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<p>I agree with this. My tendency is to think of the State U as ‘the’ financial safety but our state has at least a half-dozen small LACs that a strong student could attend for pretty much free or at greatly reduced rates.</p>
<p>I am very curious to see what happen when the acceptances start rolling in, meaning how much merit aid my son will be offered at the various schools. I’ve had several people report that you can use these offers as leverage at other schools where your child wants to attend but did not get a good merit offer. Of course, this is not true for the ‘reach’ schools on the list. But it can sometimes work at the match and safety schools that have to compete for the best students.</p>