Scholarship would not be offered as a transfer.
I would be uncomfortable spending $130,000 more for Wellesley. USC is a great school, you got into their honors program, and they gave you good merit. You have every reason to feel tremendously proud. I’d take the deal USC is offering and try not to look back.
Well, they are very different schools. I am prejudiced in favor of Wellesley, as an alum, but I would say that if you don’t have a burning desire/preference, you should follow the money and go to USC.
@thumper1 , yes, but the OP will have more financial breathing room if they are spending $25k per year less.
@Consolation , if you’re a upper middle class/upper class student with a parent-given spending budget, maybe. If you and your family are stretching to pay for your school, not so much.
I totally agree…I would choose USC.
If you don’t have your heart set on it, it’s not worth the extra $100,000 if paying that amount would put any stress on your or your family.
I hope you’ve sent in your decision, but if you’re waiting until the last hour, here’s another consideration: the town of Wellesley (the 'ville) is very, very expensive. There are few shops catering to student budgets. Most srudents shop in Cambridge or Boston, but there is a shuttle that is free on weekdays.
You are guaranteed housing at W all four years, so that part of your cost is easier to estimate than at USC.
I think I’m ready to send in my USC deposit when I get home from school. Thank you all so much!
@psych_ I was a student at Wellesley with no parent-given allowance. Were you? Although we were upper-middle class, I had to make my own spending money during the summers. You claim, for example, that the museums are expensive. In fact, the MFA and the Gardner are both FREE to Wellesley students.
I agree that the student should probably pick USC purely on financial grounds, but I think that your idea that student life in the Boston area is cripplingly expensive is just inaccurate.
I attended a similar LAC for undergrad, a large west-coast research U for Law School, and an Ivy for my Masters. TO me (someone who was a teaching assistant at the Ivy), there is simply no comparison between the educational experience at an LAC and that at a large RU. That doesn’t mean that some will not thrive at a large RU, but for the way I learn. I felt that, as an undergrad, I would have been lost, had I chosen a large RU. I felt the LAC taught me to think and analyze in a way that I (just me, not necessarily everyone) would have gotten at a large RU. Good luck with your decision.