<p>Of my choices, I'm mostly leaning towards Dartmouth and Claremont Mckenna (w/ 10k in merit money), with Bowdoin trailing a little bit. But then I'm also completely in love with Colorado College, and can't quite discount UCLA just because it's so cheap and I'm sure I'd have fun there. And then I have trouble saying goodbye to Kenyon (7.5k) and Carleton, just because I've always loved them...and then there are those other schools that gave me such nice merit aid...</p>
<p>Basically I'm completely lost and have no idea what I want. I'm looking for a school that's small without feeling confining, with great academics, brilliant, interesting, social kids, and good opportunities for outdoorsy pursuits. I've always wanted to get far away from home, but now that it's crunch time the California sun is starting to sound pretty nice as well. Academically I'm a total humanities kid, although I want to go deeper into some of the social sciences as well. Future-wise I'm interested in film and publishing, although I may go for something a bit more practical in the end.</p>
<p>Any opinions?</p>