from Virginia a year and a half ago with her three daughters. "I wish I could do more."

Caitlin abandoned notions of William & Mary earlier in the year, when family medical bills started to build and the economy continued to sink.

She settled for the University of Texas at Tyler. Then she received her financial aid package. The school offered a $3,000 scholarship and some work study funds. Loans didn't cover even half of up to $18,000 in annual tuition costs.

In contrast, nearby Collin College meant less than $800 a semester.

"I tried so hard so things would look good for colleges," Caitlin said. "Now I can't go to the school that I wanted."

Recurring tales of dreams deferred motivated the National Association for College Admission Counseling to conduct its first survey about college decisions, said Melissa Clinedinst, the organization's assistant director of research. The report came out earlier this month.

More than 70 percent of high schools said a greater number of students sacrificed their "dream schools" for more economically viable options than in previous years. About 60 percent of schools said more students selected a public university instead of a private one, and 37 percent said more students chose a community college over a four-year one.

"The general direction of the results we expected," Clinedinst said, "but the magnitude of the numbers were surprising to us."

Almost 700 schools responded, about 60 percent of them private. Officials believe this means the totals are actually underestimates.

A May report from the Post Secondary Education Opportunity counted about 100,000 college freshmen who switched their initial enrollment from four-year to two-year colleges in 2008.

Collin College, a community college that continues to expand its campuses and its programs, saw an 11 percent enrollment increase between last spring and this one. Summer enrollment is up 10 percent this year.

"There's obviously a much greater concern about cost," said Marrs, the private college counselor. "I'm telling people now if an Ivy League [school] is really your goal then save it and go there for your second degree because that's what stands most,"

State schools are also becoming more likely choices for students who would have turned their noses up at them before.

Alanna Staton graduated in the top 10 percent of her class at McKinney Boyd High School. She thought about several East Coast universities but ruled them out when her father lost his job in February.

Her father, Steven Staton, graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a private college in New York. He'd hoped to send at least one of his children there and was initially worried when Alanna started looking at the University of North Texas. The Denton school, though known regionally for its music program, holds less cache nationally. He's since come around.

"College education is not a privilege, it's a necessity," he said. "And the fact that it's becoming increasingly expensive is terrifying."

An administrator at his alma mater explained the financial circumstances to him simply: The school needed the money from people who could pay and scholarships went to those who couldn't afford anything. "The middle class gets leeched out," he said.

Alanna will get to play in the marching band and attend UNT's honors college. And with the assistance of scholarships and loans, her family will pay only $5,000 a year.

Alanna treats the decision with the realism that financial strain engenders.

"It was close and affordable, and it's easier on my family," she said.

College newbies aren't the only ones affected in the echelons of higher education.

Rianna Babb sat at Collin College on a recent afternoon, half-staring at her summer statistics assignment.

The college sophomore was taking a math class this summer because she'd dropped one during the semester to pick up additional work study hours at "the other UT," the University of Tennessee.

It didn't work. She didn't get the additional scholarship she needed to remain there, and her family could no longer afford costs that rose to more than $32,000 a year.

The Frisco native and engineering student left behind her boyfriend and an active social life in campus ministries. She'll start at UNT in the fall.

"I bawled my eyes out because I didn't want to leave," the 20-year-old said.

But now she shrugs with the same resolve as her future peer, Alanna.

"I understand," she said. "It's because of the economy."