<p>If my 16 y.o son keeps his grades up this year, he’ll go tuition free to our state school. He’s not very adventurous so I think that is as far as he’ll go. I think the computer science program there will be adequate if not great. I just wish he’d consider some schools farther away that might offer internships or other job connections. My16 y.o daughter has greater aspirations. Her current desire is to study Chinese and international relations but she has two more years of h.s. after she finishes her Rotary exchange year in S. America this year. I discovered what looks like a great Chinese language program at Ole Miss where she could probably go tuition free with a merit scholarship. I have just been wrestling with whether a big state school where the majority of students have much lower academic talent would be as good as going to Middlebury or Georgetown or Beloit or somewhere like that. It seems like financial aid is not as cut and dried as the financial aid calculators make it seem, so I guess the best strategy is to just apply to several schools that match and wait until the financial aid comes back before getting to attached to a particular school. Fortunately, she is pretty practical and recognizes that we may need to save money for her to attend law school or grad. school. We’ll see… Anyway, I appreciate all your responses, both positive and negative.</p>