<p>Hello!</p>
<p>After a while of contemplating and planning, I am finally about to begin touring colleges. I might be going the Univ. of Rochester soon (I live nearby) and I will be going to Cornell in February for the linguistics competition there.</p>
<p>My dream is to go to a high-level school like Brown or Cornell, with a highly intellectual environment and no gen-ed requirements, on a generous merit scholarship. Obviously, this is not very likely. My academic performance is good (4.0 GPA) and so are my ECs, but I need a plan B; my family is pretty firmly entrenched in the middle class and my EFC will be miniscule, and I would like to go on to grad school (PhD) so I need to save initially.</p>
<p>So, I've begun to look at less expensive schools. I like UMass Amherst -- it has all the majors I want; even for out-of-state the tuition is cheap; the climate is cold; the school is very large but this is made up for with the intellectual feel of nearby Amherst and Hampshire. I have considered UChicago, UConn, and UVermont, but these are all rather expensive. My question here pertains to SUNY schools, particularly Oswego and Binghamton.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most important thing to me is the vibe of the school -- I want to go to a school where most students are very nerdy, super passionate about learning and intense, etc. Do you think that SUNY Oswego/Binghamton have that sort of environment? Are there any less-expensive school in the Northeast that do have such an environment?</p>
<p>Many thanks in advance ^^</p>